Installing enfield barrel

M

Mitchell

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Location
central Alberta
A while ago i bought one of those lothar walther barrels for a No.4 im going to build and start soon but have a few questions. First off i took it to my local smith and he didnt have the 303 reamer and wasnt really interested in doing it, so does anyone know a good smith that is good with the enfields and roughly what will it cost?. Other option is i can do it myself and i do have access to a lathe so i can turn the shoulder down to get the barrel indexed properly. At what degree from the top should the barrel start to tighten in the action? Also anywhere in canada i can get a reamer in 303? I will build my own action and barrel wrenches Just trying to see the difference in price from me doing it, or getting someone to for me. Thanks
 
Well, to be frank....
You will have a hard time to find the gunsmith to do the job unless you supply your own reamer.
You see the lotar walter barrels are notoriously hard, very, very hard (35+HRC) to cut the chamber with the reamer.
Solid carbide reamer would be the best in your case but who can afford the price for it?
That's GR8 2c worth....
 
I have installed several LW barrels. The chromoly barrels machine about the same as a Shilen. The stainless IS tougher but not so bad that I consider it to be a problem. The real problem is the tendency for the throat to not cut clean so there is a feather edge left on the trailing side of the lands. Lapping after chambering usually takes care of this. Of course, all of this is easy for me to say because I'm no longer taking any work. I don't know who, other than I, has a 303 reamer but there must be someone. Mine has no throat so I can use either a 308 or 311 barrel and throat accordingly. My current 303 match rifle is actually a .30 and uses 308 bullets.
 
The only other notorious hard barrels I wouldn't touch are Musgrave barrels.
Once I lost a 30-06 reamer trying to use Musgrave 308Win still good target barrel for hunting rifle.
Well, it wasn't total loss but resharpening cost me almost $80.
Sure, I have modest collection of reamers including 303 Br and 303 Epps Imp but like anybody else
I intend them to last me for more than one or two jobs....
Both of those firms barrels are made by hammer forging and unlike other companies either they are skipping annealing or employing very high chrome alloy steels IMHO.
 
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Again, I have done the same thing with Mugrave barrels, and numerous other hammer forged barrels. As long as there was no issue with the reamer, there was never any problem.
Some were noticably harder (H-K barrels were particularily tough) but not to the point of reamer damage. If a reamer gets dull, I just sharpen it and move on.
 
gunrunner8 said:
The only other notorious hard barrels I wouldn't touch are Musgrave barrels.
Once I lost a 30-06 reamer trying to use Musgrave 308Win still good target barrel for hunting rifle.
Well, it wasn't total loss but resharpening cost me almost $80.
Sure, I have modest collection of reamers including 303 Br and 303 Epps Imp but like anybody else
I intend them to last me for more than one or two jobs....
Both of those firms barrels are made by hammer forging and unlike other companies either they are skipping annealing or employing very high chrome alloy steels IMHO.
Click to expand...

Black Star barrels are very similar in hardness but you just adjust your speed/feed and coolant accordingly and make darn sure your tooling is sharp.
 
Thank you all for the exchange of info, this is nice place to share individual experience.
I never machined Black Star and neither H=K barrel so it's good to know ahead about the future potential problems.
 
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