anyone sleeve 303 chamber

[olskool]

i have a 303 jungle carbine with a some gouges in the chamber. is there anyone who can cut the chamber and sleeve the chamber back to 303?

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[browningautorifle]

I'm not sure that's a good idea. The pressures generated can push the sleeve back out...the gasses can get into the front end of the sleeve...or cause erosion...

[mmppres]

wouldn't it be better in long run to swap out receivers???.

[Vincent]

You probably don’t need a sleeve. The chamber is tapered. So I would try turning the shoulder down enough to set the barrel back one or two additional revolutions. Should be able to pick up the threads, cut extractor slot, re-chamber to the correct CHS, etc.

[browningautorifle]

swap out receivers

The chamber is in the barrel.

turning the shoulder down enough to set the barrel back

That will change the contour out front. The barrel won't fit correctly up front. Won't be too bad, just a bit unsightly. Just get a #4 barrel and make it into a #5 barrel.

[Peter Laidler]

I thought long and hard about this when I read it. On the plus side, we did exactly the same with our early heavy barrel L7/GPMG's with a stellite chamber and 4"(?) length of barrel ahead of it all pressed into the barrel. The riflingh between the chamber insert and the actual barrel didn't even mate-up. There were problems but nothing that would relate to a rifle.

What'd be the problem with the new chamber and leed being threaded for, say, 1/2" at the front end of the insert and similarly at the front end of the now bored out barrel chamber. Screw in place, lock and make good. No rifling to mate up (not that it is necessary of course.....), just screw in tight, lock and bobs your uncle. I'd say not a lot of work if done systematically, carefully and accurately.

I don't think that an insert per-se is a problem as we saw with the GPMG.

I have never done this except to lock in place a .22" LR chamber insert into a sub calibre SA80 during early trials to test the feasibility of certain rifles remaining .22LR. During that trial there was no question of gas leeching behind the insert. So feel free to shoot me down.

Could this be the answer to convert .303 Brens to 7.62x54R?

[browningautorifle]

screw in tight

That might work, but I don't think that's what's planned. I suspect they were thinking of pressing in a blank and chambering. Like a piece of barrel stock... I did it with an MP5 many years ago but we welded it from the sides. That's different though.

[Vincent]

Could this be the answer to convert .303 Brens to 7.62x54R?

It has been done successfully.

[Peter Laidler]

How? It is a long way for a press fit or were they threaded?

In the GPMG the problem wasn't loosse inserts or gas bleed-off but errosion that took place. Normally the gas wouild wash away the first 2 or 3" of the leed - which stayed intact on the stellite lined barrels. But it just repeated the problem ahead of the stellite liner! It did give a longer barrel life but as costs were tumbling due to the large scale deployment of GPMG's over the Vickers the stellite lined idea came to an end. I still used to see ex service stellite lined barrels being used/converted to blank firing barrels until I retired a couple of years ago

[ActionYobbo]

please post some pictures of the chamber and a fired case.

sleeving a chamber is alot of work. it would be far easier to make another barrel from a No4 barrel. but if the damage is not bad enough to cause case splits the chamber can have the damage polished out. This will make the chamber oversized and in most cases a bit out of round (like most 303 chambers ) Another option is to set the barrel back1 turn then recut the chamber.

If you feel you really must sleeve the chamber I would still advise against it because there is just not enough meat in the shoulder area on the No5 barrel with those lightening cuts (or a standard weight smle barrel). I was going to add a whole lot of measurements and other information but I think at this point its best not to do that and just say its not a safe or practical venture to sleeve a 303 No5 barrel