Barrels

[Strangely Brown]

No one left in the UK with the equipment or motivation?

I believe Peter Sarony at Armalon will do them on request.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

"Original , NIB "standard" barrels are rarer than hen's teeth. There were some "in the grease (and original crate)". Ishapore No 1 Mk 3 barrels floating around twenty years ago; never bought one but they were, by all reports, quite good.

There are still a few Lithgow "H" barrels, in their original bags (early 1960's manufacture for rifle club types), lurking about. They pop up for increasingly silly money from time to time here in Oz.

There are several "catches" with making exact reproductions.

1. The original bore / groove spec is something out of the dark ages and was intended to work ONLY with open-based "ball" bullets, not slinky BTHP types.

Lithgow seem to have continued some sort of "lapping" process to the bitter end. Unfortunately, QC seems to have been a bit variable. Some of the NIB "H" barrels I have seen in the last few years show distinct "belling" of the lands at the muzzle; not a good look.

If you score a good one, the next problem is fitting a rear-sight bed. The "proper" way to make one fit the fatter barrel is to set it up in a jig and use the "special' tapered reamer to open out the big hole. Plan "B" is to set the base up on a fixture mounted on a lathe faceplate and run a die-grinder in at the appropriate taper. Or, you can go all "Bubba" and cut a slot along the thin "tube" part of the base and carefully tap it into place, opening up the slot as you go. A dash of the anaerobic adhesive of your choice and the subsequent careful drilling of a retaining pin hole etc, and away you go to find a box of front-sight blades to select one that works with your new set-up and your ammo.

Of course, the fore-end and hand-guards need to be "adjusted". Then there is the issue of the "Inner Band".

The ONLY way to set them up is as per the Oz HT snipers, which were not exactly in the class of an AI (and the optics were basically crap). but it CAN be done.

The simple reality is that IF you are using Mk 7 ball, the "factory-original" bedding works because its bedding regime was tweaked to work with that cartridge.

If somebody like Criterion were to make new barrels for the No 1, there are more considerations:

1. Th original tolerances for the groove diameter are, by modern standards, ludicrous. a barrel with a .304 bore and .319 nominal groove diameter will be "in spec". Open-based bullets being bashed up the behind by a jolt from the Cordite WILL "bump-up" to some extent. Modern closed-base BTHPs (SMKs, for example), NOT SO MUCH.

2. Original barrels were throated LONG to handle the older Mk 6 because there were billions of these rounds still in the systems LONG after the adoption of the Mk 7; thus lots of free-bore for more "modern" bullets.

Plan "C" is to skip past a lot of the above and set up a ".30-.303": Standard .30 / .308" 1:10" twist barrel, chambered "standard" but using a .229' (or as otherwise appropriate" pilot. The throat will end up being a few thou oversized, because the standard reamer is made for .312" bullets, but IT WORKS. I've been running one on a No 4 action for thirty years; works fine. It also means that if some bozo decides to whack a few Mk 7s through it, there will be on "untoward events".

These work in a ".30-.303": Hornady 30 Cal .308" 180 gr InterLock SP. Adjust seating depth to approximate Mk 7 OAL to assist feeding. Lee Factory Crimp also handy.

Next catch involves the relationship between the ammo and the magazine. If you have an un-butchered original mag, the lips will have been set to work with Mk 7 ammo, not some dubious stuff with bullets of a noticeably different profile, length or diameter. If you start bending the lips to accommodate something "odd", fairly soon, one or more will crack or break off completely.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Forgot one more detail:

The Breech thread on a No1 is NOT Whitworth, UNF or anything else "standard".

14 TPI; nothing too odd about that, BUT the thread form (profile) is pure Enfield Special.

It looks like a giant BA form but the included angle is Not 55 degrees or 60 degrees, but 49degrees 40 minutes

Other No 1 Barrel, Breech thread details.

Outside Diameter:- .9995"
Root Diameter:- .9024"
Effective Diameter:- .9574
TPI:- 14
Radius at Root:- .00804"
Radius at Crest:- .01411"

Final note:

No1 rifles and all their antecedents, breech up on the INNER breech ring, like Mauser 98's etc. are supposed to. No4 and 5 types breech up on the front outer face of the breech ring.

Just sayin'.

Time for another coffee!

[Bruce_in_Oz]

".229 pilot"????
.299" probably makes more sense.

Back to typing class for me!

[muffett.2008]

…….or you could just contact tbonesmith and get a new light or heavy No.1 barrel or a new No..4.

I'm sure he posts here but a google search or a search of OZ gun traders will bring him up.

[mrclark303]

I was too slow off the mark last week when a lovely looking Lithgow SMLE came up, not sure of the date, but clearly a post war refurb, coachwood stocked, hole cut foresight ears etc for £250 ... Catch, the barrel was shot out and it was advertised for blank firing film prop / reenactment.

I scrambled to buy her with a view to re barreling when I could, just a back burner winter project I thought....

It sold within hours and to add insult to injury, it was 10 bloody miles from me!

SMLE's are really going up in price in the UK now, they seem to be all at the £600 to 750 mark for a good shooting example.

Ishapore examples a bit cheaper, but still moving to the right.

[WillSarchet]

I believe Sarco still has some barrels available. I purchased three from them a couple years ago, in excellent shape, packed full of cosmoline and they have the sight bases already attached.

I bet Criterion would do a run if somebody ordered enough barrels to tool up

I asked them specifically about No1 barrels at SHOT 2020 and they said there are no plans to do them. Not sure what the minimum order would be but I'm sure it would not be small.

[GeeRam]

I believe Sarco still has some barrels available. I purchased three from them a couple years ago, in excellent shape, packed full of cosmoline and they have the sight bases already attached.

They sold out of them late last year IIRC.

---------- Post added at 07:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:22 PM ----------

SMLE's are really going up in price in the UK now, they seem to be all at the £600 to 750 mark for a good shooting example.

Can't recall seeing any with decent bore's for sale under £750-800 for a while now.

[Brian Dick]

Sarco has the RFI SMLE barrels available and they are excellent. Get them before they run out because they are selling pdq thanks to the load of Ethiopian rifles imported by Interordnance this year. I've done a half dozen so far and one No.4. All had sewer pipe grade bores.

[GeeRam]

Sarco has the RFI SMLE barrels available and they are excellent. Get them before they run out because they are selling pdq thanks to the load of Ethiopian rifles imported by Interordnance this year.

It says they are out of stock on their website though....?