Uh oh... Is this a crack?

The coal oil test or varsol will work fine. If not, get some iron filings and a horseshoe magnet put the magnet on each side of the mark and sprinkle on some iron filings. If it's a crack, it will gather most of the filings around the edges.

I tend to agree with tiriaq. Transition mark but you never know until you know. Obviously that rifle has shot a lot of rounds down the bore. I have never seen a relatively modern barrel crack like that.

I've seem them split longitudinally and I've seen them bulge.

Nothing other than one of those cast iron barreled Indian imports about 50 years ago that were intended to be wall hangers. Of course, being stupid and curious, we just had to find some powder and shoot one. We uses the powder we pulled out of hunting cartridges and managed to get it to work after drilling the flash hole through. We had to set it off with a plumbers torch, the flint wasn't real or the frizzen was to soft or both.

We were dumb as proverbial posts. We rammed some wadding on top of the powder and a ball bearing on top of that. The barrel separated like it had been cut off, just behind the wadding that was on top of the powder.

Needless to say, we were exceptionally lucky. We got a few bruises from flying pieces and a few cuts as well. Thankfully we had enough sense to tie rifle to a tire and rim.

Yup, we're all on borrowed time in this life.
 
To test fire, remove the forend, and stick the butt into the inside of a tire. use some twine to hold the barrel against the tire and fire it with a string. The tire will take the recoil and the rifle will not be marked up in any way.
 
"...gunsmiths within 50k of Milton?..." Shooter's Choice in Waterloo. Don't think it's 50 K though. Don't think that's a crack either. Looks too uniform. Mind you, it's very hard to tell from a picture.
H Wally uses Blackadder for a reason.
 
Well... Called that gunsmith. He said he's never seen a cracked enfield barrel. Said he was open until 4, so i said i was on my way. Got there at 3:38 and he was closed :/
 
Smcx said:
Well... Called that gunsmith. He said he's never seen a cracked enfield barrel. Said he was open until 4, so i said i was on my way. Got there at 3:38 and he was closed :/
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing while looking at the cracked Nagant receiver this Sunday - "never seen a cracked Nagant receiver before"
 
I have an SMLE here which has a visible SEAM about 3 inches long in the barrel.

Went through two World Wars like that and didn't get caught!

Wish the rifle was closer; would like to see it myself.
 
load it up with some hot stuff, shoot it remotely with a string.
we used to test for crack in fiberglass panel with a high evoporation rate solvant; acetone or the like.
wipe and check.
 
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