How not to .....................

[Peter Laidler]

I'll tell you what is even BETTER fun..................... We had to breech up and un breech with a slave bolt and bolt head in the action for reasons best known to the instructors, in and out inspectors and so on. So during a particularly tiresone day when I'd had my gut full of Armouring, I slipped in the bolt and started to unbreech what turned out to be a tight No5. Not just TIGHT, but REALLY, REALLY tight. Even getting a quarter of a turn was beyond my ability to unbreech.

So I reversed it and breeched up again and discovered to my horror that I'd left the extractor in the supposedly slave bolt head and now, said extractor was trying to wind the extractor way and threads from the barrel PLUS the threads from the body.

Result, one red face and a destroyed rifle. If I remember correctly, it came from the Fiji or Tonga Army so was just written off but there were thousands in Ordnance so I suppose they just got another.

Punishment for these transgressions was usually another day on the ranges test firing yet more batches of the things.........................

[Brian Dick]

I had a customer job once insisting on the old barrel being undamaged but removed. It was a Savage and the only one that's ever defeated me because I couldn't get it out short of a relief cut on a lathe. I was using a trusty 4 foot piece of 2" metal conduit as a lever too!

[bradtx]

Good to read that the pub was able to take care of any and all injuries, Jim.

Brad

[Roger Payne]

With all you guys experienced at rebarrelling Enfields & the considerable amount of leverage that is sometimes required, has anyone not also discovered the perils of crushing the front trigger guard screw hole? It happened to me once so I now fit a screw (cut short, effectively turned into a one quarter inch BSF grub-screw) into the hole. This seems to prevent any problems as a rule. Out of curiosity I use a Parker Hale service vice. These were specifically made for working on Enfields, though can be used for most other rifles with suitable collets.

ATB

[RJW NZ]

Is there a video anywhere showing the steps along a production line of an Enfield Rifle being made? A lot of the engineering seems downright interesting and not something I bump into in a normal days surfing.

[Warren]

Apparently Long Branch used a large hoizontal flywheel for holding the action and the barrel was set into a clamp. The flywheel weighed in the neighbourhood of 150 to 200 hundred pounds with a flange to stop the rotation. The barrel was started up into the receiver, locked in place in a keyway and the wheel spun. The resulting breech up was tigher than the proverbial monkey's ear.....Having had to remove several I know the pain and anguish encountered. I cannot confirm the method of breeching up, other than having been told by two old armourers who worked there during the latter part of the war.
Enfield lock: I hope you retired to the pub that served up the lunch where we met up with the "groundskeeper". Hell of a good lunch and excellent company...
I cannot believe you moved that HUGE !!!! pintle you had the vise mounted on !!!!! I can hear Geoff now ******** **** *****

[chevy1981enfield1943]

this is a good thread, made me laugh.

[Brian Dick]

I've got a barrel clamp from Long Branch and another from England, they're virtually identical. I've had the problem of a buggered front guard screw hole but never the threads, just the flange where the collar seats in. I used a Brownells wrench for years and have since switched to a custom precision torch cut wrench that doesn't foul the guard screw hole.

[Peter Laidler]

When we breeched up at Base workshops, our spanner part was fixed to the barrel and the body was clamped in the jig. This way and by the design of the clamp, it couldn't - in theory - damage the trigger guard screw hole. They did occasionally! We always put a hexagon headed grub screw into the hole. That way, if the threaded hole did distort slightly, you could always centre the drill correctly to drill the bugger out! Then clean up the threads of course. There was always a bit of hilarity when you made a monumental xxxx-up. The ASM, an Australian called 'Sir' (ASM Shepherd or otherwise known as 'the good Shepherd' if I remember correctly) would suggest that you went out and bought ice creams all round from Steve, the Magnolia ice cream man. I certainly had to after partially unbreeching the No5 with the extractor still fitted into the slave bolt head!