.303 British barrel relined

[Hickok]

I know someone here will have some information. I have a British .303 Enfield made by Savage arms that has a barrel with excessive bore pits and corrosion. All it will do is keyhole jacketed bullets, no hope at all for cast boolits.

Can the barrel be bored out and be relined back to .303 dimensions? Just curious.

[WILCO]

Might be cost prohibitive. A new barrel might be in order.


Give these folks a call: http://www.bosesguns.com/rebarreling.html

[WILCO]

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/gunsmithing-sponsored-by-4-d-reamer-rentals/rechambering-303's/

[WILCO]

Does your 303 Brit Enfield have a bad barrel?

https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=140484

[WILCO]

http://pac-nor.com/barrels/

[WILCO]

Good luck. Please keep us posted.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Yes, Mike Sayers of TJ's makes a .303 bore, .312 liner with a 10in. twist and 1/2in. bore diameter. It is intended for the .30 Luger, but it is chrome moly, and a .303 will work very well with that groove diameter.

It isn't beyond the capacity of the amateur to do the job. Here is a counterbore with a 3/16in. pilot. You would have to get someone to drill the rear end with a carbide drill, to silver solder a steel rod in place. I would use a barrel length piece of drill rod as a pilot, and drive in several of these bushes from the chamber end. Watch out, though for counterbores designated by the size of bolt for which they are meant to operate. They are of larger diameter, to accommodate the screw head.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-2-x-3-16-piLot-Counter-bore-Spotfacer-lathe-mill-end-machinist-aircraft-tool-/201407928962?hash=item2ee4d91a82

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oilite-Bushing-Bronze-3-16-id-x-5-16-od-x-1-4-Long-Plain-Bearing-Sleeve-/381412781477?hash=item58cdf92da5

You shouldn't try to cut a .455 head chamber in a half-inch liner. Solder, epoxy or the bearing fit grades of Loctite won't prevent it from expanding. The usual thing is to insert a larger diameter bushing where the old chamber was. An alternative, though I have never heard of anyone doing it, might be to use the original chamber and make the joint in the shoulder or neck area.

[W.R.Buchanan]

This is going to be expensive any way you look at it. Criterion just completed a run of #4 barrels at around $350 each. They are nice. Then you have to pay someone to install it.

Barrel liners require someone to bore out the old barrel to accept the new liner. This costs money and will easily equal the cost of the new barrel by the time you're done,,, but the new barrel would be better for the money.

A better alternative in my opinion is to send the barrel to JES and have him bore it and rifle it to a larger caliber. I had mine done to .35-303 as have others here. He can also do 8MM/.303, or .375/303 and even some others.

If you need to keep the gun stock then rebarreling is the only good way to achieve this, but if the barrel is that bad then I have to question what the rest of the gun looks like. If this thing is a dog then you're wasting your money trying to bring it back to .303, however it could be made into a decent shooter by reboring the barrel to a larger caliber for around $225-250.

Cast Boolits in a .35-303 will kill anything we have here in N/A.

Randy

[skeet1]

Hickok (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?5339-Hickok)
Out own John Taylor does this job and I have talked to him about my .30-40 Karg. If he can do a Krag I'm sure he should be able to do an Enfield. You can see is web page and contact info at http://www.johntaylormachine.com/

Ken

[Frank46]

37 rimmed is the 303 case necked up to 375 with no other changes and would be a rather cost effective way to retain the old barrel. As mentioned JES can do this. I will be sending a #4MKI* out to have this done. Frank

[Ballistics in Scotland]

One of very few cartridges used in original Lee-Enfield sporters was the .375 2½in. Nitro-Express. But it needs a .405WCF or similar case. Even the .30-40 case, although usable, isn't really long enough. It could be a period replica, and the name sounds good, but with smokeless it doesn't give you any real advantage over the other cartridges named above.

[kungfustyle]

Jes rifle reboring offers a 35-303 that would be a fun unique thing/project to get into. Give them a call. http://35caliber.com/3.html

[bruce drake]

I recommend the rebore from JES or any other gunsmith company that offers the service as the 8mm/303 or 35/303 are a much safer proposal than the relining of the barrel for use in a bottlenecked case. That said, I also have one enfield I plan to eventually rebore and the other will get rebarreled by Criterion.

Bruce

[JeffinNZ]

I wouldn't go 8mm. Don't think a bad bore would clean up enough. Like Bruce says .35cal or maybe even .338cal.

[303Guy]

I like the idea of a 35/303. It has a well enough defined shoulder for head spacing. Jeff is right about the 8mm, however it may be possible to 'refresh' the bore to 8mm. It may even be possible to fire-lap (or just lap) the bore to clean out the roughness and shoot 8mm's down it. Maybe the neck will need to be opened a little. That's a bit off the beaten track though.

Another idea is to fire-lap it and shoot paper patched boolits. The 303 Brit and worn throats and bores go well with paper patching.

There are new 303 barrels available from Australia but that might not help you any.

