Long Branch 5 left vs 6 right

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ENFIELD1911

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I am curious as to why the military would have used Bren 6 groove right hand twist barrels on some of the late enfield production. I'm assuming that they were considered more accurate and the intention was to make a more accurate sniper before the .308 replaced the .303. Has anyone shot a standard rifle side by side in a lead sled to see which one is more accurate
 
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It is not a Bren barrel. The rifle barrels were rifled on the machinery which had been used for Bren barrel production.
Testing one rifle side by side with another rifle will only tell you how those two rifles compare.
It would take a large number of rifles being tested to determine if there is any difference. And then the difference between wartime 2 and 5 groove production would have to be considered, relative to 1950s production.
Manufacturing tolerances in the bores of the barrels is going to make more difference than the number of grooves and the direction of twist.
In DCRA target shooting, 2 groove barrels were considered to be acceptable at the shorter ranges, but 5 groove barrels were considered to be better at long ranges. No idea if this was opinion or actually observed.
 
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When did six groove barrels start making an appearance? I have heard of them but didnt really see a date when they started to be used.

I would guess that either they had a shortage of "standard" No.4 barrel blanks but had a large amount of blanks intended for BREN barrel production. Or, they had a large overrun of BREN blanks and simply transferred them to No.4 production.

Who really knows, LongBranch production is filled with kinda random variables. Speaking of barrels, two groove vs five groove is kinda all over the place. Dad has a '43 with a two groove, I have a '43 with a five groove. One could say they switched partway through the year, but wait, I also have a '44 with a two groove and have seen '42s with two grooves. So, hard to say what the reasons were.
 
From what I've been able to research less reading Ian's book is that the 6 groove barrel were made in the 1950s production in limited numbers. Manufacturing shortages could be a good reason for the use of these barrels. Is there any information out there regarding the reason for using them
 
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You can find 6 groove barrels on 1949 and 1950 dated receivers.

Not common but by no means scarce.

They seem to make no difference in accuracy within 300 yards in my opinion.
 
According to Skennerton, Stevens-Savage made 6 groove barrels as their plant was already set up for that number of grooves. These were used in early production as they soon went to the 2 groove barrel.

In Canada, Long Branch made 6 groove barrels in 1950. These were right hand twist, not the normal left hand twist, because they were produced on Bren gun barrel tooling.

The 6 groove barrels made by C.A.L. were designated C Mk 4.

So, as Tiriaq mentioned earlier, it was only a matter of expediency, The manufacturer used equipment that was available and it has nothing to do with accuracy, although it may be a by-product.
 
I've been trying to keep an eye on the exchange for other 6 groove barrelled enfields and they seem fairly rare. I had gotten mine by chance as it was not advertised as such and been researching it since. Have I been missing them on the exchange or are they few and far between?
 
well I have not checked but I have a very early savage, I'll have to dig it out.


the later 6 groove barrels were manufactured the same as any other Enfield barrel, with the exception being that they were rifled on a machine designed to rifle BREN barrels.
 
woodchopper said:
well I have not checked but I have a very early savage, I'll have to dig it out.


the later 6 groove barrels were manufactured the same as any other Enfield barrel, with the exception being that they were rifled on a machine designed to rifle BREN barrels.
Click to expand...

As you say the story that "Bren barrels" were used on no4s is BS.

BREN barrels are substantially shorter in length than no4 barrels.


Savage manufactured 6 groove left hand barrels in 1941 and early 1942.

Long Branch manufactured 6 groove right hand barrels from 1949 thru 1958.

I have samples of both of these in my collection.

So to recap:

2 groove (MkII barrel) very common war time barrel
3 groove (rare trials) documented but none observed to my knowledge
4 groove (authorized to Savage & found on "dispersal" no1 rifles) I have owned both (also some post war "malasian replacement barrels are 4 groove)
5 groove (standard mk1 barrel) & 2 piece "dolled"(early hammer forged) 2 piece barrels are documented but none observed yet.
6 groove (left hand, early '41/'42 Savage)(right hand C.Mk4 CAL '49-'58) i have samples of both these barrels.

One reason that the war time 3, 4 & 6 (and 2 piece) groove barrels are hard to find, in 1945 thru 1956, every British No4 rifle was FTR'd and the "non standard" barrels were replaced with standard 5 groove barrels or the guns were destroyed.
 
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It may be a simple case of what machinery was available at the time.

The usual Lee-Enfield machinery may have been worn out considering the length of time Lee-Enfields were produced.

Governments like to economize, apparently the French used Lebel tooling for both the Lebel Rifle and the 1892 revolver.
 
sail32 said:
It may be a simple case of what machinery was available at the time.

The usual Lee-Enfield machinery may have been worn out considering the length of time Lee-Enfields were produced.

Governments like to economize, apparently the French used Lebel tooling for both the Lebel Rifle and the 1892 revolver.
Click to expand...

They simply used the right hand cutting broaches and rifling machines used to rifle Bren barrel blanks, to make Enfield barrel blanks.
 
Explained this before. Inglis switched to consumer goods after the war and sold their Bren tooling to Long Branch. Long Branch used to Bren barrel tooling to extend the life of their LE #4 production when it was obvious that LE was on it's way out as a military arm.
 
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