Canadian C3 barrel length and metal finish

[Bladerunner]

I'm building a C3 /M82 sniper clone and have found conflicting information on barrel length.

I know the M82 has a 26" barrel, but have seen various numbers on the C3 (not C3A1) of 24" and 23.75".

Does anyone know what the actual length was. If I can't find out, I'm just going to go with the M82 spec.

One other thing, was the C3 parkerized (managanese or zinc phosphate) or blued (matte or polished)?

Cheers!

Information

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[Lee Enfield]

C3 should be phosphated and painted ala British practice.

The reason for the confusion is that there were multiple barrel lengths and twists available.

C3/M82 should be 26" 1/12", or 26" 1/14" (depending on which CFTO you read)..."the heaviest contour available"

C3A1 could be 26", 24", 22" and 1/12" or 1/10" the standard should be 24" or 26" 1/10 (or 1/12 depending on which CFTO you read)...

consider it totally F'd...

[Bladerunner]

Thanks for the quick response. I'm going to go with a 26" 1:10 barrel then. With respect to the barrel contour, is the contour in the attached pic close enough?

Cheers.

[Lee Enfield]

Thanks for the quick response. I'm going to go with a 26" 1:10 barrel then. With respect to the barrel contour, is the contour in the attached pic close enough?

Cheers.

https://www.milsurps.com/vbpgimage.p...7&d=1474678074

The c3a1 barrel I measured was. 955" at the torque shoulder tapering to. 900"

[Bladerunner]

Thanks. That's a pretty insignificant taper over 26".

[Lee Enfield]

Thanks. That's a pretty insignificant taper over 26".

Interestingly I've been told that one c3a1 barrel measured recently was swamped, ie) tapered to about the mid section, and then reverse tapered to the muzzle.

[Brian Dick]

The original C3 barrel length was 26". The finish was black oxide. The much more durable phosphate, (Parkerized), and baked paint finish were standard on the later C3A1. Bill Smallwood said that there were many with a mix of polish and matte blue as Parker-Hale was using all manner of parts they had on hand to do the builds.

[Bladerunner]

I doubt the "swamped barrel" was intentional. It was probably due to machining issues. It is hard to eliminate chatter when contouring a long barrel between centres. You tend to get a lot of chatter at the mid point with the least support. One way to address this is to only chuck-up half the barrel, contour it, then turn it around and do the other half. The apparent "swamped" measurement may in fact be just a taper mismatch.

---------- Post added at 07:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 PM ----------

Here are some pics of recent purchases in my quest to build a C3/M82 clone.

The donor action is from a PH 1100 in .308. I also purchased two stocks that appear to be almost new. Why buy one when you can buy two, right?

I haven't received anything yet, so I'll start a new "build" thread once everything is in hand and ready to go.

I'm also going to turn a 27" button rifled 30 cal. 1:10 blank into a reasonable facsimile of a 26" M82 barrel.

[Bladerunner]

Does anyone know if the PH 1100 and 1200 Santa Barbara receivers retained the standard M98 action screw thread (1/4-22) or did they change to 1/4-28?

On Numrich and they have action screw sling swivels with both thread sizes.

Also, I'm planning on making target rails. Any idea what size the holes/threads were? I've ordered hand stops, so I may have to wait and measure the thread.

Thanks.

[Rwsgunsmithing]

The picture of the rail looks familiar.

I can say that the rail is 1/4x28. I'll have to check tomorrow if the action is the same.