Rebarreling my Enfield

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Frost Cracked

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Hey guys/girls.

I'm doing a project this week to rebarrel a Mk 4 Enfield.

The rifle in question I got as a sporter, that had been cut short. I have a new barrel coming in, hopefully by the end of the week. It's got an action on it, so it should be a simple job of just switching barrels around.

Why go through the trouble you ask? One is a mk 4 #1 & 1/2, and the other is, I assume just a Mk 4 #1. Which aren't.... quite, compatible to my knowledge.

My question is, what do I need to do, as far as prep barrels and the actions. Does anything need to be oiled? Greased? Loctited? etc.

-Thanks
 
You will need a properly fitting action wrench, a barrel vise and a set of headspace gauges to establish proper headspace with your bolt and bolthead. Many folks install a barrel with the threads dry after cleaning out the old crud and goo from both barrel and receiver. I prefer to use Brownell's Barrel Paste which is made specifically for this purpose. For a No4 the desired amount of barrel underturn from vertical index in the hand tight position is 18 degrees. If the barrel is significantly away from this position when hand tight it may be be necessary to use a breeching washer to correct overturn or to turn off a bit of metal from the barrel shoulder in a lathe if it is too far off index.

Unless you have the tooling and experience to do this it is better to find a 'smith who is set up for this job.
 
purple said:
You will need a properly fitting action wrench, a barrel vise and a set of headspace gauges to establish proper headspace with your bolt and bolthead. Many folks install a barrel with the threads dry after cleaning out the old crud and goo from both barrel and receiver. I prefer to use Brownell's Barrel Paste which is made specifically for this purpose. For a No4 the desired amount of barrel underturn from vertical index in the hand tight position is 18 degrees. If the barrel is significantly away from this position when hand tight it may be be necessary to use a breeching washer to correct overturn or to turn off a bit of metal from the barrel shoulder in a lathe if it is too far off index.

Unless you have the tooling and experience to do this it is better to find a 'smith who is set up for this job.
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I've got a barrel wrench and vice ready to use.

As for the paste, I should look into that.

I'm familiar with establishing index as well, and will check for fit, when I get them. If they end up being too out of spec then I'll see a smith about it.
 
Frost Cracked said:
I've got a barrel wrench and vice ready to use.

As for the paste, I should look into that.

I'm familiar with establishing index as well, and will check for fit, when I get them. If they end up being too out of spec then I'll see a smith about it.
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make sure you have a proper action wrench, dont just clamp the action in a vice, you will wreck it.
 
scott585 said:
make sure you have a proper action wrench, dont just clamp the action in a vice, you will wreck it.
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^^Yes, this, big time. You must have a snug fitting action wrench. You will ruin the action otherwise.

As I recall, Peter Laidler said they have a bolt with no extractor in the action as well when breaching up. Gives a bit more stability to the action while under stress.
 
cantom said:
^^Yes, this, big time. You must have a snug fitting action wrench. You will ruin the action otherwise.

As I recall, Peter Laidler said they have a bolt with no extractor in the action as well when breaching up. Gives a bit more stability to the action while under stress.
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Good to know. I'll put the bolt in tomorrow when I do the removal.

And yes, yes it's a proper action vice.
 
Made an attempt today. The barrel kept slipping out of the vice, and turning on me... TIghtened it again, same thing.

Tightened it, and wrapped a pipe-wrench around the barrel. Did some deep deep scores into the metal. (don't worry it's a junker barrel) STILL came loose.

I think I may go see a gunsmith.
 
My gunsith uses wood and Rosin as I recall. Some big bolts, tightened with a long cheater bar.

You mention the barrel vice...but do you have an Enfield action wrench? Hoping you won't twist your action.
 
cantom said:
My gunsith uses wood and Rosin as I recall. Some big bolts, tightened with a long cheater bar.

You mention the barrel vice...but do you have an Enfield action wrench? Hoping you won't twist your action.
Click to expand...

I do have an action wrench, and a barrel vice, yes. I've not seen any twist to the action far as I can notice.
 
I don't know what you are using for a barrel vise, but a properly fitting set of split aluminum blocks will do the job. You need a really heavy duty bench vise to secure the blocks otherwise there is a good possibility of cracking the vise when torque is applied. I use a 12 ton floor mounted shop press to secure my barrel vises when re-barrelling Lee-Enfields, M1903 Springfields, Garands and M1 Carbines and this never fails.
 
As mentioned in post #11, one way of getting off a tight barrel that is going to be scrapped anyway is to make a couple of relief cuts in the barrel just forward of where it contacts the face of the receiver. This will relieve some of the tension between the receiver and the barrel shoulder.
 
A wee touch of heat on receiver (warmed not hot), and ice in a rag around the barrel might make it a touch easier. I think it's hard to ruin heat treatment with propane, or a paint removal gun. You might be impressed at what bubbles out of "clean" guns.

A nice long extension on your bar can easily add up torque too. You'll have to get the barrel bound before adding more torque if it's slipping already though.
 
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It's a barrel vise and action wrench. No vises on the receiver. The barrel vise needs a properly fitting bushing. Turned mild steel with the right taper(measure the receiver end and the barrel end and figure out the taper. Did it years and years ago with minimal math skills.) then cut in half lengthwise, works. And a great big hammer or a 4 foot 2" AL bar, applied to the left side of the action wrench when facing it from the muzzle end.
A pipe wrench will not grip enough of the barrel. Only holds a tiny bit of the circumference. You must use a barrel vise. You'll need one to put the new barrel on too.
 
Lots of good advise here. My action wrench was made by a man who knew his stuff. Made for #4 but works well on #1's too. Can also be reversed and used on a knox barrel. it is solid steel, hard but not brittle. 25 = yrs close to 100 barrels.
To over come 300lbs of torque! Tight vise, jaws very protective. Rosen, tight wrench again with protection. Torque,heat, shock, wrench and power bar, or reverse action viced up and wrench on barrel flat,torque, heat shock. Worse comes to worse sacrifice shoulder of barrel.
 
Good news guys and girls.

After clamping the barrel vice down, and using a cheater-bar to get a good, firm grip on the barrel itself, we were able to get the barrel off, with a couple of good whacks with a ball-peen.

Seems our problem before was simply not clamping the barrel down hard enough, and it would end up spinning.


Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, and I hope the next unbarreling and subsequent rebarreling turn out as smooth. I've got the barreling paste on order, and an angle-measure to make sure the timing lines up.
 
A couple of other things to help secure the barrel in the vise or blocks; make sure both vise and barrel are free of oil (use methyl hydrate) and line the vise with emery cloth (grit side away from barrel).
 
Okay.

Have the old barrel off, and also the new barrel off of it's old reciever. Only one small problem.

Index of the barrel from hand-tight, to vertical, is about 27 degrees. which is a bit more than 18.

Will this be a problem? If it is, i will need to take some metal off the barrel, to get it to fit right to 18. I've checked headspace already at hand-tight and it's very good.

Holding off either way until the barrel paste comes in.
 
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