7.62mm Enfield barrels

[Gaz]

Thanks all. Extending my curiosity, what's the difference between the Enfield mag and the Sterling mag that makes one cycle better than the other? Surely the key thing would be the angle of the feed ramp?

[ukrifleman]

Thanks all. Extending my curiosity, what's the difference between the Enfield mag and the Sterling mag that makes one cycle better than the other? Surely the key thing would be the angle of the feed ramp?

The 7.62 Stirling mag does not have a feed ramp. The 7.62 Enfield mag does have a feed ramp however.

I use both types for my 7.62 Enfield's and they all work ok.

For reference from left to right, the photo shows a 7.62 Stirling mag, a 7.62 Enfield mag and a No.4 .303 mag for comparison.

ukrifleman

SDC17997__1429907094_90_193_18_221 Enfield mags.jpg (14.08 KiB) Viewed 1327 times

[Rearlugs]

Thanks all. Extending my curiosity, what's the difference between the Enfield mag and the Sterling mag that makes one cycle better than the other? Surely the key thing would be the angle of the feed ramp?

They have different ejection systems.


The Enfield mag has an ejector tab on the left rear lip. In order for this ejector to fit into the boltway, and for the mag to feed correctly, the underside of the boltway has to be relieved by milling (or, in some cases, have sufficient clearance due to manufacturing variations in the original .303 body). All "factory" Enfield 7.62mm conversions - Envoy, Enforcer, L42A1, L39A1, 762 CONV - were milled on a jig.

Gunsmith 7.62mm conversions (and most originally were never intended to use a 7.62mm magazine) usually relied on finding a body to fit the magazine, or were never milled. Thats why many gunsmith rifle do not feed with an Enfield mag, or rip the ejector tab off.


Sterling magazines were intended as universal fit, and just have the same top dimensions as a .303" magazine. The full Sterling conversion kit included a new ejector button and spring that had to be fitted to a new hole drilled in the receiver sidewall (photo below).

Hence many people use Sterling mags because they are an easy fit and feed well, but then have the problem that ejection is not clean - because the rest of the conversion hasn't been carried out.

Both types of mag have an adaption to feed the shorter 7.62mm round onto the .303" feedramp: the Enfield mag has a large feed ramp in the mag itself, whereas the Sterling has a longer magazine platform and a smaller feed ramp.

Sterling mags usually feed better than Enfield mags - in a "non factory" rifle - because of the Enfield mag's sensitivity to correct fitting for the above mentioned reasons.

Incidentally, Ishapore 2A/2A1 magazines more or less copy the Sterling system. These mags often fit a No4 without modification.





A full Sterling conversion with the ejector button fitted:

[rufrdr]

The true Sterling conversion used a separate ejector through the receiver wall but the Sterling and Ishapore 7.62 magazine can be made to eject quite reliably by slightly bending the left rear magazine lip so that the fired case hits it and flips right out of the rifle. I've had a couple of Sterling magazines that worked just fine in that mode. I also have an Ishapore 2A1 magazine that I use in one of my #4 7.62 rifles that ejects using the left rear magazine lip method.

Edit:
After I wrote the above I saw the post previous to mine that explains it all much better than I did!