New production Lee Enfield N0.4 Mk1 barrels

[Peter Laidler]

I'm not a production engineer but a Mech Eng....., a sort of everything-thrown-in sort of grad! But to be really honest, in my opinion, making a straightforward No4 barrel is an absolute piece of cake. A REAL doddle once you have a hammered/rifled bore. The thread doesn't need to be indexed......... why? It indexes the knocks form (the KF) and the foresight block and believe me, after re-barrelling hundreds, you'll soon learn that the KF ain't the bee all and end all of, well, anythuing except a tightening mechanism!

This is what you do.......... You make the complete barrel between centres on a CNC copy lathe, as-is but LESS the KF, extractor slot and foresight block band and bayonet lugs (FBB&BL). Then you fit it to the rifle, calculate the underturn, machine/cut the extractor way and approx position of the KF and breech-up tight.

You leave the last 3.5" or so - fron the rear of the FBB&BL forwards .030" undersize and then, when the barrel is breeched up, slide on and soft solder in place a pre-made (or old original) FBB&BL sleeve. Align exactly on glass sheet as per Armourers method of breeching up. Cup-chamfer the muzzle end and that's it.

Well, that;s it in a couple of paragraphs. Obviously there's more to it than that but if you want to complicate it, then feel free but where there's a will, there's ALWAYS a simple way.

Not original with an invisible muzzle sleeve section.........? It's not an original barrel in any case. But better than the scrap heap you took off!