Enfield Tanker project NOW 95% done
- Thread starter woodchopper
- Start date
- Location
- WMU248 near Edmonton
well I forgot a little detail, I went with another enfield in .303 that was buggered. So the 308 is still sitting on the project pile, I got impatient and just wanted to cut some wood without all the rebarreling and mucking about. I guess the 308 wil be another project
Oh and I went looking for Boiled linseed oil, LeeValley does not have it any more
But Home Depot does
- Location
- WMU248 near Edmonton
And another update.
Well I decided to make the metal caps for the forestock... Well lets just say If I was going to set up to do a few of these I would make a jig.
3/4" round rod and 1" round rod worked but there was a lot of fitting and hammering, and more fitting and hammering and squeezing in the vise. Then a bit of belt sander to finish up the exterior. So 4 beers later I had someting that looked reasonable and I cold blued it.
Then I thought I was done I thought I should check to see if I would be able to get a normal front barel band over my work. Well you guessed it no way. So back to trimming the stock a bit more to match the original profile.
So back to fitting and hammering for a while then another turn on the belt sander.
Then assembly and a trip to the range I had 40 rounds of really crappy mixed ammo some old some handloads etc... that I needed to dispose of so what a better test for a new rifle.
I ended up with several very flattened primers from over preasure, 3 blown primers, 4 case seperations and several others that showed sign of wanting to seperate. The case seperations I thought were going to cause a problem but the chamber in this rifle is excellent, and all it took to remove the top part of the case was to tap the but on the ground and it fell out.
But I had a stock problem, my splice worked loose so its getting reglued with a stronger glue. And I need to find a few more metal bits as I seem to have run out of foresite protectors and sling swivels.
Picts to follow
Well I decided to make the metal caps for the forestock... Well lets just say If I was going to set up to do a few of these I would make a jig.
3/4" round rod and 1" round rod worked but there was a lot of fitting and hammering, and more fitting and hammering and squeezing in the vise. Then a bit of belt sander to finish up the exterior. So 4 beers later I had someting that looked reasonable and I cold blued it.
Then I thought I was done I thought I should check to see if I would be able to get a normal front barel band over my work. Well you guessed it no way. So back to trimming the stock a bit more to match the original profile.
So back to fitting and hammering for a while then another turn on the belt sander.
Then assembly and a trip to the range
I had 40 rounds of really crappy mixed ammo some old some handloads etc... that I needed to dispose of so what a better test for a new rifle.I ended up with several very flattened primers from over preasure, 3 blown primers, 4 case seperations and several others that showed sign of wanting to seperate. The case seperations I thought were going to cause a problem but the chamber in this rifle is excellent, and all it took to remove the top part of the case was to tap the but on the ground and it fell out.
But I had a stock problem, my splice worked loose so its getting reglued with a stronger glue. And I need to find a few more metal bits as I seem to have run out of foresite protectors and sling swivels.
Picts to follow
Ishapore all-thread?
- Location
- WMU248 near Edmonton
here are the metal endcaps just before the second round of beltsandering, they have been fitted and hammered into the correct profile. It took about 4 hours total time to make them look like this.
I shoud mention the wood has about 8 coats of BLO rubbed in with a cotton rag
then a little work to cut the hole out of the to guard and some cold blue. You might also notice that the ones I made are slightly shorter then the standard caps. Well thats because I eas eyeballing the wood when I did the cuts and thought to myself.... self... lets make this a little shorter and trim it to the proper lenght after... well I forgot to trim it but its my project and I can do what I want. The caps are at the proportional lenght to the total lenght
I still have to decide how I'm going to pin/rivit them to the wood, I'll need some pins to keep the forward barrel band in place.
And finally here it is next to a normal enfield and an SKS
the barrel is 21 1/2" on my shortered enfield about 3 1/4" shorter then the standard enfield
Now I think I need to name it, and tanker is not my first choice.
In the days before the ShtLE (No1 enfield) there were the long infantry rifles and carbines for the calvary, and in the metford rifles there were artillary and engineer carbine and a sergants carbine.
BSA before WW1 made carbines "for officers use" and "trade pattern" with 19" barrels. These wer still the days when officers were required to buy all their own kit.
So I think this will be my Enfield No4 officers pattern carbine
Now to get some smaller metal stamps
and I'm getting low on spare parts
I shoud mention the wood has about 8 coats of BLO rubbed in with a cotton rag
then a little work to cut the hole out of the to guard and some cold blue. You might also notice that the ones I made are slightly shorter then the standard caps. Well thats because I eas eyeballing the wood when I did the cuts and thought to myself.... self... lets make this a little shorter and trim it to the proper lenght after... well I forgot to trim it
but its my project and I can do what I want. The caps are at the proportional lenght to the total lenght I still have to decide how I'm going to pin/rivit them to the wood, I'll need some pins to keep the forward barrel band in place.
