? about Garand barrel and Lee Enfield rifles.

[DeepSouth]

I recently purchased a Garad rifle and have been cleaning,greasing and oiling it.I've run into a problem with the barrel.Other than being slap wore out ,I can't keep rust out of the barrel.I've bore brushed,patched and swabbed it.I have Kroiled it,Rem oiled it,Hoppes it,foaming bored it and even used sewing machine oil in it.The rust comes back.Even made me an electric bore cleaner,using a steel rod and a battery.Somewhere along the line I think this is due to the use of corrosive primers,just can't remember if that is true.Any ideas on how to stop it?The Lee Enfield question is this,where is a good trust worthy place to buy one.I'm not interested in having a perfect one.Doesn't have to have all the bluing or a pretty stock.Just want a good barrel clean barrel. I'll fix the rest later on.Any help would be appreciated.THANKS.

[Bloodman14]

If the M1 barrel is worn out, why bother cleaning it? Rebarrel it, and shoot it. As far as the Enfield is concerned, any good pawn shop will have 1 or 2. A good condition LE will run about $200.00 +- .

If you are dead set on the original barrel, remove it and scrub it with some blue & rust remover a few times, then refinish the metal.

[870TC]

If the M1 had corrosive ammo shot in it, clean the barrel and gas system with soap and water. This will neutralize any left over salts, which is what causes the rust. Then re-oil the gun.

[Multigunner]

A lot of times old rust deep in pits will bleed out after a cleaning.
You'll think you have it all, with patches coming out clean, but the oils and solvents get under old deep seated rust and slowly push it back to the surface.

Sounds like a new barrel is called for.

A cut down Mosin Nagant I examined had closely spaced hair fine pitts at the bottom of the grooves that went half way to the barrel exterior.
The pits were so hard packed with fouling and such that the bore didn't look pitted to the naked eye when examined from either end before it was cut.

[madsenshooter]

When you finally get around to rebarreling, I don't think you can beat the CMP's price for Criterion barrels, though you might find a better barrel than that brand.

[mroliver77]

Is it rusting underneath a coating of oil? As has been mentioned, scrub bore with hot, soapy water. Patch dry and the hit it with some CLP. Run a couple dry patches through it. clean, service and lube entire rifle, then shoot the daylights out of it. If barrel has strong rifling but dark and ugly, be patient and shoot, clean and shoot some more. You might be surprised at how well it shoots. If all else fails try fire lapping it. A friend had a VZ24 with a dark bore he wanted me to play with. I ended up fire lapping it and found some shine under the rust with some light pitting. With ancient milsurp ammo and the crude V sights we could ring a piece of 11"X18"X 1" steel at 350 yards pretty regularly with it. I hated to give it back to him! If you plan on keeping the Garand, do yourself a favor and buy Scott Duffs Garand book and read the whole thing.
Jay

[higgins]

Where to get an Enfield? I bought one at a pawn/gun shop several years ago. It was an unissued No4Mk2 that I paid too much for because I wanted an Enfield real bad and it was the first really good looking one I'd seen. Since then, the value of that particular rifle has more than caught up with what I paid for it. Go to bdlltd.com and look at his rifles. They aren't cheap, but he's a well-respected seller. You might call and see if he has one that has a few more dings in the stock or otherwise rougher cosmetically but with a good bore. Ordering from a wholesaler is a gamble. I wouldn't buy from an online auction unless you can return a gun if it doesn't suit you; opinions as to what consititutes a good bore varies widely, and you can't tell from a photograph of a light shining down the bore. You might get lucky and find a good one at a pawn shop, gun shop, or show, but be very careful of bore condition; I'm convinced more were ruined by Americans not knowing how to properly clean after firing corrosive ammo than were ever damaged in service of the Empire. Most sellers don't seem to even clean the loose fouling from a bore, so that can be a crapshoot too unless you can wipe it out and look at a clean dry bore before purchasing. Look at a lot of them and educate yourself before you buy. If you're shooting handloads or factory loads, it's not an issue, but assume any surplus ammo is corrosive until you get very knowledgeable of .303 ammo; don't go by what the seller says-they're not necessarily lying, most of them just don't know better.

[DeepSouth]

Guys thanks for the posts.Sorry for not answering back,have been crazy busy and I totally forgot about the post.Last saturday I found another Garand at the gunshop and bought this one to.This Garand is in extremely good shape and the barrel has good tall rifling and after cleaning is bright and shiney.I think the other one is going to Shuffs parkerizing to become a Mini-G.Still looking for a Lee-Enfield.After doing some research I'd like a No4 Mk2 if I can find one.Thanks again for the replies.

[m.chalmers]

Enfield?
www.bdlltd.com
Hit the sites:
http://www.enfield-stuff.com/
http://forums.gunboards.com/forumdisplay.php?55-The-Lee-Enfield-Forum
http://www.milsurps.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72