I recently discovered a sportized Enfield with a .532 bolt face in our collection. The rifle is currently a 300 win mag and just begs for something bigger to be built. It will have to be restocked and re-barreled as well as decent trigger added. I am thinking of building an Alaskan type rifle around the action. Metal coated for harsh environments and kevlar stocked. A set of Jim Brockman's Hexsites added with QD scope mounts. The bolt handle has not yet been straightened so that will need to be done and the ears on the rear of the action will have to be ground down. My dilemma is cartridge choice. There is a good chance the rifle may be sold in the future as I shoot left handed and though I have gained quite a few RH rifles, it would be nice to go south paw for my serious hunting guns. I am not going to the extreme of the 600OK for this as I may part with this rifle. Something on the .532 case head or the RUM case would be a good place to start. So lets here everyone's opinions on the best round for an ugly, hunt anything, anywhere, in any weather rifle.

Asuming you hand load,
I think a .358 norma would be great on that baby for alaska.
that is cartridge enough for any animal you will encounter in north america.
You could go with the .358 STA, but that is more round than you need , and a wild cat, so you would need to neck up 8mm rem mag cases.
You could go .375 Ruger too !
My hunting buddie has an enfield in .375 H&H and its very nice.
...tj3006

8mm Remington Magnum or 338 Winchester Magnum maybe? 375 H & H wouldn't be a bad idea...a classic British rifle in a classic British calibre!

me, a 416 caliber. I could live with a 416 Remington.

Rich
Buff Killer

.416 taylor.... tip burns built mine on a eddystone, then parkerized it... 22" shilen, #5 contour, necg front and rear sights, boyds pepper laminate stock, oil finish, pacymayer decelerator recoil pad.... winchester supergrade crossbolts...



...

jimatcat

That 416 Taylor sounds nice and about like this rifle is being built as far as specs. Anyone know

Rich,

I figured you would toss the 450 Dakota into the suggestion box.

pm sent.... you might consider installing a cock-on-opening kit....i like the way it feels, and shooting handloads, its sometimes hard to tell how "tight" a resized will fit...

Cock on opening would be a step forward. Who makes the best bottom metal for an Enfield? Is Matt Williams the guy to call?

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
me, a 416 caliber. I could live with a 416 Remington.

Rich
Buff Killer

Absolutely ... easy magazine modifications to lengthen it, keep the rifle as is including the ears to protect the peep ... throw on a nice large beaded front ... hunt in any and all weather! Pretty rifles dont deserve being dragged through wet brush etc...
Cheers...
Con

You know, here is so much undocumented BS in the gun business that if it were a book, a Peterbilt could not move it.

Having said that, I believe you said it was an Eddystone? Remington made the Eddystones, so..in my opinion, there is no reason to believe they are not a first class action.

Fact is that there's a fair amount of prejudice against the Eddystone.."drop them on concrete and they shatter" (I tried that and it didn't shatter!) but, an Eddystone will ALWAYS raise an eyebrow. From a resale standpoint, you may keep that in mind

Good point Mr. Wiebe and thank you for pointing it out. I may just keep the rifle when its done. So with that in mind I will list out a few of the front runners so far as cartridge goes.

470 Capstick
470 Mbogo
470 AR

I read somewhere about another round made from shortened RUM brass and tapered to .510. It was a straight wall case with a nice, easy extracting taper to it. But since I read that post, I have forgotten the name of it. I also came across a stock blank today that is making me re-think my synthetic stock idea.

the rum is better at .500 than .510 .. its the B&M, by michael458.

thank you for considering the ARs. the 500 AR, is a .510 shooter, and you can use hornady rigby brass, or get headtamped brass, from qual cart.

plenty of load data on ammoguide, as well.

the 470 mbogo is the best of all worlds, seriously

I did a lot of research on P14 actions prior to having my .416 Rigby build and spoke to may P14/17 collectors and restoration specialists. Eddystone actions are more prone to cracking during original barrel removal then Remington or Winchester but it is not due to the metallurgy. The Eddystone plant used a flywheel to barrel its actions and overtorqued the barrels. Extreme torque in barreling + 80 years of storage predispose the actions to cracking during barrel removal. However, relief cuts almost nullify this problem and once the original barrel is removed there arn't really any issues. Make sure whoever unbarrels the action knows of the issue and is experienced with the actions and just have a auto crank shop magnaflux it for cracks. If all is well build your dream without worry. My .416 is built on an Eddystone and I love it!

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe:
You know, here is so much undocumented BS in the gun business that if it were a book, a Peterbilt could not move it.

Having said that, I believe you said it was an Eddystone? Remington made the Eddystones, so..in my opinion, there is no reason to believe they are not a first class action.

Fact is that there's a fair amount of prejudice against the Eddystone.."drop them on concrete and they shatter" (I tried that and it didn't shatter!) but, an Eddystone will ALWAYS raise an eyebrow. From a resale standpoint, you may keep that in mind

Excellent post! I was told years ago to leave the Eddystones alone......and I have.....but many others have converted them to magnums with no(apparent) problems.

However this is not in dispute.....they can be spendy to "modernize" and heavy when done.....so take it from there.

Luckily this action has already been re-barreled. It is at the moment a 300 win mag. I just had a left hand Ruger Mark II fall into my lap so now I have two projects going. Maybe a matched set, the Eddystone in 470AR and the Ruger in 416 Taylor. Such decisions I have to make, first being how to pay for all this work to be done. One of them is going to wear the strangest looking stock I have ever seen. One of the Laminated stock makes now makes a color called "Evergreen". It is a two tone blend of Emerald green and gray. Now that is going to make one crazy looking rifle. I will continue to post pics as the projects come together.