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DIRT Farmer
10-28-2010, 10:30 PM
I have what I thought was a farily nicely Savage 303 #4Mk3 two grouve that I wanted for a walking around rifle. After much playing around with mainly PP The last inspection of the barrel Shows a heavily pitted barrel at the muzzle to at least 3 inches. I have thought of cutting the barrel back some to see what is left but I know the throat is burned badly from slugging.
Looking at Gun Parts Corps site, I see I can buy a used barrel described as good to very good for a little less than 70.00
Two questions, does any one have any experience with those barrels as far as to how good they are.
2nd, I have read some horror stories as to removing an Enfield barrel. Any sugestions? I would like to set it up for min. head space for brass life.
Thanks for your sugestions.

Multigunner
10-28-2010, 11:15 PM
I have what I thought was a farily nicely Savage 303 #4Mk3 two grouve that I wanted for a walking around rifle. After much playing around with mainly PP The last inspection of the barrel Shows a heavily pitted barrel at the muzzle to at least 3 inches. I have thought of cutting the barrel back some to see what is left but I know the throat is burned badly from slugging.
Looking at Gun Parts Corps site, I see I can buy a used barrel described as good to very good for a little less than 70.00
Two questions, does any one have any experience with those barrels as far as to how good they are.
2nd, I have read some horror stories as to removing an Enfield barrel. Any sugestions? I would like to set it up for min. head space for brass life.
Thanks for your sugestions.

A take off barrel may or may not clock in properly, the interface is under cut and crush fits when torqued down. A take off barrel may over clock because its interface is already crushed.

Australian gunsmiths when altering a rifle to take the 7.7X54R target cartridge (used in some jurisdictions that forbade civilian ownership of a rifle in a military caliber, the same cartridge used in France to allow collectors to keep their Enfield rifles) would turn the barrel reinforce interface and breech down by one thread and use a finish reamer if needed for the shorter case.

Since the Enfield headspaces at the rim, it is possible to use a diamond disc to grind a few thousanths from the internal breech ring (in much the same way Mauser actions are blueprinted) and set the breech back by several thousandths then rechamber the shortened from the breech barrel.
This should take up enough slack to end up with a tight chamber and close headspace.

If by chance the take off barrel you get does clock in properly, the Enfield detachable bolt head design allows one to tighten headspace by simply using a higher numbered bolt head.
The bolt heads for the No.4 rifle are marked as 0,1,2,3.
Number three Boltheads are increasingly hard to find.

While the proper action wrenches are available, it would probably be better to have a qualified smith do the rebarreling.

Since the front sight base is locked in position by the lugs on the muzzle the clocking in must be perfect, otherwise the front sight will cant.

If over clocked you may be able to straighten up the front sight by filing from one side of a barrel lug and shimming the other side.
The extractor groove in the breech is more critical, if too far over clocked the extractor will bind, but may be ground slightly for clearance if necessary.


If you can live with a eroded throat, counter boring might help accuracy, but three inches is quite a lot to counter bore.

docone31
10-28-2010, 11:18 PM
Yeah. I do.
Those Good Barrels, the one I got was factory fresh! I installed it on my #1MKIII, and it went dead on, useing the bolt face I had, with less slack than I originally had.
Pretty dang good.
In terms of removeing the barrel that is on the rifle.
The action fits in a vise. With a few flat pieces to go on the top of the action, no biggee. The barrel came right off. I used a pipe wrench to remove the barrel. Didn't matter what I did to the original barrel, it was junk. You gotta lean on it, and make sure the action is not torqueing at all. The new barrel will go on easily, and line up well. It has a flat that is an indicator to how aligned it is.
Easier than I thought it would be.
In terms of headspaceing.
Get some O rings. The brass you are going to reload, put the O ring on the case down to the rim. Close the action, and fire it. The brass will form the chamber. Neck size only from there on.
A fairly simple swap out. Mousers are the issue. That barrel sometimes will not release at all!
They seem to be one piece. The #1MKIII was a snap.

Molly
10-31-2010, 12:23 AM
...In terms of headspaceing.
Get some O rings. The brass you are going to reload, put the O ring on the case down to the rim. Close the action, and fire it. The brass will form the chamber. Neck size only from there on. ...

That's a good trick, but we used to center the case in the chamber by wrapping the base with thin tape until it would just barely chamber. Fireforming gave a good fit between the body of the case and the chamber, and the tape could then be removed. The really nice thing is that this way, case expansion is distributed all around the perimeter of the case, not concentrated on one side as so often happens when a case is fired in an oversized chamber. Then limit your sizing to no more than needed to give your reloads easy chambering, and you can get some decent case life.

DIRT Farmer
11-03-2010, 11:01 PM
I recieved the barrel today from GPC. It is a two grouve take off with about two threads of the action it came off of. I chased out the threads, soaked in diesel fuel and scrubed the goo inside and out. I soaked the bore with Butches bore shine, first patches came out greasy, soaked and brushed again, left it for half hour patches came out with some dark smudge. no sign of copper. I sluged the throat and bore, At the throat, .303 bore at the first sign of grouves, .3155. Muzzle slug and through the bore slug mesured the same .302/.3145. I tried to pull the barrel my self, the action slipped in my clamp type wrench, a lot tigher than the93 mausers I pulled down several years ago, and after seeing the barrel I got I will have a gunsmith cut a grouve in the barrel in front of the action and let him change it.
Progress slowly. hopes this one shoots. Iwould rather fix the gun than let some one else find the screwup and waste their money.

fireball168
11-05-2010, 07:08 PM
I've got an Enfield wrench you are welcome to use if you want to give it another go yourself.

DIRT Farmer
11-11-2010, 11:35 PM
Thanks to Fireball the barrel is changed. Early expirments show promis with the GPC barrel. PP polish system for now then test in ernest when the final crud is gone.

John 242
12-07-2010, 02:47 PM
DIRT, you get anywhere with that Enfield? Shot it yet?