[rondog]

When JES does the conversion to .35/303, do they tighten up the chamber any? Or will it still have that notoriously loose Enfield chamber, but now with a .35 bore?

[Petrol & Powder]

I just cannot see how relining could be economical. Re-boring may be an option if you don't mind going to a slightly larger caliber but re-barreling seems like the best possible option. The labor costs will be less, the entire barrel will be new (or at least newer) and you get the caliber and chambering if you want.
If you're trying to maintain the historical accuracy of the rifle's construction, you've already lost that battle. If you are trying to save the action and get a good shooting rifle, a re-barrel gives you the best chance of success and probably for the least amount of money in the end.

I understand that good Enfields are getting harder to find but you have to decide what your goal is. If you want a perfect, historically accurate example to put in a display case in a museum, the condition of the bore doesn't matter. If you want a functional rifle to shoot, the providence associated with the barrel doesn't matter.

[bruce drake]

I would have to say you'll have to call JES Reboring on that Rondog. You'll definitely have a new throating with the rebore. Loose chambers are easily fixed with neck-sizing and the fact you won't find a 35-303 on any gunshop shelves of Wal-Mart means you'll either have custom ammo made by yourself or someone else for you which should remove any concerns over loose chambers in the future.

Bruce

[WILCO]

Hickok,

I'm requesting a picture of the offending rifle.

Thanks.

[Hickok]

151346151348151349151350Wilco, as requested.

[303Guy]

That looks pretty good! Is it a two-groove or five? If it's a five groove I would look into paper patching for it. I haven't had any success with a two-groove but I haven't tried hard enough. I do have a two-groove with a rusted bore that I fire-lapped to clean out the rust. It is super accurate with j-words with a lube 'wad' under the bullet. It never copper fouls, undoubtedly due to the lube coating the bore and sitting in the rust pits. The bore dimensions have not been altered by the rust. Your rifle looks so good that I would be driven to somehow make it shoot as it is.

I have another rifle with a majorly rust altered bore that shoots quite well with paper patched boolits.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

No4 Enfields sometimes had oversize bore diameters, though I don't believe Savage were as bad as some. You haven't mentioned the groove diameter, but it would be worth checking, and if oversize, trying the rifle with some bullets of that diameter or a thousandth over. 8mm. bullets made for the S-bore 8x57 should be .318in. diameter, and a true 8mm. drill (.315in.) or the American O letter drill (.316in.) would make a die to size them down. Reamers are better, but more expensive, and I have made good bullet sizing dies with a drill on which I had rounded off the corners, following an ordinary one a little smaller. Even a lead alloy cylinder cast or swaged in that hole should do to establish whether the bullets will still tumble.

An oversize bore shouldn't produce this problem on its own, but eliminating one contributing factor might do the needful. That rifle looks too good on the outside to modify unless you really have to.

[Hickok]

The rifle has 2 groove rifling, but it sure is pitted.

[303Guy]

I have a 22 hornet with a pitted bore. Rough all the way through. Someone reamed the chamber and lapped the bore. It shoots scary accurate! My 'rust textured' two-groove is very accurate too. I did cut the muzzle back about 1/2 inch to ensure the crown was good. I also fire-lapped it to remove remaining scale and round the sharp pit edges. I only shoot jacketed's in it and those get a fat lube blob on the bases before seating so the bore is always lubed. No copper fouling ever.

Then there is my pig gun that had a layer of rust scale throughout the bore. I got that to shoot too.

I'm suggesting you try it before making any decisions. Lap out the rust and round the pit edges, not a lot, then try it. You may be pleasantly surprised.

[leadman]

I have owned 2 Savage Enfields. Both had large bores and the one I currently have likes a .315" boolit.
I would slug the bore first to find out if it is oversized and match the boolit to the bore +.001" and shoot it. If it still keyholes I would firelap it then slug it again, match the boolit to the bore .001" and shoot it again. If it shoots decent then I would fire a couple of boolits down the bore with JB Bore paste on then.
I did the above to a 1917 Enfield in 30-06 with a very bad counterbored barrel and it now shoots about 3" at 100 yards with issue sights.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The M1917 has peculiarly good issue sights, but that is still good shooting for a well used military rifle. I you want to use jacketed bullets, I believe they are still available in .318in. for the J-bore 8x57 Mauser, and they shouldn't suffer from that much sizing down in a simple ring die.

Personally I would start with .323 bullets, which are relatively common, if I wanted to make my own die, which you can do from a 7/8 UNF bolt. You can drill a very accurate and smooth hole by following up a slightly smaller one with a drill from which you have rounded off the corners. So I would drill with a 5/16 bit, and then follow it up with a rounded-off 8mm. or O letter size (.315in.) for the sizing portion, and finally a rounded-off P drill (.323) to align the bullet.

The only way I can see an oversized bore being a source of trouble, if treated that way, would be if the chamber neck doesn't allow safe chambering of the oversized bullet. It must not clamp the brass onto the bullet. But I have never heard at first hand of this happening with a military rifle.