Dissecting a Long Lee Barrel, For a Good Cause

[BVZ24]

I found a company that is going to attempt to replicate the profile of a Long Lee Enfield barrel. I found a very ruined, very unsafe to use barrel to send over to have copied. I needed to remove the sights to go forward. As expected, the rear sights are silver soldered in place with two screws and came off easily. I had some doubts about the front sight because all I had to go by was a sharp edged loose sight (NOS but stored poorly?) and a picture of a stripped Martini 303 barrel that I can no longer find.
I am an novice at metal work and there isn't much information out there on the construction of the Long Lee front sight. It took more heat than I expected to break the front sight off, enough to discolor the barrel (again very unsalvageable barrel, only usable to sleeve to .22). The sight did not break off cleanly and does not have the same appearance as the loose sight. You can see a burr of metal on each side of the sight. The underside of the sight and the recess in the barrel is an even gold color, different than the silver color seen under the rear sight, and does not change color under the corresponding sections of burr. The resulting inlet is significantly longer than the loose sight.
I expected the front sight to be soldered as well. Is there more to the construction of the front sight that I didn't find? Did I break off sections of dovetail, barrel, or was the gap originally filled with either an iron weld or solder that has aged to match the color of the barrel? I don't have consistent access to a nice barrel to study a sight in good condition. The sample barrel was from a BSA that I believe was made after 1898.

Pictures attached, more can be taken if requested.

[Surpmil]

Are you planning to have complete barrels made or are you have rifled blanks profiled?

[BVZ24]

Planning on making a couple of complete barrels for my own projects. I know there is a fairly high demand for these, but I don't have the business know how to have more than a couple made. I have a machinist that is willing to duplicate that NOS sight which means I could get more of them.

[Sapper740]

I briefly considered looking for a replacement barrel for my BSA civilian MLE target rifle but I realized I would lose so much of its history as recorded by all the stamps on the barrel: Lithgow, -><-, barrel replacement dates, and Lithgow Inspector stamps. The rifle was originally purchased by a civilian, taken on strength by the New Zealand government, then sold back to the civilian market. The rifle's owner kept the 30" barrel despite the pressure by many shooting organizations to match the barrel length of the SMLE, thankfully. It's chambered for the Mk VI round which probably explains why I can't do better than 4 MOA with Mk VII length ammo. Anyway, its history is more important to me than its accuracy.

[BVZ24]

I always wanted to get a nice MLE or MLM but I'm never able to find one. I know people who have museum condition MLE that I can get access to for reference, but they won't talk about selling.

I'm starting with a barreled action that had the barrel knocked off to 17 inches and an smle sight welded, not brazed, on. It retained the MLM rear sight so there wasn't even a viable sight picture.
It's marked as an Sparkbrook MLM II no star so I figured it was worth investigating repair. I underestimated the costs of part gathering and unfortunately the resale value is out of the window. I originally took on the project on the assumption I would be able to get an Armalon barrel, which I can't. I did manage to find every part in a relatively short time, and many are correctly marked. The front sight I have is offset for MK7.

The donor barrel came from an RTI that I used as a placeholder for a Long Lee until I manage to find or fix one. It's in expected RTI condition, and the locking recesses in the receiver show evidence of being cracked/chipped and rendered the receiver a paperweight. The barrel is smoothbore in the first and last 8 inches, and the chamber appears to have been reamed to 7.62x54r, leaving it entirely unsafe.

[Agambard1990]

Sounds like quite the project! I am looking for such a barrel to complete a 303 martini project. Would your machinist be interested in making one more?

On a separate but related note, I have an mle Enfield in shooter condition I am thinking about selling if you are interested. I can send pics. I also have a buddy who replicates stocks if you are interested.