I am up to the RSAF Enfield's Envoy chapter and finally looked at my example, which gave me a surprise. I hope a few of you with more experience might have an answer or an idea.
After removing the handguard I expected to see a '69 or '70 dated BB306 or CR1470 Enfield type barrel, but I did not. It does not have the nock/knox form with the only mark being a fancy RSAF stamp and a sold-out-of-service mark.
The barrel markings suggest it is the original barrel fitted to the rifle which was made or fitted at a RSAF. Is it a trials barrel that did not make the cut and was fitted on a commercial rifle just to use it? Any other ideas?
I would suspect the answer lies in the "Regulated by Fulton" stamp: it's been rebarreled with a later barrel. They were available as unthreaded and unchambered blanks without the usual Nock's form for those who wanted to fit them to other actions.
I have an ENVOY with one fitted and I had it done. In retrospect I wish I'd had it fitted to a Ross instead and if anyone has such a barrel as sold, I'm interested!
That's some pretty ugly hacking done inside the forend; previous bedding dug out to accomodate the larger profile of that barrel?
Don't recall ever seeing that stamp, but will have a look at mine.
The same sort of barrel here: ht tps://www.highwoodclassicarms.co.uk/Firerms%20For%20Sale/0153.htm
Last edited by Surpmil; 11-10-2024 at 11:57 AM.
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
Many thanks for this! The lack of the nock form and the sales mark really threw me off. It being a generic barrel makes perfect sense but I think it was installed in Canada years later. Back in '99 I asked Fulton's about it and it was in a batch of 12 rifles sent from RSAF Enfield in April 1971 to Fulton's and then sent to the Canadian Rifle Team in July. In the lot of 12 it was the low s/n, E148 with E511 being the highest showing they just grabbed any rifle to ship.
Yes, the fore-end and handguard have been hacked horribly way past any chance of repair. I was fortunate enough to get another fore-end off another Envoy but as it is matching I have never bothered fitting it, I also got the butt stock but the handguard was lost, so I am still looking for an example!
And looking again at the wear on the receiver Lance, it's clear the rifle has had plenty of use, probably before that barrel went on and hence the desire to rebarrel it.
What was the expected lifespan of those barrels Peter? I know they were highly regarded here and known to be long-lived.
Lance, does the rear face of the barrel sit tightly against the front face of the receiver/body; that is at the bottom of the barrel threads?
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
Hi Lance. Interesting rifle. I've come across a few of these barrels over the years. At least some of them, as well as having no Knox, did not have the extractor slot milled, rather the rear face of the barrel was partly machined back into a reverse cone so as to give extractor clearance no matter where on the clock face it breeched up. It may be difficult to tell if yours is like this, but you may be able to get an idea by carefully inspecting the extractor 'slot'. IIRC there were a number of faux L42's about around thirty years ago that were assembled with these barrels........
It appears that this rifle was the village bicycle. The barrel is tight against the body, with no sign of a gap or shims.
By that I meant with the bolt open and looking into the mouth of the chamber, is there the usual gap between the rear face of the barrel and the corresponding face of the receiver, or are they tight against each other?
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
Expertise it ain't, more bits 'n bobs of info picked up along the way. This is what I was referring to, but I think you have a conventional fitting there, although part of the gap appears to have been filled with the same bedding material as in the forend(?)
(Rifle was restocked as a single loader.)
Last edited by Surpmil; 11-13-2024 at 11:30 AM.
Reason: More
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
PM
Originally Posted by Lance
This is what I was referring to, but I think you have a conventional fitting there, although part of the gap appears to have been filled with the same bedding material as in the forend(?)