eddystone barrels

[milboltnut]

:icon_salut:

found a JA pristine barrel

[Tuna]

I would not be surprised if your search for an original new barrel is fruitless. They could not find enough during WW2 and had to contract with Johnson Automatics to make new barrels for the 1917 Enfield's. Your best bet is to get a new commercial one
and have a smith install it.

[Merc]

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/us-military/enfield-1917/parts-list-1917?page=4

Try these guys. They show new repro .30-06 barrels in their M1917 parts list.

[milboltnut]

well not new... I'll settle for used, LOL A friend of mine seems to find excellent barrels but the only problem is they belong to the rifle. He just picked up an Eddystone with an 18 barrel.

[Merc]

Another option might be to see if it's possible to have a sleeve installed in the original barrel.

[JimF]

Another option might be to see if it's possible to have a sleeve installed in the original barrel.

I looked into doing this about 20 years ago . . . .

I asked a few barrel-makers if they could do this . . . . as Springfield Armory did, way back in 1866/67 . . . and was told NO!

Their reasoning was, the lined barrels would not stand the 50,000 lbs. of pressure.

Seems odd to me . . . With today’s technology, I would think it could be possible.

When I got off the phone, I figured they were just not interested.

[milboltnut]

found a JA barrel.... in excellent condition.

[Dan Shapiro]

There was a place in Texas that relined (sleeved) barrels, but that was several years ago. Can't find a link to their website. You'd think it would be a good business. The collector gets to keep the original appearance of the barrel, and can still fire the weapon.

[milboltnut]

I think I found a friend of a friend who has connections... finding out tonight for the resource on Eddystone barrels in good condition.

[RC20]

You would have to buy an Eddystone and take the barrel off it.

That is tough as best is to cut the barrel. In this case the receiver.

Criterion Sells replica barrels. Its rare to get a 1917 original barrel and if you do, the reason is it was take off there was something wrong with it, (shot out, blanks an no throat or just did not shoot)

WWII saw the mfg of JA, RI and HS barrels. You can find those, far higher price than a CBI barrel and the CBI barrels are first rate mfg that will likely exceed WWI or WWII.

[milboltnut]

I found one guy who has ONE JA barrel... and was talking to a collector tonight at his house mentioned he has to dig a little to find out who has them. But he knows they're around. They show up on e bay once in awhile.

Another reason to take off a barrel and it doesn't necessarily mean they were bad.... is that they were sold for parts. Buy a 17 for 300 to 400 back in the day... with rearsenaled parts, good barrel: bore, throat, muzzle... and turn around and sell them for parts... and make 3 times the amount of money. Think about it.

[milboltnut]

If anything, according to Dick Culvers write up...changing tooling wasn't feasible during WW2.


All that taken into account, it seems that when the M1917s were refurbished during WWII and
needed a new barrel, Ordnance went with a more conventional rifling. The standard replacement
barrels were made by High Standard Manufacturing with a 4-groove right hand twist as opposed to
the original left hand twist, or by Johnson Automatics (manufacturer of the M1941 Johnson Rifle)
with 2-groove barrel with a right hand twist

[jaie5070]

They used to show up regularly. I have a eddy take off barrel that is in about new condition. 11-18 dated. Dark park original finish

[milboltnut]

I bought a JA from oldguns.net shipping out Monday....excellent shape, 125 + 15 shipping + 5 CC fee.....

Hopefully a friend of a friend will find a eddy take off for me too. Then I'll ebay the JA.

[milboltnut]

You would have to buy an Eddystone and take the barrel off it.

That is tough as best is to cut the barrel. In this case the receiver.

Criterion Sells replica barrels. Its rare to get a 1917 original barrel and if you do, the reason is it was take off there was something wrong with it, (shot out, blanks an no throat or just did not shoot)

WWII saw the mfg of JA, RI and HS barrels. You can find those, far higher price than a CBI barrel and the CBI barrels are first rate mfg that will likely exceed WWI or WWII.

JA barrel cost me after shipping $145...

CBI is 200 +...


the reason is it was take off there was something wrong with it,

How about a bad receiver...


shot out

why would someone try and sell a shot out barrel? Anyone with sense wouldn't just buy a barrel without checkin it first... at least a visual check. And even if the throat and muzzle is not the best or worse it's still capable of shooting good. The thing with most is they want steller accuracy, which is fine but not necessary. In MY case the bore is beyond what I should have seen from the get go...and I should have known better.. ya live ya learn. 2 groove Remingtons A3's can be misleading when you look down the bore, if you don't know what one looks like...and that's what I thought I was looking at.. in a sense.


Now let's consider this throat issue and its real effect on accuracy. As the throat wears a little, or it was too far forward when new, yes, you have more "bullet jump". Does that really effect accuracy when in small amounts? What about in larger amounts? That's a debatable subject at best. Consider for a minute the M1 Garands the Navy converted to 7.62MM by putting an insert in the .30-06 chamber. Think about that bullet jump. Some of these rifles shot very well in spite of the rifling starting about a half inch forward from what conventional wisdom says it should. Wow, a 500 reading on the throat gage. Think about that one. Actually it doesn't work quite that way and the gage reading would only be around a 7 or 8.

I don't think overthinking or overdoing is quite that necessary.

[milboltnut]

just found a Winchester, dated 18 barrel, so yes they are out there.