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Always enjoyed collecting and restoring 1940 rifles, I have most of the dates including a undated '40 gas trap barrel too. Still missing the S-A-6-40 barrel but my old friend George Apgar has a S-A-6-40 barrel (and receiver)Attachment 53148Attachment 53149Attachment 53150Attachment 53151Attachment 53152Attachment 53153
forgot to include the S-A-11-40 barrel, used the S-A-1-41 by mistakeAttachment 53155
Robert, very impressive. Thanks for sharing with us. :)
Nice, nice, nice...
I have a 6-40 found 30+ years ago -- it's a stovepipe, but real. Those are some very scarce barrels you have!
About 14 or 15 years ago Mac sent me some of his data concerning the gas trap to gas port conversions. The very early gas port barrels were used on the gas trap conversions,
a few examples from Mac's data:
s/n 175 with S-A-6-40 bbl, s/n 188 with S-A-7-40 bbl s/n 256 with S-A-7-40 bbl s/n 756 with S-A-10-40 bbl (I saw s/n 758 once, it had a 1950 bbl) s/n 5777 with S-A-7-40 bbl,
s/n 7307 with S-A-7-40 bbl
Beside barrels for production a fair number got used-up on the gas trap conversions too
5777 no longer has a 7-40 barrel on it.
Was the S-A-7-40 barrel in s/n 5777 with a heat lot T-5-B and were the pads chromed ?
yes, that is correct.
It now has a real gas trap barrel on it.
That is interesting, where you able to find the correct early gas trap barrel with the drawing number D28286 or did you use a later gas trap barrel with the drawing number D-28286 ? Were the low guide ribs corrected ? Based on Mac's data which showed s/n 5777 with a S-A-7-40 barrel being a direct conversion and maybe being rebuilt again, I think I would have kept it with the gas port barrel
I used a later trap barrel.
The ribs were not corrected.
A direct conversion, maybe at one time but the ports were chromed on the barrel. I didn't think they did that in 1941.
I can understand your view on s/n 5777 - but there were some barrels manufactured by SA during WW2 that did have chrome plated gas ports to salvage a "undersized " or out of spec barrel. Art Tuttle wrote a short article about salvaging M1 barrels as far back as 1941. My old friend, Harold Murtz who was the Senior Staff Editor at Gun Digest had purchased an M1 rifle at Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago in early 1964.. He never shot it as he collected Lee Enfields. In the early 90's he decided to sell off most of his collection and showed his M1 rifle to me, it was serial number 544121, all the parts such as the Type 1 lock bar, rev 12 heat lot RE5B bolt, uncut rev 3 op rod, appeared correct
except the barrel was a S-A 10-41 D35448-7 REP 33A with "chrome pads", the T.E. was just over 1.0. Harold never changed the barrel nor shot the rifle as he has little interest in M1 rifles. I believe it was a barrel salvaged in 1941 and used in later production.
Very interesting. Thanks for the information.
I still believe 5777 was done at a later date on the basis the pads were chromed and the 7th round mod. was not done. I assume if they did do a gas trap to gas port conversion , at that time , the 7th round mod. would have been performed ( possibly ).
Can someone explain the 6/40 and 7/40 barrels? The Gas Traps were not re-called to SA, as I understand it. So why the June and July barrel dates? Re-barreled at SA in the summer? But not re-called. Seems like more to the story then we know.
Some simple answers without going into a lot of detail or reading the books: Both the gas trap configuration and gas port rifles were both being produced through July 1940, hence the S-A-6-40 and S-A-7-40 dated barrels on the gas ports.
Gas trap rifles were not recalled but cycled in during rebuild
There are some excellent books available
Robert is correct, both were being assembled from about mid-June. The gas ports got the new dated barrel and the old undated gas trap barrels were being used up.