Un-sporterized No 4 Enfield Barrel Too Short

Loyer

Loyer

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
117   0   0
Location
SW Ontario
I need advice. I have been un-sporterizing a 1943 Longbranch No 4 and did not realize until now the original bayonet lugs are too close to the end of the barrel. The company that "sporterized" it must have cut an inch or so off the barrel to make the sport rifle front sight look better.

I plan to shoot the enfield when completed and want advice on my next move. From what I can see I can:

1) cut back the upper and lower wood so the proper amount of barrel is showing and not have a bayonet
2) weld or braze a piece of steel tubing the same outside diameter on the end making certain I have plenty of clearance on the inside diameter for the bullet.

I am favouring the #2 course but worry about too much heat messing up the rifling.

Any helpful advice would be appreciated.
 
I have done cosmetic stretches like your #2 before. The existing muzzle is machined down, the extension slips over. Set back against the bayonet lugs, the butt joint is not obvious. The extension is bored so that bullet contact will not be an issue. I use silver solder. To eliminate any worries about heating the bore, use an anti-scale paste. Neatly done, it takes a careful inspection to notice the restoration.
 
Pick up another rifle with a proper full length barrel. In the end it will be cheaper and you won't be throwing good money after bad.

Any money you put into your rifle with the shortened bbl will be thrown away. Replacement barrels are reasonably easy to come by as well and in most cases, are just a screw on replacement.

In my experience, I've only had a couple of take off barrels that the headspace was out of spec, when put onto a different receiver. They did some pretty good work during the time those rifles were made.

As it is, when you go to sell your rifle, after restoration, it will still only be worth the value of its parts.

Depending on where you look, you can pick up a decent sportered No4 with the non bobbed barrel for as little as $75. Your parts should just be able to interchange.
 
I've seen one and heard of others where guys have taken a muzzle section from a spare crappy barrel, and threaded it to fit onto the existing shortened stub of the barrel, with the joint back near the front sight base where it's less noticeable. The 'new' muzzle section is drilled out so as not to interfere with bullet travel, giving it a counter-bored look when viewed from down the muzzle.
End result: a lot of time & work and you still have an altered barrel that any collector would pick up on pretty quickly. Unless you're doing it as a winter make-work project or 'just-because' (sometimes a valid reason for many projects in my opinion...?), then replacing the entire barrel makes more sense, or better yet starting with a full-length barelled action makes the most sense to me, FWIW. There are still plenty of those around, and many not too expensive, either.
 
1) That won't fix anything.
2) Neither will that.
The rifle was ruined when Bubba got at it. You're options are to leave it as is or re-barrel. Re-barreling requires a proper barrel vice and action wrench, plus headspace guages. There's no such thing as not using 'em when installing a barrel. Anything else is not cost effective.
 
Any restored sported rifle is going to be just that - a restoration. It will never be the way it was when it was made. Barrel stretched bubba, rebarrelled bubba, still restored bubbas. To a collector, it will never be anything more than a restored representative specimen.
Of course if it a restored specimen of a particularly rare rifle, it might have serious value. Stock stretched Mk. III Rosses have sold here for $1000.
Any sported rifle that has a barrel crisp enough to justify reuse is probably a better candidate for restoration than one with a cut barrel.
I recently needed a .303 barrel. Not for a Lee Enfield, but to rebarrel a 95 Winchester. Couldn't find a $75 No. 4 sporter to break for parts, did find a nice $125 one. When I got it home, took it apart, and had a good look at it, it was apparent that it had been a brand new rifle that had been sported back when. Bright white bore, only slightly used exterior finish from use as a sporter.
Restoring it, instead of breaking it. Had the wood and hardware on hand.
Found another barrel that had a decent bore, ratty exterior. No good for restoring a No. 4. It was reworked to fit the '95, and its exterior was polished on the lathe.
Cheaper and easier to stretch a barrel for a restoration than to rebarrel it - and I have the tools and experience to do either.

Incidentally, No. 4s generally have pretty consistent timing from the standpoint of installing/reinstalling barrels. New, they are supposed to pull up hand tight 14 degrees off top dead center, and then pull up to index with 120 ft-lbs of torque.
Used receivers, used barrels, will generally index, then the trick is to find the bolt head to get satisfactory headspace.
Getting No. 4 barrels off can sometimes be a bit of an adventure. Sometimes they are in there pretty tight. Worst one I ever experimented with took 600 ft-lbs pull to break loose.
 
Last edited:
So much of the worth of an option depends on the cost. If a person is doing their own work for fun and has the tools then the only cost is typically time and a small slug of scrap steel used to make the extension that tiraq suggested. At that point the rifle is back in the game even if it is only as a restored and repaired option. At least it is still there for a possible future re-barreling by someone.

On the other hand if Loyer is paying someone to do the machining and attaching then I totally agree that the better and cheaper option is to re-barrel.
 
check the local gun shops ,and gun shows for a barrel, there around. if you don't have the tools to install it. it should not be very expensive to have a gunsmith install it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom