Indian SMLE .308 caliber bolt rifles.

[Brithunter]

OK Adam,

Let us put it this way. The Enfield action was never designed for the pressure found in .308 winchester cartridges. The Indians are "supposedly " using a better steel for their actions which I seriously doubt as getting good steel in India is a major problem

The Lee Enfield is perfectly safe with in it's design parameters and once you step outside this envalope your on your own. I do not know if you are aware of not but 7.62x51 converted Enfields are banned in New Zealand due to the actions failing It's not the actions but the morons who are overloading them to keep the 155 grain bullet supersonic at 1200 yards. yep the so called expert riflemen "Target Shooters"

In the UK our NRA is suggesting that all converted Enfields be re-proofed at 20 Tons which is the same as magnum cartridges. The .270 Win is proofed at 19 Tons as was the 7.62x51 conversions. Yes they were proofed well above their service pressure and still this so called reloading experts in the target shooting crowd insist on overloading the cartridge and the rifle. It's just luck that no one has been seriously maimed YET!

When the British War department wanted a higher performance cartidge they designed the P-13 and the .276", now if the Lee Enfield action had all this reserve of hidden strength confused: why did they go to all this bother? let alone the expense . You are blindly accepting the Mr barnes was infallible, sorry it's not the case and an example is the .280 Ross which Barnes states was introduced in 1906 yet is was in late 1907 that Eley bros under contracted made the .280. 1906 was his first attempt at the .280 using the then new all singing 30-06 Government cartridge from the US but prooved to be a failure only reaching 2700 fps and not the targeted 3000 fps that Ross wanted. Barnes also incorrectly states that the MkV11 ball using the spitzer bullets in .303 was adopted around 1914 yet in fact 1914 was the start of the Great war (WW1). Barnes probably thought WW1 started in 1917 when the US came in to join it. Here are the dates for the .303 delopment which are related to the 174 Grin Spitzer bullet:-

1907 Start of main series of trials with .303” spitzer bullets.

1907 Letter “C” dropped from head stamps of cordite ball ammunition and last two digits of date of manufacture included on head stamps.

1909 Start of ammunition and rifle trials designed to replace the .303” Enfield.

1910 First .303" spitzer ball (the Mark7) approved for service.

And this in information which is readlily available and Barnes and COTW get it wrong ........................ Sorry but COTW is only really useful as a quick reference guide but for accurate information other sources must be used as COTW is unreliable


As to why the manufacturers don't print warnings on their ammo ..................... well as I have no influence their I cannot really say I am however sure the reason that the 7.92mm (8x57mm) is loaded down has nowt to do with safety and is purely political. After all loading to it's proper pressures the 7.92 out perfoms the std Military 30-06 and that is simply far too embarassing The spitzer loading of the GI .30 150 Grn gives a velocity of 2700fps yet the original 154 grn Spitzer loading in the 7.92mm gives 2950fps and note that the Turks stayed with this loading though out and did not adopt the 196 Grn load as did the Germans for better long range power when used in machine guns and air craft.