Why does no one want to work on my rifle?

[Humpy70]

Don't know about the rest of the world but as I understand it there are no new No 1 or No 4 barrels to be had in the states and the ones that are take offs are graduates of the Univ of Cordite which really does a number on them. I have a borescope and have looked at such and they will make you sick to see what you are trying to get to shoot.

I have given up on trying to find good barrels and last two 303s I barreled up I turned down commercial blanks and fitted them and did not have to worry about timing marks, bolt heads etc.
Another consideration is how is your ammo supply of 303 milspec ammo? Again in the states such ammo I believe is not to be available in quantity as was the Greek stuff of ten years ago and I suspect those days are gone forever of cheap 303 surplus. In the same catagory is 30.06 LC Match and 7.62 LC Match ammo.

When the last 30.06 Match was released from DCM (now CMP) back in early 80s I knew it was the last ship in and they were down to War Reserves which will not be touched except as a "they are coming down your drive way" total war situation. If the decision is ever made to sell or destroy the 1903A4s still in depot storage we may see it then but don't hold your breath.

A lathe also comes in handy for making additional barrel adaptors for different size barrels. For instance Mod 70 Win is a certain size and Rem 700s are another size and then there are others to contend with like 98 Mauser contours etc.

Another thing is most old gunsmiths I know are shall we say kindly not the easiest people to get along with and I attribute this to seeing hundreds of guys come in over the years and tell them how to do their jobs when they don't have a clue of what is involved. In short they can tell you all about doing it but they can't do it themselves. With a little internet reading it is easy to sound knowledgeable on various subjects but if you can't do it you will not win friends and influence those who can. Same thing happens to mechanics. Thusly for sanity sake you need to learn and be able to do what needs to be done to keep your toys going.

I have about 300 empty cases and I am doing all I can to make sure they last me the rest of my days and if I work it right I figure they will last me ten to fifteen years as I generally try and put in custom chambers of minimum dimensions so the brass doesn't get overworked. It costs more to get custom reamers but the cost of a custom reamer I figure is offset by the money you save in buying brass which as we all know is out the roof these days and will be for many years to come.

Obviously this destroys collectors value of a No 4 but you need to make the decision of whether you want a wall hanger that is correct and won't shoot or one you can shoot with good accuracy. Personally I go for shooters and try to enhance their accuracy to give small groups at much longer ranges.

You can sign up for classes in your local technical education school that will teach you how to operate a lathe and a mill in a few months of evening classes. Such training will come in handy very often the rest of your life and allow you to fabricate things for other toys as well.
For instance I got a used backhoe/frontend loader two years ago. It had a broken clutch lever.
I pulled it off and priced a new one which was like $157.00 and was of aluminum as was the original and prone to breakage so I made a new one from odd pieces of scrap steel and it is still doing fine.

Fitting your own barrels is possible. The NRA Gunsmithing guide is one source with lots of pictures. You need to get the best lathe you can which will give you 12 swing and 36" between centers with a hole through headstock of about 1 1/4" or larger. I have seen used Clausings on ebay for around 2000.00. I have a Clausing 5914 which is a good lathe for barrel work and see these on ebay fairly often. You may have to get a phase converter to run it on 240 but not a problem, works fine.

[jmoore]

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Does this look like it would do the job?

It works unless the barrel is really stuck. However, "stuck" is pretty common w/ No.4 actions. Then it won't support the action well enough! Don't ask me how I know...

SMLEs don't put up near the fight! I don't know why, but I've only had a couple of SMLEs that were beyond "reasonable use of force".

[tbonesmith]

Take the relief cut and they're a walk in the park.

[jmoore]

Take the relief cut and they're a walk in the park.

That's fine IF it's not BARREL that you are trying to rescue! Yah, I've "relief cut" more than one receiver, but it makes me sad to do it!

[tbonesmith]

Yeah. gotcha.
As I mentioned though, my mate has that Brownells wrench and has pulled a number of barrels with no major problems, or relief cuts. And mine does the job too, and that's similar. I guess you have to get to know the equipment and work out how to optimize it for your particular situation