Where did this 69 Enfield barrel come from?

[bearhunter]

I have a barrel that resembles that one on the starter post. It came in a paraffin sealed, canvas bag packed in grease. I bought the barrel from International, out of Montreal. If someone is interested, I can take a pic of it. It is now mounted on a Martini and with the help of a fitted sleeve to mount to the receiver, is chambered in 30-40 Krag, which I load with .308 diameter bullets.
The hammer finished exterior and taper are identical. Now, all of this happened in 1980. The barrels were on a special offer of $30/barrel. Being newly married and buying my first house, made even that paltry sum a bit of a stretch at the time. The barrel didn't have any stamps or knox areas on it. There was a tag on the bag, but it was so soaked in grease as to be illegible.
I remember, when we fitted it, the steel was extremely hard and difficult to machine/ream, even though the reamer was new and sharp.
I was also lucky enough to pick up a new in white No 1, and another 7.62x51 bbl (Palma Match chambered), again without stamps for $20 each. I wish I could go back and take out a loan or renegotiate my mortgage and bought all of them. There were several hundred of each. Alan Lever bought 250 of each at the time. They didn't last long.

[Peter Laidler]

There were a small quantity of new L39/42 barrels left in Ordnance after the L39 was declared obsolete and as someone else has mentioned, these were destroyed as part of the UN thinggy against the proliferation of arms.

[Roger Payne]

I had many, many discussions with the late Wayne Mitchell on the heavy Enfield target barrels. Wayne had started collecting part numbers and dates in an attempt to identify barrel marriages however this data is no longer available. The Enforcer and Envoy numbers are well known.....each profile is a little different. I concurr with Thunderbox on the UK "take off" barrel market. Also Enfield made a whack of hammer forged barrels.....10000+ rings a bell. It was not uncommon to see them sold to target shooters for rebarrelling projects. Fit up was and is not difficult. Ron

PL is really the one to answer this, but as others have said, EFD made rather more heavy profile 7.62mm barrels than they immediately needed for L39's L42's Enforcers etc. Many of the surplus one were used to make up heavy barrel target rifles. The barrel shown at the beginning of the thread is a standard L39/L42 barrel, but with the early DDE (Design Department at Enfield) project number on it rather than the CR Ministry of Supply number which was applied, IIRC from 1970 onwards. Note this particular barrel is of 1969 vintage. As mentioned previously these barrels are worth hanging on to these days if in a good condition., especially if you have a somewhat worn L42.....
ATB

[No4Mk1(T)]

Enfield apparently made about 10,000 of the hammer-forged barrels. Of these, about 2,500 would have been used on new L42, L39 & Envoy conversions, then an unknown number sent to military store as spares for L42/39. Hundreds or thousands of barrels were released into the civilian gun trade, where they were made up into L39/Envoy clones and P14 target rifles.

The rib brazed onto the top of No4 action was a fairly common experiment at the time that the first proper single-shot closed receiver target rifles were being introduced. The rib was thought to offer some stiffening to the action. In practice, it appears to make no improvement to shooting performance, or even a slight negative effect.

Very interesting… My rifle is virtually identical with the exception of the holes drilled into the rib. Likely done by the same smith.

PL is really the one to answer this, but as others have said, EFD made rather more heavy profile 7.62mm barrels than they immediately needed for L39's L42's Enforcers etc. Many of the surplus one were used to make up heavy barrel target rifles. The barrel shown at the beginning of the thread is a standard L39/L42 barrel, but with the early DDE (Design Department at Enfield) project number on it rather than the CR Ministry of Supply number which was applied, IIRC from 1970 onwards. Note this particular barrel is of 1969 vintage. As mentioned previously these barrels are worth hanging on to these days if in a good condition., especially if you have a somewhat worn L42.....
ATB

So not correct for an Envoy or Enforcer but good to go on an L39/L42 then. Anyone have an un-loved L39 action they can live without?
I sure wish I didn’t need to sell it as it’s a cool looking rifle but I need the loot at this moment. However even that will change with time.

[Mk VII]

The stiffening thing was offered by Fulton's, among others, and I think the Whitaker Special had it too. It doesn't seem to have been all that popular here, one seldom sees it.

[rgg_7]

There's a real absence of information about these barrels. It would be very benefical if folks could check their rifles and or take off barrels and post the following data; Rifle, SN, barrel marking and date code.

There seem to be a few of the DD(E) 24720/SK D69 392/K barrels in the UK and Canada. Been told the DD is a drawing number...for what I don't know; D69 is Enfield (EFD) 1969 and 392/k may be a pressure.

Comments?

Ron

[roconn]

Ron:
I picked up fine action SN PF198561 in 7.62mm 1.99" 22.3tons ( per sq inch omitted) with proof mark of an upraised arm with scimitar and NP beneath.

The stock was so *%^& horrible - must have been done by some crazed wood butcher around the camp fire with a dull hatchet who then added little brass ciger box nails and pleasant plastic diamonds ---- forunately the metal parts are really fine and the bore is excellent. A work in progress.
regards
roconn

There's a real absence of information about these barrels. It would be very benefical if folks could check their rifles and or take off barrels and post the following data; Rifle, SN, barrel marking and date code.

There seem to be a few of the DD(E) 24720/SK D69 392/K barrels in the UK and Canada. Been told the DD is a drawing number...for what I don't know; D69 is Enfield (EFD) 1969 and 392/k may be a pressure.

Comments?

Ron

[Surpmil]

They were also available as unthreaded 'blanks'. One now graces my ENVOY, but breeched up in a rather unique way.

Does anyone know if they were made threaded for the P14/M17 from the factory?

There were quite a few of them floating around in Canada, usually threaded for the No4 of course.

[bigduke6]

This the barreled action i mentioned in the previous page, and some pics of the action with the canjar trigger, note the bolt and the travel on the striker when cocked compared to a normal No4 Mk2 action

[Mk VII]

unthreaded barrels would have been adaptable to the P14/P17 or the Mauser 98, which began to come into use in the late '70s.