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Thread: Dissecting a Long Lee Barrel, For a Good Cause

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    Legacy Member BVZ24's Avatar
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    Dissecting a Long Lee Barrel, For a Good Cause

    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.
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