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Hi my dad is passing down his .303 Enfield to me. It will be my first hunting rifle. He doesn't have a scope for it but I would like to buy one. Does anybody have any recommendations as to what type of scope would best fit on a older .303 rifle? I know I could take it to a outdoors sporting good store but thought if I could have some information as to what I should be looking for before I go to Cabela's.
Thank you.
Will have to be taken to a qualified gun smith to to be drilled and tapped for a scope, and there are different model's of 303 Enfield???
I guess a place like Cabelas would tap and drill a place to mount a scope?
I'd take it to a more reputable gun dealer/ gunsmith foe this. Maybe try Reliable Gun or Italian Sporting Goods depending on your location.
Sorry...I see your in Nanaimo...isn't that really old store (cant remember the name now) still there just down at the bottom of the hill, close to the old mall and CPR ferry ??
Check with Bucky's sporting in Duncan, they will know a reliable gun smith around Duncan.
If it's the same place I am thinking of no it closed a long time ago.
I will check with Buck's as well as ask a few guys at work. They might be able to point in the right direction as well.
My .303 is a 1940 Lee Enfield Mark III by BSA. I had a bushnell 3-9x40 4200 elite put on it by a reputable gun smith back in 2007 or so. Nice scope, but I think it is discontinued now. They say the 3500 elite is about the same. Vortex will likely have a comparable scope for a good price too. Anywho, plenty good scope for a .303 since you really don't want to being shooting any further then say 200 yards with it. And if do shoot out to 200, make sure the gun is sighted for that range. The bullets on a .303 drop fast after about 150 yards. Trust me, I know.
Many scopes are too heavy to add to an already heavy Lee Enfield. I mounted a 2.5x Bushnell on a Jungle Carbine 35 years ago and it was about perfect. You don't need high magnification for reasonable range hunting.
I mounted a Addley mount to my PH 303 and have a weaver k4 on it now. My 12 year old can shoot a 1 " group at 100 yards with it. Still need to find him a deer to shoot though.
Seems like there are a few mounts available that do not require drilling and tapping. I have absolutely no experience with these but put it out there as an FYI, here is an example
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...ld-scope-mount
Bucky's will give you the name of a guy who does gun smithing out of his house as a sideline gig. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The closest professional smith would probably be Dennis Sorensen who posts as guntech. I believe he is semi retired and devotes his time to accurizing firearms. He may know of another competent smith on the South Island.
Just another FYI, the Enfield is designed to be shot with open sights. The shape of the butt stock puts the shooters eye right over the bore to look through the sights. Your eye will be to low with a proper cheek weld to look through a scope once you have added mounts and rings. You would need add a cheek piece to the butt stock to get your eye up in line with the scope. Another option you can look at is replacing your open sights with something like ghost ring sights. They are not as pin point accurate as a scope, but hunting with an old Enfield is not about being pin point accurate. Something else to look into, maybe there are options out there that would allow you to mount a ghost ring without needing to drill and tap the receiver.
Of course my big assumption is that the stock is somewhat original military, forget everything I just wrote if it has a modern sporter stock on it.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will ask around to see what needs to be done to the riffle for mounting a scope. I have talked to a few people who have mentioned I don't need a scope. I might just leave the riffle as is and settle on just making sure I don't take any long range shots. For now I am going to enjoy hunting with bow.
I use an old bushnel scope, too many trees around here to do long shots anyway, my 303 was sporterized by Parker hale, was made to hold scope, uses basic rings. Just under 10 lbs with scope and full mag.