Adapting a vickers barrel to a SMLE

[Frederick303]

Gents,

How heavy is a Vickers barrel, diameter wise relative to a SMLE barrel? I ask as I was thinking of trying to built a heavy barrel match rifle on a 1916 SMLE, and as the heavy BSA target barrels do not exist, was looking for a suitable candidate barrel blank.

I now the Vickers barrel is 28 inches long, so there is sufficient length to cut off the end and re-chamber it, but I cannot find anyplace the diameter of the barrel to compare it to the SMLE barrel.

thanks to any one who might know the answer.

Information

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[Brian Dick]

1.19" in front of the block at the rear and .63 at the muzzle. It might work. Maybe Peter will chime in with some thoughts?

If you're patient, Criterion are going to build SMLE barrels once their No.4 barrels are on line and could probably make heavy's too.

[Vincent]

Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co had some heavy .303 barrel blanks a while back. You might give them a call and see if any are left.

They have .308/7.62 blanks. Probably cheaper than a Vickers barrel and not worn.

7.62x51-BLANK 7.62x51 Raw Blank 25" x 1.25" - Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co.

762blank-19s 7.62 Caliber 416 SS Raw Blank 19" x 1.25" 1:10 - Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co.

MGM-308S .308 Stainless Gunsmith Raw Blank 17.5" x 1.25" - Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co.

RX308 308 Caliber 1:8 twist Chrome Moly Barrel Blank - Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co.

[Peter Laidler]

It's a doddle to machine a Vickers barrel downh and plenty of meat to cut the breeching up thread. It used to be done to rebarrel Long Toms as I understand it

[Brian Dick]

And there you are Frederick!

[ActionYobbo]

from my experience Vickers barrels and P14 barrels are extremely hard and dont machine well.
once you get through the initial hard surface there is random hard spots. These barrels were hand straightened by heating and bending after they were rifled. Some barrels were rifled then the bore straightened by heating and bending and some were fully profiled before straightening.
But they do make nice super heavy target rifle barrels

[bigduke6]

If it was me Fred, I,d use a 7.62/.308 barrel and chamber for .303, so you could use any of the .30 pills, bit more to it than that but think you get the picture........personally I wouldn't use a 1916 SMLE body either but thats just me, as I tend to think of someone building a heavy barrel target rifle stoking their cases up to the point that the loading press is starting to give way while trying to seat a bullet.......

[Peter Laidler]

I never found that with Vickers barrels Mr E and we were using them until a couple of years ago. Mind you I wasn't machining them. But I did give a few away (with recoil lugs cut off.....) to be machined down and never had any neg feedback. My boss in NZ showed me how it was done using one. From that I did a No5 using an L4A4 barrel in 7.62mm and it's still going strong to this day. Mind you, chrome lined and all that!

[Bindi2]

Why not find a Lithgow H barrel and just screw it in. Maddco in OZZ make H barrels for the Mk3. The furniture will need routing out, the Bayonet boss opening up or the barrel turned down to fit. Just open the cupboard pull out a new Long Lee Barrel shorten to required length refit front sight and screw in rout forend and fit.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Fitting a heavy barrel a la the Lithgow pattern requires a bit of relieving of the wood-work and the deletion of the "Inner Band". The "bedding " is a little different from "standard", understandably. Mr. Sweet's book has a lot of valuable information on the entire caper.

The caper of "opening out" the nosecap seem to have been something of an obsession with the "full-bore" target types, despite the Lithgow barrels being specifically made with the last 30mm or so of barrel having the exact dimensions of a "standard" barrel, specifically to seat the standard front-sight assembly. ALL of the Oz "HT" SMLE snipers have heavy barrels and DO NOT have their nose-caps "relieved": they seem to shoot OK with Mk7 ball.

If you have a stash of MINT Vickers barrels casually lounging around your place, I suspect their sale to an "appreciative user" will more than pay for a seriously good re-barreling.

Furthermore, ALL of the MINT, IN THE BAG, "H" barrels I have ever gauged, (and I still have a few), appear to have been lapped. MANY show distinct signs of "over-lapping" and thus "belling" of the lands at the muzzle. Whilst the relationship between SMLE barrels and Mk7 ball appears to have been a "racing fit" and still "worked" very well, bear in mind that Mk7 ball is now up there with hen's teeth and rocking-horse manure.