Accurizing, for Ed and others

[RJW NZ]

Hi,
I've got my little H barrel project under way and have a Q before I really make undo-able changes.
The no4 enfields have a floating barrel with a 2 inch bed at the tip that holds a few pounds of pressure, we all know this one.
I now have a no8 .22, which has the heaviest barrel I ever saw on a .22 rifle, and it too is floated ie clear from the receiver forward, but also has a bed area at the tip of the forend. This barrel is so heavy that a few pounds at the tip should make hardly any difference to it at all, but apparently it does.

So the Q is, for best performance should H barrels be fully floated with no contact at all?
Or, is there any feed back on bedding the tip 2 inches like a no4 for decreased harmonics etc?

It all makes me wonder as I've seen H barrels fully and carefully floated, yet at the tip a no1mk3 nosecap is carefully bored out and a rubber insert made that the barrel has definite contact into. It would seem to me that this somewhat negates the fully floated barrel?

Thoughts appreciated, and no, I'm afraid I haven't found my copy of Sweetes book ...yet
thanks gents

Information

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[RJW NZ]

ps, the no8 .22 barrel is just over 3/4 inch in diameter at the tip! would that my no1 mk3 had that when they were made.

[Alan de Enfield]

RJWT32

Drop me an email / PM as I have the User handbook No8 Mk1 dated 1961 in Pdf form (I think it came from Ed Horton but I cannot remember)

"Stocking Up : Test for bearings on body and barrel. Hold the barrel and press the fore-end away from the barrel. This should require a pressure of 3 to 5 lbs. and when the pressure is removed the stock fore-end should return to its seating on the barrel"

Hope it helps

[Patrick Chadwick]

None at all. My No. 8 has a completely free-floating barrel. Checked by sliding a postcard right round the barrel and up and down the shaft.

Shot by a national-competition-grade small-bore expert: 1 ragged 7 mm hole at 50 meters. About 1 MOA at 100 meters. That's better than most service rifles at that distance. And according to the expert, better than some of the target rifles and lightly-loaded ammo tuned for best performance at 50 meters, but ballistically dead at 100.

If you can beat that, then please let's hear how you did it. Any kind of fore-end to barrel contact introduces another variable that is affected by temperature, humidity, sling tension etc etc. According to the books, a No. 4 barrel is actually lighter than a No. 8 barrel. It is much more whippy and can therefore profit from the damping provided by controlled fore-end pressure - if, and only if, you get it dead right.

My No. 4 Mk2 must have been set up personally by Peter Laidler or someone of equal expertise, and I have not dared to remove the wood for inspection, as this would be a bad case of digging up the plant to see how the roots are growing, but the other No. 4 competition shooters around here have typically hacked out everything to have a free-floating barrel and peace of mind.

So, for fore-end pressure: No. 4 yes, No. 8 no, and for all rifles: the worst is a "maybe" contact. Like setting bullets close to the lands: either definitely on or definitely off.

Patrick

[Patrick Chadwick]

The comparison between No. 4 and No 8 is incorrect, for the very simple reason that the No. 8 has a much shorter fore-end, so "bedding 2 inches back from the tip" is no the same at all. A better comparison would be between a No. 8 and the Enforcer/Envoy models. How were they set tup?

Patrick

[S-A-M3]

I have several H barrelled No1s , In my opinion they workthe best if set up like a No4 with uplift pressure at the muzzle, boring out the nosecap is a waste of time, No1 actions flex more than a No4 and using the woodwork as a shock absorber is really important to get them to shoot, this is a very short answer to the complicated bedding system that works on No1s

[RJW NZ]

Thank you SAM3, thats everything I wanted to know, I'm glad to hear my wild ideas have worked in practice for others...