Ishapore 2A1 Enfield Repair

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This Indian 7.62 NATO Enfield wouldn’t strip rounds from the magazine, and the owner wouldn’t allow use of conventional repair techniques that involved modification of his rifle. That left reversal of the actual process that damaged the rifle as the only option. The Ishapore 2A/2A1 is a bolt action rifle chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO, and heavily derived from the .303 No.1 Mk III* Rifle, SMLE. It was produced by the Rifle Factory Ishapore just north of Kolkata (Calcutta) in West Bengal, India.

The 2A was formally adopted by the Indian Armed Forces Reserve in 1963 and the improved version, 2A1, entered service about two years later. The Ishapore 2A/2A1 is the last bolt ac- F.

I. signifying "Rifle Factory Ishapore" beneath the "7.62mm 2A" chambering and model designation, capped by the State Emblem of India, known as the "Lion Capital of Ahoka at Sarnath." 1 Mk III* features, including the charger guide "bridge" on top of the rear of the receiver, track-guided bolt head, and extrenal box magazine. 1 Mk III* Enfield at first, but at closer inspection the sharp corners of the magazine box area large clue that this is a different sort of Enfield animal. tion rifle designed to be used by a regular military infantry forces and the rifle is still used by units of the Indian police.

The Ishapore arsenal had produced variants of the .303 Lee-Enfield since 1901 and the No.1 Mk III* SMLE for some 50 years at the time the 2A was introduced. There are some notable improvements in the 2A/2A1 compared to much of the former .303 No. 1 Mk III* rifles, most notably the use of nickel steel in the receiver and bolt. This improvement began in the mid 1950s and carried through to the early 1980s when production of the "Type 56" No. 1 Mk III* rifle finally ceased.

The original Ishapore 2A incorporated the historically standard Lee–Enfield No.1 Mk III* rear sight which has graduations out to an optimistic 2,000 yards. The improved Rifle 7.62mm 2A1" introduced in 1965 incorporated a more realistic 800 meter rear sight. The buttstock is a No. 1 Mk. III stock, fitted with the aluminum alloy buttplate of the Indian FAL rifle and includes a reinforcing steel flat head wood screw installed crosswise from the left side of the stock in a location forward of the magazine well.

There are two visibly distinctive features of a 2A or 2A1 rifle. First, the bot-

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The magazine catch surface is below the stamped serial number. tom corners of the 7.62 magazine incorporate sharp angles as opposed to the radiused corners of the .303 magazine. Second, the nose cap is more angular and the sight protector ears are straight and rectangular in section, not curved outward and radiused at the top.

These angular nose caps were also incorporated on post-WWII Ishapore .303 rifles which can be visually differentiated from the 2A/2A1 rifles by their magazines with radiused bottom corners. 1 Mk III* rear sight. Far The third part is the nose cap, which is serial numbered on the round projection over which the bayonet ring is mounted. Disassembly is pure Enfield SMLE: First remove the magazine (35) and then rotate the breechbolt (55) counterclockwise and withdraw it fully to the rear.

Disengage the bolt head (58) from its retaining spring (26) by rotating it up and counter-clockwise. Withdraw the bolt assembly from action body (10). Regarding the bolt assembly, remove the striker screw (53), and then unscrew the bolt head from the forward end of the bolt. To remove the striker (57), it is necessary to have a special wrench, available from Brownells and other sources. It is suggested to clamp the bolt body in padded vise jaws to free up both hands.

Insert the tool into the front end of the bolt assembly until the prongs engage corresponding notches in the striker collar. Unscrew the striker from the cocking piece (54) while maintaining axial force on the wrench to control the mainspring (56) from launching the striker when it becomes fully unscrewed from cocking piece. Remove both trigger guard screws (16 & 33). Remove the trigger guard (34). Remove both nose cap screws (46 and 50) and pull the nose cap (48) forward off rifle.

Remove the inner band screw (4) and swivel screw (18) from the outer band (43). Open and lift away the

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Peening the edge of the catch and back about 1/8 to 3/16" from the edge effectively lowered the engagement surface, raising the body of the magazine inside the receiver and enabling the bolt head to strip rounds and feed them. It was not the preferred method but it kept the customer happy.. Far The magazine catch lever is hardened and does not lend itself to being peened. Working this component was not an option. outer band. Remove the front handguard (67), forend (65), and rear handguard (66), in that order.

Remove the retaining spring screw (28) and lift away retaining spring (26), sear (30), and sear spring (29). Drift out the magazine catch pin (25, right arrow) and remove the magazine catch (27). To remove the buttstock (64), open the butt plate trap (37) and use apiece of bent wire to fish out the leather stock bolt wad (24) if it is present. With the aid of a flashlight, insert along, square-shanked, largebladed, slotted screwdriver into the head of the stock bolt (23).

While applying downward force, place an appropriately sized open-end wrench on the square screwdriver shank and loosen the stock bolt counter-clockwise. Several drops of penetrating oil applied with a needled oiler to the buttstock screw threads from the butt stock socket end may aid this operation as the bolts are often rusted in. Reassemble rifle in reverse.

