Other caliber chamber inserts, any ideas?

[Simon P]

There was an article in the Lee Enfield Rifle Association LERA news letter (March 2008), about converting standard .303s to .32 using a soldered insert & a magazine from a mauser C96.

[MK Wheelie]

I remember seeing a reply to this question on Canadian Gun Nuts, where a member had experience with chamber inserts. According to this fellow, the inserts didn't have a very long life before they failed. I don't recall the nature of the failure.

[bigduke6]

Anybody have any firsthand experience with them, especially the 7.62x25 caliber? I've taken some measurements of .303 and 7.62x25 cases and asuming the inserts are made to the dimentions of an unfired .303 case the wall thickness is only .037''. With the 7.62x25 being a fairly high pressure cartridge, if not properly heat treated it seems possibly for the insert to become bulged in the chamber area within a short period of time rendering them useless. Any thoughts?

Cant say my experiance was an enjoyable one but I Bought one a few years back, (.303 - .32 ACP) if you have the patience of a saint, as its time consuming knocking the empty case out out of the insert, apart from that there not too bad, quality of the bore is not well finished but the outside is excellent, I picked up a load of .32 ACP at bisley and intended to use them in my No 4.

One thing I will say always clean your rifle after use, in my case it wasn`t just the chared up bits of lead in the bore, as it was a while between aquiring the ammo and finally going to the club and testing it out, I forgot what the bloke at bisley had said " Its old ammo so the primers may be corrosive" he was spot on, doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out what the barrel looked like a week later !!

Well this is were the fun started, not phased I give it a good clean and the bore come good, took a long time, but finally got to the point of using my pull through, of course this was an original from a cleaning kit (old) thought I,d give it one last clean so changed the cleaning patch and started on the final pull, it was tight but started to go, got to half way and it snapped, At this point I was slightly pi**** off to say the least, the left over of the pull through started to shift but finally wouldnt go anymore even hammering the alluminum rod down, the pull through was acting like a buffer as it was compressed so tight, plan C was put in to action, I had made a few years before some brass and Aluminium extractors and also something that resembles a deep hole drill bit, (all soft material ). so went out in to the garage with the rifle.

Its a long process and to speed it up I leaned over to get the drill from the workbench, (I was sat on a box at the time, with the rifle across my knees), as soon as I touched the drill I got a shock, with this I moved my arm downwards throwing the drill to the floor, at this point I moved a leg which just had the rifle balanced on one knee, of course once the drill had left my hand, my hand was still travelling at some speed and enough speed and force to hit the rifle which forced the fore-end down towards the floor and causing the butt to jump up and smack me just on the corner of the eye socket, with in minutes it looked like a murder scene, claret everywhere, dripping all over, all down my front I manged to stem the blood with my T shirt and cover the rifle while I went back into the house, locked the rifle up, and had a look at the damage, it needed something so found a clean shirt and taped a patch over the wound and went down to the drop in centre.

The nurse said "what have you been doing"

"walked into the door" I said ........

Chamber Adapters....... personally I prefare to make the barrel now, and for anyone interested in .30M1 carbine and have any old target barrels in .308 / 7.62 you can turn them down and chamber for .30 M1 carbine, to fit a No4 or SMLE

(see part 5 in the restorers corner top of the sticky,s SMLE NO1 Mk V Restro)

[bigduke6]

I forgot to mention if anyone is looking at getting a chamber insert or adapter, I would have a look the ones "lothar Walther" produce, more expensive than the ebay ones but if the quality of the barrels is anything to go by, I would say thay they would be excellent. They do a good .22 adapter but not for the .303