To salvage a barrel or not?

I got a bit burned on an auction, got a 1912 No 1 Mk III barreled receiver with a lot of bits with it. It arrived and I discovered why I only paid $12 + shipping for it, the receiver is bent and slightly twisted. The upside is that all the other bits on it are still worth what I paid in parts value, so no big deal. The big question I have is with the barrel. The bore is really nice, and I took a straight-edge to the barrel, scrutinized it for a long time and it appears to be straight. So, would you guys salvage the barrel or not? I am not sure if I want to, but I hate to just scrap the barrel if there is any hope of using it down the road.

ALWAYS save everything you can. There's always going to be a need for it down the road.

I guess my biggest concern was if there could be hidden damage to the barrel I am not seeing. I mean, the forces exerted to bend the receiver in the middle were serious, so I was wondering if you would trust the barrel even though it appears to be undamaged?

Ask someone who is a good barrel viewer to see if the barrel is bent. He'll be able to tell using a 'GAUGE, testing straightness of bore' If he's old fashioned like me, he'll shadow-view it across a straight line and rotate it. If it's straight, ask him to check for puckers, bulges, cordwear, cuts and then gauge it. .301" must run freely under its own weight. .307" must not enter the muzzle by more then 1/4" and .308" must not enter the breech (the rifling part) by more that 1/4". If it passes those tests, it's serviceable.

After that, make sure that the backsight bed and foresight block are tight. Only a slight oil squeeze is permissable

Thanks a bunch for that info, Peter. That is very informative. More to add to my ever thickening notebook of Enfield info.

Bear43

If its straight remove it, regardless of the bore condition, as it can be relined to .22

I guess I forgot to mention the bore condition. It is a very beautiful bore, that is why I am hoping very much that it's salvageable because the thing looks almost new. That alone made the purchase worth it.

there is the age old question, have a good look at the receiver to check for marks on it that look like jethro clampet has tried to remove the barrel from the reciever, as i have come across actions like this before where they have tried to remove the barrel to put a non mil calibre on it and in the following attempt twisted the reciever and marked the barrel but with no ill affect to the barrell accept for a bit of blueing gone and a bit of burring. Like trying to use a pair of pliers instead of delicate surgical instrument. If your able to remove it without any further damage dowhatever tests you need to do to see if shees straight, then wack her in another action that doesnt have a quite so good one.The standard barrels for 303s are just to damn hard to get in good nick these days.

There has been no attempt to remove the barrel, no marks of any sort to really indicate that. The damage came from a blow from the bottom of the receiver and judging from the remaining piece of the stock bolt still in the receiver, the butt was apparently sheared off in an upwards direction. I am hopefull the barrel is okay, but it will be a bit yet before I get it off the receiver and checked out thorougly.

sounds like they were trying to wrap said action around a tree or such, this would sugest that they had hold of the barrel when swinging for the home run.

I got some pictures of the receiver. It's in quite a state. I also took a bore shot, it's a dark picture but you can get an idea of the bore. The crud you see in there is actually grease. It had a ton of grease in there and it will take a while to get it all out.

Soft metal pounded in the stockbolt threads?

Everything but the wooden stake through the heart! :lol:

Pity...

It looks to me like someone tried to "demil" the receiver by crunching it in a vise - common practise inc ountries with gun registries when trying to get rid of an unwanted sporterized Enfield.

I'd suspect the barrel is just fine if you get it properly removed.