With invaluable thanks to tiriaq and others, I was able to secure two examples of barrels from #4 Mk. 1 rifles and have submitted them to Krieger.
The Chief Barrelsmith, Helmut, is very excited about the project and has determined that they will be able to produce these barrels. He has secured an example of the rifle and they will be producing a couple of prototypes for tesng and evaluation.
After discussion with Krieger, and based on the poll to which you guys responed, the barrels will be Chromoly Steel, they will be true .303 (.311) and they will retain the ability to fix a bayonet.
These will not be a drop-in barrel per-se. they will be fully contoured and threaded, and they will be short chambered, but will have some extra material at the shoulder in order to allow you to peoperly time and headspace the barrel to your individual receiver. Installation will require you to have the gunsmith finish the chamber and bring it into proper indexing. The other feature that will be subject to optional modification is the bayonet lug system. The barrels WILL have the lugs, but if you want to actually fix a bayonet, some material will need to be removed ino order to finish the lugs to a functional degree. Krieger CAN do this, and I suspect that we may be able to make a fully functional bayonet lug from the factory as an option. I just thought people would be more interested in minimizing costs. (Post your comments here is you have any thoughts on this)
In the interest of keeping complexity and costs down, these will be a 4-groove and they will have a contemporary right-hand thread. These are not simply "replacement" barrels, these are true Match grade barrels .I expect that with these barrels attached, these rifles will be incredible shooters.
As to time-lines, well Krieger is swamped with orders right now, and the prototype process will be done over the summer. I expect we will have pricing and such at the end of summer and we can take orders.
Cheers!
ian
The Chief Barrelsmith, Helmut, is very excited about the project and has determined that they will be able to produce these barrels. He has secured an example of the rifle and they will be producing a couple of prototypes for tesng and evaluation.
After discussion with Krieger, and based on the poll to which you guys responed, the barrels will be Chromoly Steel, they will be true .303 (.311) and they will retain the ability to fix a bayonet.
These will not be a drop-in barrel per-se. they will be fully contoured and threaded, and they will be short chambered, but will have some extra material at the shoulder in order to allow you to peoperly time and headspace the barrel to your individual receiver. Installation will require you to have the gunsmith finish the chamber and bring it into proper indexing. The other feature that will be subject to optional modification is the bayonet lug system. The barrels WILL have the lugs, but if you want to actually fix a bayonet, some material will need to be removed ino order to finish the lugs to a functional degree. Krieger CAN do this, and I suspect that we may be able to make a fully functional bayonet lug from the factory as an option. I just thought people would be more interested in minimizing costs. (Post your comments here is you have any thoughts on this)
In the interest of keeping complexity and costs down, these will be a 4-groove and they will have a contemporary right-hand thread. These are not simply "replacement" barrels, these are true Match grade barrels .I expect that with these barrels attached, these rifles will be incredible shooters.
As to time-lines, well Krieger is swamped with orders right now, and the prototype process will be done over the summer. I expect we will have pricing and such at the end of summer and we can take orders.
Cheers!
ian
