OT, but related, sort-of. Omark 44

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Just scored a couple of barrels for the Omark 44. Old-style, integral locking lugs and all.

Both came out of waxed paper wrappers and appear to unused.Interestingly, the Lithgow-made, hammer-forged Black Mountain tube is about an inch shorter than the "Sportco / Omark one

Does anyone have any record of the twist rates and how, if at all, that might be marked on the barrel.

I know early barrels were 1:14 inch, RH, but that changed to 1:12" at some time.

A couple of "revival projects" await. One of these is intended for for FTR style and thus may end up being fed longer, "VLD" style bullets which may not like a 1:14" twist, even from a 27" barrel.

Any thoughts?

[Surpmil]

None, except I know where there's maybe 25 Sportco barrels sitting in what state I don't know. With the beefy breech ends I have wondered if they could be turned down for use elsewhere.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Here in the Penal Colonies, it was long common practice to "recycle" these barrels.

A "full-bore shooter would hava run of "bad" shoot and get the rifle re-barreled. This could happen at a low round-count.

The field shooters would pounce on the "rejects and set to work.

Lop off the "locking lug section and a few inches at the muzzle. If the breech end was trimmed to the point the chamber was "abbreviated, no problem, in fact, the opposite.reaming the chamber further into the rifling cleared out any throat reosion. Lopping the mizzle eliminated any wash-out of the crown. Profile and thread to suit. Reducing the weight by re-profiling will take a fair bit of time and some machining skills. But, who wants to carry excess baggage up and down hills all day, The more "creative" types might prefer to shave barrel weight by deeply fluting the barrel. This will retain the nominal "outside diameter of the donor barrel, but shed a reasonable percentage of general mass.. Helical fluting for the machine masters? Not a new idea, at all. The first generation of AR-10 ("Sudanese Contract") had deeply fluted barrels under those hand-guards.More surface area for better cooling, and a bit less weight to be carted around.

In a bush rifle, where it is rare to see, let alone shoot game at more than 300 yards, a 22 inch barrel delivering a 150gn bullet at 2700 FPS will "do the job.

Trying to squeeze a 155gn bullet out of a .308 case such that it is still supersonic at 1000 yds, is VERY harsh on the brass and the action.There is simply not enough case volume to do it sensibly. If tou just must achieve that goal, you could always go with the wildcat .30-.284, which has about the same case capacity as a .30-06 but conveniently has a "standard sized, rebated rim.

How much money do you want to spend, tinkering?

If you are sitting on a stash of NIB Omark barrels, I suspect they would be sought by serious Omark owners. Spare bolt heads for headspacing would be a bonus.