Life expectancy of a Lee Enfield Barrel

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x westie

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Curious as to what the life epectancy of a Lee Enfield barrel was calculated at...that is how many thousand rounds before barrel was worn..and accuracy dropped off...i realize rapid firing in battle would cause a barrel to lose accuracy because of the heat .
Also would the heavier barrel of the No.4 rifle have a longer barrel life than a SMLE rifle...a SMLE barrel is not as heavy as a No.4 barrel.
 
Shooting cast bullets will provide many times the barrel life over jacketed.

10,000 sure seems possible, but the problem with an estimate is that there are too many variables:

- how hot will you let the barrel get?
- what is your planned cleaning regimen?
- etc.
 
A 308 will start showing throat erosion after 3500-4000 rounds.Still shoot good out to past 5000 rounds by adjusting the seating depth forward of the bullets. Somewhere past 5000 rounds the rifle will still shoot good but you will start getting mystery fliers showing up in your groups.Most guys would be rebarrelling by 8000 rds.
A 303 having a slightly smaller case capacity and a slightly larger bore size no doubt will give 10,000rds of good servicable life. It only had to remain minute of man to be acceptable for military service.I have seen badly eroded 303 Lee Enfield bores that would still give two inch groups at 100 yards which is still very acceptable foe hunting big game.
 
Saw a comparison one time of cordite vs nitrocellulose amunition. Apparently as cordite is used, the loss of accuracy is a gradual decline; with NC, accuracy is maintained, and then there is a rapid loss.
Assuming a new barrel, properly maintained, service accuracy life is going to be many thousands of rounds. Of course, when you buy a 50-100 year old rifle, which has seen no one knows how much use, there is no way to tell how long remaining accuracy is going to last.
 
The original Cordite was 58% nitroglycerine and was terribly hot. The later (1910) Cordite MDT was a lot cooler.

Same thing, early extruded powders were quite hot, later ones a lot cooler.

I have seen figures of 11,000 before a Smellie barrel was considered too worn for combat. That was with WW! ammunition.
 
Thats good to know.
I have been using my 1950 Longbranch in Tactical shoots here in BC a few times. After putting 20 or 25 rounds through it in a matter of about two minutes, times three or four stages, it gets quite hot. I was concerned about barrel life.
I am using a mixture of ammo, old WW2 left over surplus, some nitrocellulose, and some cordite.
I haven't bench tested it recently, but previously the best group I shot was 3 shots, 100 Metre, 1 3/16" CTC
 
I have a question...In those Tactical shoots can you use your own reloaded ammo to service specs of course, but use lead cast bullets instead?:confused:
 
smellie said:
The original Cordite was 58% nitroglycerine and was terribly hot. The later (1910) Cordite MDT was a lot cooler.

Same thing, early extruded powders were quite hot, later ones a lot cooler.

I have seen figures of 11,000 before a Smellie barrel was considered too worn for combat. That was with WW! ammunition.
Click to expand...

SMLE equiped snipers during WWI considered it impractical to practice shooting with their primary weapon because the "match" level of accuracy was deemed to only last for @ 150 rounds. (info from Heskith Pritchard's book)

One also has to realize that in addition to using corrosive primers, ammonia based bore cleaners were not in general use at this time, so fouling was much more difficult to deal with.
 
Lee Enfield said:
One also has to realize that in addition to using corrosive primers, ammonia based bore cleaners were not in general use at this time, so fouling was much more difficult to deal with.
Click to expand...

I have it on good authority (Now deceased family members) "One did not use fresh very scarce water to clean and cool the guns"... so in both WW1, and WW2 human, and horse piss was used. Esp' so during WW1 trench warfare.
 
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