Friday, September 28, 2012

Dialing in the Lee Enfield Sporter



It's all very well restoring a rifle but the question is, will it shoot? With that in mind I took the newly minted sporter to the range, only to find a tree blocked the path. I moved that and set up at 25 yards to dial in the scope, bore-sighting the old fashioned way, because I've been too parsimonious to buy a laser, and using the tailgate as a rest. Must get some kind of sled to put the guns on in future.

warrior on the edge of the tailgate - note cloak of invisibility

I was nervous as I took the first couple of shots. Would the gun blow up? Would the lovingly shaped and polished forestock splinter into a deadly hail of wooden shrapnel on bearing the shock of the mighty .303 Brit? For that matter, would the thing shoot straight at all after my expert gunsmithing...

getting there...

I needn't have worried. The rifle got on paper quicly, which is a good testimony to peering down the bore with the bolt removed and shot some reasonablegroups from 50 and 75 yards. Performed well offhand at a steel ram at 100.



Due to time and ammo constraint I cut the exercise a little short but I'll return with a few boxes of the right stuff and finish the job. But not a bad result at all.

Shoot straight,

LSP


2 comments:

  1. I love the Lee Enfield. Being a Canadian of course I have one and shot my first moose and caribou with one. When I was growing up here in Newfoundland every household had one. Great job on yours

    regards
    Dan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Dan, they're addictive rifles, I think.

    I have these plans of unleashing the Lee against fierce hogs... We'll see!

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete