Help with .303 British

myrifle57

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Need help. I need a magazine clip for a .303 British. It has a steel but plate and is stamped Englan B 1942 C0271. On the left side of the breech is stamped 10 4 MK1. The bolt ball is stamped D 166, rear adjustable sight and fixed forward sight. Need help finding a clip for it. Thank you in advance.
 
Thanks for the info. It is greatly appreciated. Is there anyone that may be able to give me a history of the rifle I described?
 
Thanks for the info. It is greatly appreciated. Is there anyone that may be able to give me a history of the rifle I described?

It was a .303cal bolt action rifle that was based off previous Lee-Enfield rifles. The No.4 Mk.I was the upgraded version of the Lee-Enfield No.1 MK.III, which used extensively by England and the Commonwealth troops during WWI. The No.4 was used a lot during WWII by the English. A mix of left over No.1 Mk.IIIs and No.4s were used by the Canadian troops and the Australians primarily used No.1 Mk.IIIs throughout both World Wars. I believe the No.4 Mk.I was used all the way until 1957 when the FAL became the standard rifle for British troops.

I have a No.1 MK.III and my Dad has a No.1, a No.4, and a Martini-Henry chambered in .303, all of them are in fantastic condition. We use to shoot them quite often, but we really have gotten more into shooting long range the past couple years with modern rifles. We reload for them and they can have bad headspace and their bore diameters can vary. My Dad lucked out and his are all .311 diameter, but he had to change the bolt head on his No.4 to fix the excessive headspace. My rifle has good headspace but oddly it has a .308 diameter barrel. Once figured out, these can be extremely accurate and precise rifles. They have micrometer like rear sights and the No.1 Mk.IIIs had free-floated barrels! Hope this helps!
 
One thing to add is that what people think is "excessive head space" on these rifles is really built into them on purpose. The 303 Brit is a rimmed case and head spaces on the rim and not the shoulder of the case. The chambers of these rifles are pretty sloppy on purpose so that they will work in the mud, blood and slop of the battle field. Now when it comes to reloading for them the best thing to do is fire form the case and then just neck size them. You will get much better accuracy and the case life if MUCH longer. If you full length size these cases lots of times you will only get maybe 2 or 3 loadings before you get case head separation. IMR 4064, RL 15 and Varget works well with the 174/180 gr bullets.

One other little bit of history is that these were one of the easiest actions to shoot really fast and accurate. 10 rounds in the magazine and the shorter slicker operating bolt a squad of men could really lay down a field of fire then quickly reload with two 5 round stripper clips and go at it again.
 
One thing to add is that what people think is "excessive head space" on these rifles is really built into them on purpose. The 303 Brit is a rimmed case and head spaces on the rim and not the shoulder of the case. The chambers of these rifles are pretty sloppy on purpose so that they will work in the mud, blood and slop of the battle field. Now when it comes to reloading for them the best thing to do is fire form the case and then just neck size them. You will get much better accuracy and the case life if MUCH longer. If you full length size these cases lots of times you will only get maybe 2 or 3 loadings before you get case head separation. IMR 4064, RL 15 and Varget works well with the 174/180 gr bullets.

One other little bit of history is that these were one of the easiest actions to shoot really fast and accurate. 10 rounds in the magazine and the shorter slicker operating bolt a squad of men could really lay down a field of fire then quickly reload with two 5 round stripper clips and go at it again.

+1 to everything RT2506 said. We only neck size for our .303s and what he said about the headspace and chambers is all spot on. We have shot 174gr Match bullets in my Dad's .303s and I shoot either a .308 150 FMJ or a 165gr SBT if I plan on hunting. We use IMR 4064 and IMR 4320.

The British troops did a thing called the "mad minute" where a soldier had to have 15 hits on a 12" target at 300yds. If you Google "mad minute" there is a lot of information on this training procedure used during WWI and WWII. I have never rapidly fired mine, but I can attest to it being one of the smoothest bolts I have ever cycled!
 
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