South African No 1 Mk 3 barrels?

[harry mac]

There must be SA barrels from more than one source then. Many years ago Charnwood imported a load of them, all wax dipped, all with rear sight bases & all brand new (NOS) SA 1950's manufacture. When Charnwood ceased trading most or possibly even all of the barrels were bought by Terry Abrams. I managed to persuade Terry to let me have a few. I think he still has some, although last I heard he didn't have many left & so was reluctant to part with any more.

I'm a lucky lad, I managed to get Terry to rebarrel my MkIII* with one of those earlier in the year. Beautiful, shiny bore and very nicely blued on the outside. Terry told me they were barrels removed from brand new rifles when the SA Gov't disposed of their stocks of SMLE's.

[RobD]

yep, they are extremely good, not stripped off rifles but unfired, and not expensive in the UK - if you know the right gunsmith!

[Roger Payne]

Yes, the few I have left I shall be hanging on to.....

[Daan Kemp]

AFAIK, all the LE stuff in the SADF was sold off in the middle nineties - rifles and ammunition. From about 1984 we could buy a firearm and ammunition from stock, which were all LE starting with the oldest first. The new government discovered this "horrors - we arming the population", etc, etc and stopped it immediately! Most of the later purchasers were black soldiers IIRC. Barrels and actions weren't sold separately at all.

There is no way they would have removed barrels from the rifles before selling them all, why strip rifles if you are selling already. Such multitude of actions ex SA military doesn't seem to have appeared in any case. These barrels would really have been spares for replacing worn ones.

[Strangely Brown]

A dealer I know has imported some SMLE's in the last few weeks from South Africa. Having had and sold 5 of them over the years I bought yet another to compete in the NRA Armistice match with.
The butt disk is stamped S.A.P. (South African Police) and the receiver is nicely marked with a GR cypher and Enfield 1918.
A friend also purchased one from the same source which is a commercial B.S.A. & Co.

[Roger Payne]

I may well be wrong but I think that all of the barrels I bought from Terry A were/are brand new.

[bigduke6]

Most are Rog but they are take off barrels form new stock, hence the sight block etc. Some bare the marks of the barrel wrench or vice. Terry did indeed have a truck load.

[chosenman]

Terry Abrams put one of his 1950s barrels on one of mine a couple of years ago.

[birdhound]

I have had a lot of these, over 100. None have shown any evidence of being previously fitted to a rifle. The muzzles are not even crowned. Some have been blued, some have what appears to be a suncorite finish. The inner band screw thread is certainly different. It is my belief that they are unused and unfitted.

[Garandy]

Thanks for all the info. Seems there was a little more to this than I expected.