Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

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Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by bladeracer » 20 Oct 2018, 2:33 pm

Practice Strict Gun Control - Precision Counts!
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Re: Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by Stoney » 20 Oct 2018, 9:29 pm

I owned a mint condition No5 back in the day. It was one of the most inaccurate guns I have ever owned. Good looking gun, but, yeah. Shot terrible.
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Re: Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by No1Mk3 » 20 Oct 2018, 9:51 pm

Must not have been too mint Stoney, all 3 of mine shoot according to their design parameters, and a friend who owns several has one that shoots well enough to beat Mausers at 500m. Whilst the infamous Wandering Zero is a real phenomenon with the No5 it is overstated, and not all have it. Did you check the bore and chamber for wear? Or perhaps lack of care during it's service life such as pull through damage to the crown?
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Re: Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by Stoney » 20 Oct 2018, 10:09 pm

No1Mk3 wrote:Must not have been too mint Stoney, all 3 of mine shoot according to their design parameters, and a friend who owns several has one that shoots well enough to beat Mausers at 500m. Whilst the infamous Wandering Zero is a real phenomenon with the No5 it is overstated, and not all have it. Did you check the bore and chamber for wear? Or perhaps lack of care during it's service life such as pull through damage to the crown?



From what I understand No1Mk3, unissued. But in saying that, back in the 90's we didn't have access to the fantastic factory ammo, powder and projectiles of today. I did shoot it with ex-military ammo, with good eyes and it was in unissued condition. Mausers @ 500m I am not convinced, especially a Swede 6.5. Yes not all have it, I am not knocking the gun at all, I loved that gun but it just sprayed bullets all over. Maybe it was made on a Friday :D
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Re: Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by No1Mk3 » 21 Oct 2018, 1:18 am

G'day Stoney,
Maybe so, perhaps just not stocked up right, always going to find the odd rifle that won't perform. One of my No4 Longbranch was always a disappointment until a friend convinced me to try 150g flatbase in it, became a completely new rifle! One of my Israeli K98's though, will not shoot at all. Has good rifling, chamber cast shows no problems, re-crowned, nothing helps. Short of bore gauging to see if there is bore variation it will be just a collectible. As for my friend, there were M96 and M38 Swedes on the line that day, as well as my K31 and another bloke with a K11, plus the usual bunch of 303's and Mausers, and all of were pinged by the No5! The same fellow turned up to a 500m shoot a while later with a French 1907/15 Berthier and did it again! Perhaps more to do with the Trigger Nut.
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Re: Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by marksman » 21 Oct 2018, 10:27 am

a very honest and interesting vid
thanks for posting :thumbsup: :drinks:
“If you do not read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read the newspapers you are misinformed”. Mark Twain
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Re: Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by Stoney » 21 Oct 2018, 6:54 pm

No1Mk3 wrote:G'day Stoney,
Maybe so, perhaps just not stocked up right, always going to find the odd rifle that won't perform. One of my No4 Longbranch was always a disappointment until a friend convinced me to try 150g flatbase in it, became a completely new rifle! One of my Israeli K98's though, will not shoot at all. Has good rifling, chamber cast shows no problems, re-crowned, nothing helps. Short of bore gauging to see if there is bore variation it will be just a collectible. As for my friend, there were M96 and M38 Swedes on the line that day, as well as my K31 and another bloke with a K11, plus the usual bunch of 303's and Mausers, and all of were pinged by the No5! The same fellow turned up to a 500m shoot a while later with a French 1907/15 Berthier and did it again! Perhaps more to do with the Trigger Nut.



I am not sure mate. But I sold it years ago, and I still regret it. It was so brand new for a 303/Jungle Carbine. Wow a JC beating them all awesome :clap:
I do like the Hornady projectiles for .303.
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Re: Eric plays with a No.5 Rifle IR8888V

Post by Gun-nut » 21 Oct 2018, 9:02 pm

I've always had a soft spot for the no.5, the first centrefire I ever shot. My father owns two, and both shoot just fine also. Never experienced the wandering zero either. I have heard however that post-war, a lot of no5's were bedded improperly by civilians and gunsmiths to a similar standard to the no4, which could often result in poor accuracy as no5s were meant to have a free floating barrel, as opposed to the barrel making downward contact on the end of the fore stock. As no1 mk3 touched on above, you never know what you're going to get with milsurps, and enfields are particularly funny in that you may find a rifle with perfect bedding and rifling that can't shoot worth a damn, and a rifle thats been dragged through hell and back with a warped stock and a pitted barrel and it shoots absolutely fine.

In regards to the wandering zero, as no1 said, I believe its mostly been blown out of proportion, other owners of no5s that I've spoken to haven't experienced any such issues with their rifles, and I suspect that rifles that do exhibit a wandering zero (whether it be due to a bad batch of rifles, poor bedding, misalignment of the flashider etc.) would be few and far between.
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