SMLE .303, 7.62 & .410

[monty3006]

guys,
call me old fashioned but I like the shape of the old .303 SMLE magazine a lot better then the 7.62.

Monish

[pwm]

Jean Huon " Military rifles and machine gun cartridges" describe this as .410 indian musket, other names are : .303/410
.410 Mark I
10,4x56 R

when I look for the dimensions and compare it with .410 shotgun cartridges it seems me that booth are interchangeable. Huon list roundball, blanks and shot cartridges.
This thing reminds me for the smooth bore muskets come back in service after the sepoy revolt. it seems to be a rare gun and collector item if you, in india have never see it.

[dsingh]

Cheers, Dear friends i still feel .303 rifles have some advantages.It has the longer range secondly it fires very powerful round. If some alteration is made like reducing of weight , modification in barrells it can become better gun.

[Grumpy]

Advantages over what ? The 7.62 ? Don`t know what advantages they might be - the 7.62 is more powerful than the .303.
There were lighter weight, better styled, commericial versions of the SMLE - the Lee Speeds, some of which are gorgeous.

By the way Abhijeet, Just noticed a minor error of yours - an accidental one I`m sure : SMLE stands for SHORT ( not `Small` ) Magazine Lee Enfield.

[cottage cheese]

Sorry to butt in late guys.

The .410 conversion of the SMLE seems fairly common in many state police inventories(Not all). Since they are for all practical purposes, 'retired', they sit locked up in storage where they are usually forgotten.

The Police inventory here, has a few hundred in storage. Though I've not had the opportunity to fire one, I'd acquainted myself with these guns often. Till very recently, they were issued in 'emergencies' to UB(Unarmed Branch) personnel.

Ammo, as friends here have described, seems to be a .401 lead ball crimped...rather crammed into a .303 cartridge case. I'm told (Though I've no way of verifying) that there was also a bb shot version which looked very much like a parallel walled .303 blank.

An amusing incident some years back- It was Police Commemoration Day, and the usual 21 gun blank volley was planned. New generation armorer... no clue about 410. Issued 410 ammo mistaking them for 303 blanks....
Well... it was awkwardly amusing. They found out the mistake only when the command was given to chamber and load. The salute party ended up doing the honors with a majestic 21 gun dry fire!

[TwoRivers]

Mundaire: "Short", Magazine, Lee-Enfield. Robert (I believe) Short was the engineer/superintendent at Enfield when the rifle was developed. Cheers.

[Grumpy]

Dunno about `Robert Short` being a engineer/superintendant at Enfield when the rifle was developed but even if he was he had nothing to do with the `Short` de.scription of the rifle which referred to it being 5" shorter than the early models.

[TwoRivers]

I believe it can chamber the 2 1/2" shell, as some of the ones here can be had rechambered for the 3" at an extra cost. If they had to chamber for the 2 1/2 shell also, they surely would simply chamber to the 3", as that is far more widely used and available, Cheers

[pudu]

I just got one .410 Ishapore gun from USA imported to Chile.This particular one has been reamed out IN USA to take 3 inches .410 ammo. The conversion made at Ishapore originally (in my case in 1949) does not allow to take anything but the special brass shells made for this gun OR the quite unusual 2 inches commercial shells.The Ishapore- reamed chamber is not a perfect cilinder but still somewhat tapered. Commercial 2 inches shells are not tapered but being wider at the brass basis than at the following plastic case, they kind of fit and because of its 2 in.length they have room to open when fired in this chamber.I have around a nice picture where a .303 cartridge is presented aside of two "Ishapore".410 shells ,one having a Ball and other supposedly loading buckshot.In case I have some feedback of this reply I will look for and produce the link for this picture
Pudu

[Sakobav]

Pudu
Welcome aboard
Do post the pictures of your gun and the ammo. Also post an introduction on the Introduction thread.

Cheers

[nagarifle]

just going of the thread a wee bit. SLR? once read in the times of India, "the Bombay thugs use SLR which is gas oprated but find hard to get the gas" and localy SLR stands for slow loading rifle. soory soor

[cottage cheese]

just going of the thread a wee bit. SLR? once read in the times of India, "the Bombay thugs use SLR which is gas oprated but find hard to get the gas" and localy SLR stands for slow loading rifle. soory soor

Maybe the local bazaar ran short of beans.

[pudu]

Pudu
Welcome aboard
Do post the pictures of your gun and the ammo. Also post an introduction on the Introduction thread.

Cheers

Thank you ngrewal. I will go to Introduction thread. Meanwhile a link to the picture of the brass .410"Ishy" shell in front of a standard .303 cartridge:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=207592

I will try to post a couple of pictures of my recently imported .410 "musket"
pudu

[cottage cheese]

Thank you ngrewal. I will go to Introduction thread. Meanwhile a link to the picture of the brass .410"Ishy" shell in front of a standard .303 cartridge:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=207592
I will try to post a couple of pictures of my recently imported .410 "musket"
pudu

Hey , Interesting.... The pics are just a description of what I came across in the local Police armory. They used both KF buck shot and ball as in the picture. In fact I seem to have a few ball type empties lying around somewhere.

[Vikram]

just going of the thread a wee bit. SLR? once read in the times of India, "the Bombay thugs use SLR which is gas oprated but find hard to get the gas" and localy SLR stands for slow loading rifle. soory soor