Advise on getting a worn MLE Mk 1 to shoot.

[englishman_ca]

i have a tractor with a bald tires that I can see the belts, It still has some tread at the edges and it wants to grip. I might try it on pavenment.

Sorry Richard, I'm just being facetious, but sometime one has to resolve that something is simply worn out. (blank fire only).

But you do have a few options. Much depends on if you want a shooter or a museum display piece. You could do both.

Finding a replacement barrel will be a challenge, however, I just picked up two badly sportered rifles with decent full length barrels. They have some good internal parts but the rest is destined for the junk drawer for my Frankenfield experimentation (sorry, barrels are already used on projects).

Somebody told me that a Vickers mg barrel is long enough to be turned down and converted into a 30 inch MLE barrel. But that is like making a silk purse from a silk shirt.

Another option might be to turn it into a .22 rim fire trainer with a barrel liner.

Or, there is a technique where the barrel is cut off at the reinforce and the resulting stub bored out to accept a threaded barrel blank. The serial numbers and markings could be retained for authenticity.

It is always fun to work on a challenge, but personally, I have restored enough long Lees to think that unless something has a decent bore, the resulting finished project will not be worth the time and effort (restored tractor with bald tires).