Re-barreling question: Why?

[smellie]

There are a few other points to consider also.

British rifles used Enfield rifling: 5 grooves, lands and grooves equal width, grooves comparatively deep. It lasted very well under most conditions and the barrels had an unusually long service life. A test reported in the TEXT BOOK OF SMALL ARMS - 1909 details a trial with an Enfield barrel using Mark VI ammunition loaded with Cordite Mark I; this was identical to the Mark II ammunition which burned the barrels out of the Lee-Metfords in short order. They got 12,000 rounds through the rifle before they decided that the barrel was 'done'. The solution to their 'problem' was to develop and adopt Cordite MD-T 5-2 which was FAR less erosive. So how long would a Lee-Enfield barrel actually last?

Certainly it would last more than the 3,000 rounds which Hatcher stated was the course for a barrel in a Springfield. Springfield barrels (and later M-1 barrels) were rifled with 4 grooves with very wide grooves and very narrow lands, much as in Mauser practice, but they were not rifled as deeply as an Enfield barrel. And the Americans persisted in using their horridly-corrosive FA-70 primer until 1954, which was about 20 years after the commercial makers had switched over to noncorrosive caps. Add Ammonia Dope to this and you are staring Trouble right n the eye.

Canada began switching over to noncorrosive primers during the Second World War. Dominion Arsenals (the Government plant) kept making their big Berdan primers to the British specifications, but ammunition loaded by the Dominion Cartridge Company was 100% noncorrosive and non-mercuric. When the big Defence Industries plant was set up it was centred on supervisory staff from the DC Co.... and all of the DI ammunition used NCNM primers.

Germany had it the easiest, their primers coming from RWS and being the standard ROSTFREI type: noncorrosive, exactly as they had been during the previous War.

Japan rifled their barrels by the Metford system but with FOUR grooves only: from the muzzle, the bore looks like a rounded square. It was deep and the bullet was not of great diameter, so the bullet spun whether it wanted to or not.

Italy still was using the Carcano with its gain-twist rifling (except for the Model 41) and its WIDE lands and DEEP grooves.

Japan and Italy both used the lowest-pressure ammunition of the Second War, followed up the scale by the British, then the Germans and finally the Americans, right at the top. And along with the PRESSURE went the HEAT.

I think that if it is looked at carefully, one will find something pretty close to a correlation between HEAT and PRESSURE as limiting factors on the life of a barrel. Throw shallow grooves and narrow lands into the pot, and you have a recipe for American barrels lasting 3,000 rounds while everybody else's lasted much longer.

I'm heading down into the basement now while you guys are picking up your rocks to throw.

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