a few No.4 Mk1* questions

[Rumpelhardt]

Hello
Obviously new here .
After years of wanting an Enfield I finally got one. It is a Savage built No.4 Mk1*.
The rifle looks nice now that I have the cosmoline cleaned up but the bore is pretty badly pitted though the rifling is still quite sharp. The smith I had look at it said that it probably was a nice barrel but it looks like it was not cleaned properly after shooting corrosive ammo. I didn't pay a lot for the rifle so I didn't expect much.
Now to my questions. First off could anyone tell me approximately when this rifle was built? The serial# is 65Cxxxx.
The second is concerning a barrel I bought for it from Numrich Gun Parts. The barrel I got is a quite nice 5 grove one. It has engraved with an electric pencil the # NC25214. Would this be the serial number of the rifle it came from? Can anyone I.D. the barrel from this? Also how do the 5 grove barrels compared to the 2 grove like the one presently on my rifle?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[smellie]

The 2-groove and 5-groove barrels for the Number 4 were interchangeable 100%, so you will hve no problems there.

If you are swapping barrels, you want a gunsmith who KNOWS the Lee-Enfield rifle. It is much too easy to twist the receiver (Body) while changing barrels. The old barrel often requires an astounding amount of torque before it lets go, often with a mighty BANG. The nice part is that generally you can hand-twist it off after that and the new one just screws on by hand-power, then you use the tools to snug it up. It will tighten in place as you shoot it.

If you are changing barrels for any reason, be sure that you KEEP the old barrel: it is serial-numbered to your rifle! This is not normal American practice, but it IS normal British practice.

One part you might need would be a new bolt-head. You change the bolt-head on the Lee-Enfield to adjust the headspace. Bolt-heads normally were numbered from 0 through 3: the more headspace you have, the higher number of bolt-head to bring it within limits. Minimum headspace for your rifle is .064", maximum is .074". Cartridge rims should be as close as possible to the maximum thickness specified, which was .063", the .303 spacing on the rim as any other rimmed cartridge.

Your rifle was built about halfway through the Savage contract; they made over a million of these rifles.

Someone who knows what they are talking about will be on here shortly regarding your barrel and anything else.

BTW, it might be an idea to shoot your rifle a bit before you try swapping barrels. Give the bore a good scrubbing with a fresh .30-caliber Tornado brush and then take it out and shoot it. Sometimes, these old things will sit up and do tricks, even with a ratty barrel. It's worth a try.

Welcome to the club!
.

[tlvaughn]

First off could anyone tell me approximately when this rifle was built? The serial# is 65Cxxxx.

Approx. July 1943

It has engraved with an electric pencil the # NC25214. Would this be the serial number of the rifle it came from? Can anyone I.D. the barrel from this?

I believe this is off of an ROF-Fazakerley rifle -- 1944?

[Rumpelhardt]

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated.
The barrel on the rifle has no markings that I can discern other than a small illegible stamp on the flat in front of the receiver. Also the left side of this flat looks like it is rounded off slightly as if it had slipped in a vice. Also the barrel is brightly blued were as the action looks to be parkerized. Is this normal?
The rifle does not have the original bolt and had a few other small "expedient fixes" like a bent nail holding the front sling swivel Because of some buggered threads.