Shot her for the first time Monday and ran into a pretty bad problem, the cases lock up in the chamber and I had to palm hammer the bolt to get each case out.  Examining the cases showed a bulge near the bottom and more on one side of the case then the other.....also the privi brass had the worse bulges, but the Turkish brass I was shooting locked up just not as bad.  I have yet had a chance to bore scope and get a real good look what's up, but from what info iv found on line it's not uncommon an issue.












 

Try  a gunsmith.As you read online wartime guns can have chamber issues. My No 4 did too but not as bad as yours. I just lived with it.

If it were me I would be reluctant to re barrel a #'s matching gun.

Have you run a head space gauge through it yet?  May need a longer bolt head.

The bolt, receiver and some times the furniture are serial numbered.  The barrel is not and you could re-barrel with another Lithgow barrel and the rifle would appear correct.  I'm not sure it's worth the expense, if you can diy and find a barrel cheap, it may be.

I recently found a all matching 41 Lithgow in unfired condition for $200, I wouldn't dump a lot money in a worn out Lithgow.

A '42-dated Lithgow will likely have a serialed barrel. If it was replaced at a later time, it might be unmarked, but the original was numbered.

Have a gunsmith look at it. Sounds like chamber issues.

The 42' does have matching barrel numbers, also I'm not positive of this ,but the bulge is only on one side of the case...which to me would suggest a chamber issue not a head space...but I'm by far no expert.    I also got a good look at the chamber area list night...it looks pretty smooth (didn't get a great look at the top inside..I'll need a small mirror). But it wasn't cruded up.....right were the bullit and lands(?) interact thier was some build up but was easily removed.

In 1914 the British and Commonwealth Nations  enlarged the Enfield chamber to make room for the mud of flanders, the chamber is larger in diameter and the shoulder of the chamber moved forward approximately 1/8 of an inch than American SAAMI standards. American made .303 cartridge cases have smallish base diameters and when chambered tend to lay in the bottom of the chamber and expand on one side more than the other.

Check your headspace, and fire form your cases using a rubber o-ring around the rim. This holds the case against the bolt face when fired and when the o-ring is compressed when the bolt is closed  the compressed o-ring centers the rear of the case in the chamber. (equal case expansion)

Normally Prvi Partizan cases do not have this problem because the base diameter is larger, the cases walls are .010 thicker in the base web area and the rims are thicker than any other brand of .303 British case.

Below both cases were fired in the same Enfield and you can see how much smaller the base diameter is on the right hand Greek HXP cases.



Below, rubber o-ring around the base of the case next to the rim for fire forming, NOTE, a false shoulder will work also or seating your bullets long and jaming the bullet into the rifling "IF" you do not have cordite throat erosion.



After fire forming neck size only and have the shoulder of the case hold the case against the bolt face.



If your No.1 is not within headspace limits look for a bolt head marked with the letter "S" for spare as these bolt heads are longer than normal and are lapped to the correct headspace. (easy to do on a piece of sandpaper)

Do not blame the Enfield for having a large chamber, the real problem is Lake City doesn't make heavy duty .303 cases to mil-spec for Enfield owners.

I use .312 pistol bullets and reduced loads of SR4759, Trail Boss or IMR-4895 to fire form my cases. You may want to remove the extractor when using the o-ring method to keep the extractor from cutting the o-ring.

Below, firing American commercial cartridge cases in the Enfield military chamber and stretching and thinning in the base web area.

Thanks big...that was great info and easy to understand with the grafts....only conflicting info iv had was the fact the privi brass deformed more then  what I was told was Turkish rounds ( bought from an older guy as Turkish..or so he thought, no markings on box or brass) other then that thanks again for the info..I'll have the head spacing checked out...