No1Mk3 SMLE full restoration - from scratch

[CINDERS]

tbonesmith may have some he advertises on used guns so give him a whirl, Owen Guns as well may have one laying around the ones on fleabay are way to dear and may be ratsh*t so best to use a dealer who has the knowledge.

What happened to the safety catch!

[henry r]

if i hadn't seen it i would be struggling to believe it. nice work.

where abouts in Australia are you? if you are out in the country, try to find a gunsmith that deals with the local police's hand in's and confiscations. one of the local gunsmiths that i talk to (pester) a fair bit, ends up with the ex police old firearms to dispose of, as he feels suitable, once all the proper paperwork etc has been finalized. from what he has said he has a stash of lee enfield bits left over from destroying the ones that aren't worth keeping/selling. i have heard that another in a different town has the remains of several dozen smle's from the same source. (yes i will be chasing that lead up).

that is where i would start my hunt.

[Vigilant]

Thanks

If he happens to have a good condition bolt ill be happy to pay for postage as well or ill chase up what cinders has said. I also live in Sydney.

The safety is currently fitted don't worry, i just had to spend 15mins getting it in the right position

[Vigilant]

So after ringing up five different places I managed to find someone who sells them, thanks to those who PMed me!

Looks like a good condition bolt is $150 from this supplier, does this sound like a reasonable price?

Thanks for the help gents, last piece is fitting into place

[CINDERS]

Supply - Demand but as we all know stuff that is good is drying up and those that have it can be rather assertive of the prices they wish brand new never fitted complete with brand new bolt head and accouterments its getting up there I have seen them as low as $50/AU but used of course, if you think its a good deal from a reputable dealer then go ahead.

Our laws and those of other places have certainly slowed bits and bobs from o/seas to a dead stop.........

[mrclark303]

What a great project, really well done, another of the breed back from the grave!

Please do keep us posted, get a gunsmith to headspace the new bolt and carefully check the rifle is serviceable before shooting, its a skilled job and the bolt head will without dought require spacing adjustment, or replacing if its beyond tolerance.

[Vigilant]

Hey guys, bit of an update, life has been busy so I haven't replied

Bolt is head spaced and had a service check done by the gun smith so that was all good.

I had taken it to the range last week, the magazine and action worked perfectly, as instructed by the range officer we loaded a single round to see how it will fire. The bolt took the round and it chambered like a glove, fired the first round successfully then this is where I fell short from the finish line! devastated but im not giving up.

When I tried to retract the bolt the casing wouldn't budge, it took three of us 15mins to dislodge the casing and retract the bolt, we ended up putting a cleaning rod down the barrel and ramming it out. It turns out the barrel is pitted.

Fresh rounds glide in and out easily, however once fired, I can only assume as the casing expands, its catching on the pitting. After analising the expended casing, although the whole case has signs of pitting its only the top 3 - 5mm where the primer is where the round gets stuck quite nicely. I was told by my gun store I could use some gun oil and a brush for one or two hours to losen that part of the barrel.

My question is, I use g96 spray oil, will this be enough and what sort of brush or setup should I use? doesn't the brush need to be tougher steel than the barrel so it can work?

Also im aware there are quite small tolerances in the barrel, so how much is too much to take off?

Ill post a pic a bit later

[browningautorifle]

Cleaning out the pits won't remove the pits. They're in there and will continue to catch and hold your brass. You can use a good bore brush to remove rust...but it still takes time. We have threads here talking about this condition.

[Vigilant]

Thanks mate, just took a look and found some people saying how they did it.

Below are a couple of pictures, even though the pitting is on one side should i still wear away the whole barrel to a void an oval shape or just work at where the pitting is?


http://i.imgur.com/Agb5MAa.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EJ63ff3.jpg

[CINDERS]

I had that problem with a MK III according to my armorer mate (Dec) an insect had got down there karked it the acids ate a nice divet in the chamber hence it fire formed into the divet bingo stuck round. It was too deep to remove hence new barrel fitted then a shmuck broke into our home ransacked the place and stole it and my P H 22/250, in the days when you did not need a safe. (They did not get the bolts they were separately hidden)
So you can try and get them out but be wary of making the chamber so oversized you end up with head separations I suggest you have a talk to tbonesmith if he has a good 2nd hand barrel or a fit a new Armalon. From my angle looking at those pit marks I would go to another barrel cut your losses.
It gets to the stage where you go in to deep and will never re-coup your inputed $'s if your keeping it for good then fit a newby barrel and get into it as I am sure you have a soft spot for it. See Att for what I did to a couple of barrels that were shot out. The one I cut with a wafer disc is pretty rough but I like it.
Good luck.