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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

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Ted

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I purchased my Enfield from a local dealer because I allways wanted a #4 and this one looked ok but wouldn't win any beauty contests. It was a BSA made for Canadian service. After ordering some ammo for it I took it out to test it's accuracy. It shot ok but needed work. I decided I wanted to start hunting deer with my friend but I was unable to buy a new deer rifle so I opted to build one out of my beater Enfield as a project. Now mind you, this enfield was a factory thurough repaired rifle that had a bad crack on the upper rear handguard and a large repair patch on the buttstock right behind the bolt. Normally I'm a collector of old rifles and would cringe at the thought of mollesting an original piece. But temptation got the best of me and I really wanted to go hunting. The muzzle of the rifle was in rough shape and the crown was bad. That probably explained the poor accuracy. The bore however was very nice and shiny yet so I knew this gun had potential. I cut about 5" off of the barrel and recrowned with a Brownells 11 degree crowning tool. I then spent days polishing the reciever to make it look nice and shiny. I then chucked it in my lathe and polished the barrel to a 800 grit finish. I ordered a new buttstock from Numrich arms and just finished all the stock work today. I blued the entire gun with Brownells Oxpho Blue with amazing results. The fore-stock I cut down just past the barrel band and rounded nicely. I polished up the original brass buttplate and re-installed it to fit the new stock. I think it will make an awesome hunting rifle now. I still need to put my scope on it, but I'm waiting on an S&K mount. The scope I'm using is a Millet 3x-9x 44mm Buck Gold. Should do the trick nicely! All in all I have about $330 into it and a lot of time.

 

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Great job and welcome!! Have to warn you if you haven't already figured it out, sportorization of military rifles is addicting. If you can get a picture of the polished and blued barrel in natural sunlight and post it I'd really appreciate it. I haven't had very much luck cold blueing polished parts. From what I can see from your picture, looks like your's turned out pretty good.

 

I have a fondness of the Brit Enfields as well as the US Krags because of the silky smoothness operating the bolt.

 

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Ok, here are some good closeups of the metal work. Looks much better than the rough machining that was there. This was two coats of the cold blue. It works like any other cold blue but is much darker and dosn't dull or rust when handling like other cold blues can do. Enjoy....

 

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Excellent! I like it! Good first job! Its always good to find another Enfield fan.

 

Welcome to the board to!

 

Let us know how she shoots.

 

-Jason

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  • 4 weeks later...
Ok, here are some good closeups of the metal work. Looks much better than the rough machining that was there. This was two coats of the cold blue. It works like any other cold blue but is much darker and dosn't dull or rust when handling like other cold blues can do. Enjoy....

 

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2s.jpg

 

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Great job. Your cold blue came out really nice. The slimming of the trigger guard was a nice touch and the recrowning sure was another step in the right direction. Slimming down the stock to sleeker lines is also a plus. with what you have there I for one would not feel undergunned for deer or bear. Have fun,Frank

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Very nice workmanship Ted.

So what's next?

 

 

Next project for this winter is a major modification of a yugo sks. My buddy wants it cut down and barrel threaded for a flash hider. I'll probably be putting it in a Tapco stock and replacing the rear sight with a pic rail for red-dot optics. Should look sweet when done.

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