Magazine Fix The subject rifle arrived with the customer complaint that it would not strip cartridges from the magazine; in most cases the bolt slid over them to close on an empty chamber. This wasn’t the usual and customary problem with 2A/2A1 rifle magazines where the rounds get caught or bound up partially stripped out of the magazine due to misaligned sheetmetal feed lips.

Upon closer examination and using .308 snap caps it was found that the dummies would feed if the magazine was held up a bit; there was clearly some vertical play at the rear of magazine when latched in. When inspected, the magazine catch surface on the magazine’s spine exhibited considerable "mushrooming" at the catch surface, almost as if someone took a hammer and tool steel flat punch to it.

The mating surface on the magazine catch itself in the front of the trigger guard was not the least bit worn or peened, so it was obvious that the magazine catch was hardened, unlike the magazine catch surface on the bottom of the magazine. Since original 2A/2A1 magazines are somewhat scarce due to demand from surplus rifle enthusiasts, the customer’s choice boiled down to three options: Waiting for an original magazine to turn up on the Inter-

Ishapore 2A1 Enfield (Speci ications subject to change without notice) 1 Barrel 2 Front Sight Blade 3 Inner Band 4 Inner Band Screw 5 Rear Sight Assembly 6 Rear Sight Protector 7 R. S. Protector Screw 8 Fore-end Collar 9 Protector Nut 10 Receiver 11 Safety Catch 12 Locking Bolt 13 Safety Catch Washer 14 Safety Spring 15 Safety Spring Screw 16 Rear T. G.

Screw 17 Stock Bolt Plate webz or gun show and taking a risk at what the price would be, purchasing an aftermarket replacement made by Pro Mag, or performing a repair on the existing magazine. The customer opted for the third option since the magazine was serial numbered to the rifle. However, I was given a caveat: No welding.

This was a set of hand- 18 Swivel Screw 19 Butt Swivel Bracket 20 Swivel Bracket Screw 21 Sling Swivel 22 Stock Bolt Washer 23 Stock Bolt 24 Stuck Bolt Wad 25 Magazine Catch Pin 26 Retaining Spring 27 Magazine Catch 28 Retaining Spring Screw 29 Sear Spring 30 Sear 31 Trigger Pin 32 Trigger 33 Front T. G.

Screw 34 Trigger Guard 52 Ejector Screw 53 Striker Screw 54 Cocking Piece 55 Breech Bolt 56 Mainspring 57 Striker 58 Breech Bolt Head 59 Extractor Screw 60 Extractor 61 Extractor Spring 62 Magazine Cutoff 63 Cut-Off Screw 64 Buttstock 65 Forend 66 Rear Hand Guard 67 Front Hand Guard 35 Magazine 36 Front T. G. Screw 37 Buttplate Trap 38 Buttplate Trap Pin 39 Buttplate Screw 40 Buttplate 41 Buttplate Trap Spring 42 Buttplate T. S.

Screw 43 Outer Band 44 Forend Stud Spring 45 Forend Stud 46 Rear Nose Cap Screw 47 Stocking Swivel 48 Nose Cap 49 Nose Cap Nut 50 Front Nose Cap Screw 51 Band Screw Spring cuffs for me because I was planning on adding on a bit of metal to the catch and carefully filing it to fit. The customer was adamant he did not want any "permanent changes" to the rifle or any of its parts. Oh, and it had to be inexpensive. Well, sure.

The customer’s restrictions left me to consider Plan B—the metal on the magazine’s catch surface was peened down over time, so I resolved to push it all back into place the best I could. This required fabrication of a robust holding fixture to immobilize the magazine and to "back up" the spine portion. The magazine was disassembled and a conveniently-sized block of steel was inserted into it and held fast with a wedge and spring clamp. The magazine went into a small vise with padded jaws, spine side up.

To project the black paint finish on the magazine body some thin leather pads were fitted between vise jaws and magazine. The point was to move the metal slowly. A 3/16" steel punch and a small ball peen hammer were employed, tapping here, tapping there, on the sides and back of the catch. It turned out not to be as tedious as it sounds because the metal was remarkably soft. I suspected as much before starting, considering how flattened the contact surface was.

I alternated sides, taking timeouts to digitally caliper the progress. Peening did form a sort of raised edge, but I took the metal farther than it needed to be so that a few fine file strokes removed the wire edge. A few additional strokes were required to get the magazine catch to snap into engagement when the magazine was installed. Of importance was no vertical play of the magazine following the procedure. The magazine feed lips were snug up against the underside of the receiver feed slot.

The bolt stripped and fed .308 snap caps right from the first dummy upon reinstallation of the magazine. Since the snap caps fed into battery fine, I did not touch the sheet metal feed lips at all. This total procedure time was just under 90 minutes. The customer picked up the 2A1 and called a few days later, ecstatic that his rifle fed 7.62 NATO ammunition reliably. The repair procedure described above should work for .303 Enfields as well. AG