And finally here it is next to a normal enfield and an SKS
the barrel is 21 1/2" on my shortered enfield about 3 1/4" shorter then the standard enfield
Now I think I need to name it, and tanker is not my first choice.
In the days before the ShtLE (No1 enfield) there were the long infantry rifles and carbines for the calvary, and in the metford rifles there were artillary and engineer carbine and a sergants carbine.
BSA before WW1 made carbines "for officers use" and "trade pattern" with 19" barrels. These wer still the days when officers were required to buy all their own kit.
So I think this will be my Enfield No4 officers pattern carbine
Now to get some smaller metal stamps
and I'm getting low on spare parts
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- Location
- Vancouver Island BC
How about name it Winston,cuz it's short and reliable and will be there in your hour of need.
I have to agree! Especially since there won't be too many signs of Bubba's work. This is high end stuff my friends. Good work!!!
Re. the pins that hold the caps - I had to replace a missing one once. It was a brass pin at the back of the No4 stock. I took a brass welding rod that I had around for an arc welder, it had the same diametre than the pin. I cut it just a bit longer than needed, and with ablunt-tip punch and my anvil, I was able to install the pin. With a dremel I was able to make the punched ends look a bit more like what they were supposed to.
Not sure if that could work for the caps though.
Lou
Huh? No, these rods would not be visible on the outside. He used a piece of wood dowel to glue the splice on, I'm suggesting he epoxy in two threaded rods on either side of the splice area parallel to his wood splice, inside the butting joint. You drill holes in the face of both pieces, epoxy the rods into one half, let cure, than put it together with more epoxy in the other holes.
I fail to see what this has to do with Ishapore?
Just use some brad nails fabricated into pins. The trick is drilling the holes square. I would clamp the forestock to a precision angle plate (Busy Bee sells them for around $5) so that the flat of the inletting is 90 degrees to the ground and then clamp that assembly onto your drill press or mill, then drill the holes for the pins.
Okay, that sounds like a good idea to strengthen it. I thought you meant visible threaded rod with nuts on the outside, obviously not.
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Lee Enfield
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Republic of Alberta
Now I think I need to name it, and tanker is not my first choice.
In the days before the ShtLE (No1 enfield) there were the long infantry rifles and carbines for the calvary, and in the metford rifles there were artillary and engineer carbine and a sergants carbine.
BSA before WW1 made carbines "for officers use" and "trade pattern" with 19" barrels. These wer still the days when officers were required to buy all their own kit.
So I think this will be my Enfield No4 officers pattern carbine
QUOTE]
"Tundra Carbine" is the proper nominclature.
Quote: "Where does one find a .308 barrel for LE? I am looking to get a bubba & doing something similar."
It is intersting how we find a barrel or a clunker and then start think of what kind of project we could make out of it.
I have a #4 with a badly pitted barrel, but other wise good, except for a miss-matched bolt.
I have a drawer full of various heavy 308 barrels off target rifles and such. One of them is a heavy 308 Win barrel off a Winchester M70 that got blown up with a case of pistol powder.
I have thousands of 308 bullets laying around, but few 312 bullets, so I used the 308 barrel to make my own tanker. I left the barrel heavy to within an inch of the tip of the stock. The last five inches are turned down to Lee Enfield diameter, complete with new bayonet lugs.
The chamber was cut with a 303 Brit profile, with a tighter neck since it shoots 308 bullets. I was hoping this would prevent loading real 303 ammo, but the neck is not quite tight enough to do that.
By using the 303 Brit case, the magazine, extractor and ejector all work without modification.
Here is a picture of my rifle and then a picture of what it looks like under the wood, and then a side by side with a real #4. The barrel is about 0.700" as it steps down.
First shooting test was inconclusive. Hoping for a better test real soon.
It is intersting how we find a barrel or a clunker and then start think of what kind of project we could make out of it.
I have a #4 with a badly pitted barrel, but other wise good, except for a miss-matched bolt.
I have a drawer full of various heavy 308 barrels off target rifles and such. One of them is a heavy 308 Win barrel off a Winchester M70 that got blown up with a case of pistol powder.
I have thousands of 308 bullets laying around, but few 312 bullets, so I used the 308 barrel to make my own tanker. I left the barrel heavy to within an inch of the tip of the stock. The last five inches are turned down to Lee Enfield diameter, complete with new bayonet lugs.
The chamber was cut with a 303 Brit profile, with a tighter neck since it shoots 308 bullets. I was hoping this would prevent loading real 303 ammo, but the neck is not quite tight enough to do that.
By using the 303 Brit case, the magazine, extractor and ejector all work without modification.
Here is a picture of my rifle and then a picture of what it looks like under the wood, and then a side by side with a real #4. The barrel is about 0.700" as it steps down.
First shooting test was inconclusive. Hoping for a better test real soon.
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