I have a lee metford that was bought as a action by a Scottish gunsmith (anders) and built into a sporter, it was never a military issue rifle, it was built for my great grand fathers brother in law, it was carried by him in the boer war, then came to Canada , Okanogan bc to be exact it fed my grandparents through the depression, and my father aunts etc through the post war years , problem is granddad had a couple cases of ww1 cordite 303 brit ammo and that's all he shot , it literally wore out the barrel, steel wool gets stuck on the eroded portion about 6 inches ahead of the chamber its that rough , I would like my youngest son to shoot a moose with this rifle , strangely enough it still can hit a pepsi can at 75 yards , long story short should I re barrel to 303 brit or re bore to a wildcat on same case ? not sure how deep erosion is at least 30 thou, millwright eyeball guess , collector value and or historic value means nothing to me its a family rifle no more no less , educated answers appreciated , thanks
lee metford re barrel or re bore
- Thread starter aklavik
- Start date
I'd say just keep an eye out for a good sporter and rob the barrel then sell the action for the same price. Lothar Walther has brand new barrels for No1 (same profile I think) for about $450 CAD through Can West. May need to wait a year or so though. I think it's a hot oil finish -- bake around 600 C and dip in oil, but I'm not sure, nor do I know the metallurgy. It's how they finished a lot of British rifle though. Or a nice dragon piss rust blue.
I suspect you already know this but Metford style rifling looks worn out when it is new. It was purposely cut with rounded lands and grooves to make the barrels last longer with the black powder and cordite propellants coupled with the cupro/mercury priming compounds. It wasn't just a matter of cleaning the bores as it was reducing the wear from the components to get more useful life out of them.
I have a very similar rife and it is a Lee Speed with Metford rifling. It looks completely worn out but like yours, it still shoots very well. When I first found the rifle at my local gun shop, neither the shop owner nor myself knew what the rifle really was until later. That was before the internet was alive and well. It just looked like a sportered NoI MKI. I didn't even look closely at it. I just wanted a knock about the truck rifle for moose and deer. The fact that the dust cover was engraved Army & Navy Society wasn't even noticed until a few months later. One thing about it is that it will not shoot light boat tail bullets well. It loves the 200 grain cupro nickel jacketed bullets with exposed lead bases best. It also shoots other flat base bullets well right down to 150 grains.
Anyway the rifle's bore looked like an alligator suitcase for the first six inches and I thought it wouldn't shoot well. Like yours, it did. It shot even better after fire lapping with about a dozen rounds I made up with regular bullets and some cloverleaf valve grinding compound. Don't cringe, when the barrels are on their last legs and you need to get another 500 rounds out of them this works well. You can purchase a Nico kit for a lot more money with the same result.
If it shoots well leave it alone and if you must do something, fire lap it.
I have a very similar rife and it is a Lee Speed with Metford rifling. It looks completely worn out but like yours, it still shoots very well. When I first found the rifle at my local gun shop, neither the shop owner nor myself knew what the rifle really was until later. That was before the internet was alive and well. It just looked like a sportered NoI MKI. I didn't even look closely at it. I just wanted a knock about the truck rifle for moose and deer. The fact that the dust cover was engraved Army & Navy Society wasn't even noticed until a few months later. One thing about it is that it will not shoot light boat tail bullets well. It loves the 200 grain cupro nickel jacketed bullets with exposed lead bases best. It also shoots other flat base bullets well right down to 150 grains.
Anyway the rifle's bore looked like an alligator suitcase for the first six inches and I thought it wouldn't shoot well. Like yours, it did. It shot even better after fire lapping with about a dozen rounds I made up with regular bullets and some cloverleaf valve grinding compound. Don't cringe, when the barrels are on their last legs and you need to get another 500 rounds out of them this works well. You can purchase a Nico kit for a lot more money with the same result.
If it shoots well leave it alone and if you must do something, fire lap it.
thanks guys , Bearhunter thanks for the info, I know about the lee metford rifling , it still shoots and loves heavy bullets 215 grain especially , going to keep my eye out for a newer barrel , as there is not a speck of bluing left I think I will have it re blued as well.
