L42A1

[rufrdr]

I've owned three #4 rifles in 7.62mm and any feeding problems I encountered were related to the magazines. I found that the best feeding magazine is from the Ishapore 2A1 rifles! With just a bit of modification they fit and feed great in a #4 rifle. I got all three rifles to feed fine and reliable by swapping the magazines between the rifles until all were happy. Interestingly for me the Enfield pattern was the most finicky and the Sterling better, Ishapore the best. The Charnwood copy of the Enfield is an ok magazine but I had problems with the ejector tab coming off and having to be reattached.

[Rearlugs]

My first full bore rifle was a No4 Mk1 that had been re chambered in 7.62 and was dressed like an Enforcer. It cost £200 and kept me happy for a while.
My biggest gripe with it was that it would not feed reliably. On one occasion I was very close to throwing it in to the bushes at the 200 yard point whilst competing in the McQueens.
I had assumed that this was a problem with that rifle but was told that it was never designed for 7.62 and despite swapping magazines never solved the issue.
I have seen several 7.62 Enfields and have noted that the feeding issue is wide spread.

I did shoot a rather nice .223 version and won a comp with that - I have a history of borrowing guns and beating their owners!

Did the official L42's have feeding issues, or did the armourers know something that has been lost in time?

DM

The 7.62mm Enfield magazine was originally designed for the conversion of .303 No4s into 7.62mm L8A1s. When the L8 programme was abandoned, availability of the magazines was a key driver in the (cheap) development of the 7.62mm heavy barrel conversions (the barrel design was allegedly copied; hence almost no development costs).

Part of the design addressed the problem of reliable ejection (not so important in a target rifle, but obviously critical in a combat rifle). A .303 Enfield ejects when the rim of the empty case is pushed into the left sidewall by the extractor; friction cause the case to flip out of the receiver. The separate ejector screw was intended for the slow unloading of live full-length rounds.

With the 7.62mm case, the lack of a rim meant that case ejection would not work normally (depends upon the rifle; some rifles manage to still give a strong ejection even with a .303 extractor fitted).

Enfield's solution was to put an ejector tab on the magazine lip. This in turn meant that the magazine had to be precisely fitted to the receiver, so that ejector protrudes into the boltway only by 1mm or so. This was intended to be achieved by making the mag lips and ejector slightly "too tall" for a .303 receiver; the receivers were to be converted by milling areas out of the boltway to the correct depth to make the magazine fit. (Fultons have a copy of the milling drawings, and also a couple of unfinished L39A1s that show the milled areas).

All "factory" 7.62mm Enfields have been milled on a jig, which is why the mags fit & feed properly. Almost no civilian conversions have been milled, BUT - about 20% of .303 receivers will accept a 7.62mm mag simply down to manufacturing variation. Hence some conversions will feed and/or eject from an Enfield mag - whilst most won't.

Sterling chose to instead use a spring-loaded ejector stud (spring loaded to prevent the stud fouling the bolt, which is why Enfield did not use this design). Ishapore moved the ejector screw forward, but actual ejection appears to be the result of some other bodge - possibly using a slightly thicker left receiver wall and a longer extractor movement to achieve the necessary case friction. Hence Sterling & Ishapore mags will fit & feed in any rifle, but do not contribute any ejection.

[rufrdr]

The Sterling and Ishapore magazines eject in my rifles via the empty casing striking the rear left magazine lip and kicking out. The bolt needs to be worked vigorously and if the rifle is tipped to the right when working the bolt ejection can be a bit iffy. Held straight up or tipped to the left they work fine. I traded the Sterling magazine to a guy for his Enfield magazine which went with a #4 7.62 that I sold several years ago. I now have only Ishapore and Charnwood magazines.