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Adapting a vickers barrel to a SMLE
Gents,
How heavy is a Vickers barrel, diameter wise relative to a SMLE barrel? I ask as I was thinking of trying to built a heavy barrel match rifle on a 1916 SMLE, and as the heavy BSA target barrels do not exist, was looking for a suitable candidate barrel blank.
I now the Vickers barrel is 28 inches long, so there is sufficient length to cut off the end and re-chamber it, but I cannot find anyplace the diameter of the barrel to compare it to the SMLE barrel.
thanks to any one who might know the answer.
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05-10-2015 01:09 PM
# ADS
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Advisory Panel
1.19" in front of the block at the rear and .63 at the muzzle. It might work. Maybe Peter will chime in with some thoughts?
If you're patient, Criterion are going to build SMLE barrels once their No.4 barrels are on line and could probably make heavy's too.
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It's a doddle to machine a Vickers barrel downh and plenty of meat to cut the breeching up thread. It used to be done to rebarrel Long Toms as I understand it
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Thank You to Peter Laidler For This Useful Post:
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And there you are Frederick!
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Legacy Member
from my experience Vickers barrels and P14 barrels are extremely hard and dont machine well.
once you get through the initial hard surface there is random hard spots. These barrels were hand straightened by heating and bending after they were rifled. Some barrels were rifled then the bore straightened by heating and bending and some were fully profiled before straightening.
But they do make nice super heavy target rifle barrels
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If it was me Fred, I,d use a 7.62/.308 barrel and chamber for .303, so you could use any of the .30 pills, bit more to it than that but think you get the picture........personally I wouldn't use a 1916 SMLE body either but thats just me, as I tend to think of someone building a heavy barrel target rifle stoking their cases up to the point that the loading press is starting to give way while trying to seat a bullet.......
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I never found that with Vickers barrels Mr E and we were using them until a couple of years ago. Mind you I wasn't machining them. But I did give a few away (with recoil lugs cut off.....) to be machined down and never had any neg feedback. My boss in NZ
showed me how it was done using one. From that I did a No5 using an L4A4 barrel in 7.62mm and it's still going strong to this day. Mind you, chrome lined and all that!
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Why not find a Lithgow H barrel and just screw it in. Maddco in OZZ make H barrels for the Mk3. The furniture will need routing out, the Bayonet boss opening up or the barrel turned down to fit. Just open the cupboard pull out a new Long Lee Barrel shorten to required length refit front sight and screw in rout forend and fit. 
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I have a number of Lithgow H barreled Australian guns, it was along the line of building a 303 heavy barrel along the known Alex Martin regulation method. Here is the US I have never seen a real BSA heavy barrel. Vickers made one, for a time in the 1951 to 1956 time frame, at least I have seen ads for them in old match programs. It seems like using a Vickers MG barrel as a start is not a bad idea. My intention is to give the gunsmith a H barrel as a guide, for the base and the muzzle end, while leaving the middle at its service weight.
The .30 cal method does not appeal, as if I was trying to make the world best ex-military mid range bolt action target rifle I would likely buy a K31. But Enfields have that infinite more possibilities for re-learning the forgotten gunsmith skills.
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