I just bought a winchester 1917 enfield at a gun show in 300WBY mag. The action has been extensively cleaned -up,bolt face opened up cleanly and overall looks real good. The bottom metal has been straightened out and the bolt lugs look good. I'm thinking of building a .585 Nyati on it. What do I need to know about rebarreling this action?I can do the lathe/mill work myself and have done square threads before. I believe the 1917 Enfield is a 1:10 left hand square thread, 5 turn action. Any tricks I should know about? De Haas's book indicates this action requires a coned barrel and inletted extractor cut. I've done this and square threads before on a McMillan and old remington rolling block actions. Any good techniques on how to do this? Suggestions on the best set-up for left hand threads would also be appreciated. I'm quite good on Mausers and Remingtons but this is my first Enfield? I'd appreciate your sharing your knowledge so that I don't have to re-invent the wheel.-Rob

Rob, the 1917 Enfield has right hand threads. Or at least every one I've ever rebarreled did. I have 2 Eddystones in the shop right now. They are also RH thread. They are however square and 10tpi.

Cutting a coned breech is fairly simple. Either get the 96deg reamer from Clymer or use your compound rest set at 48deg and turn it manually.

Face the barrel shank to the correct length. Thread the shank and fit the shank to the receiver. Set up to cut the cone. Stop .025" -.050" from full depth. This can be determined by screwing the receiver onto the barrel with the bolt closed and measuring the gap between the receiver face and barrel shoulder with feeler gages. That's why the shank is threaded first. When you get to that point record the feeler gage measurement plus .005" and that will be how far you need to deepen for your finished depth. This will leave .001" to .002" clearance for the bolt when the barrel is torqued up. Carefully finish up the breech. When it's complete redrill your center hole, and recenter the bore, then you can treat it like chambering any other rifle. George

Just be sure and make a relief cut on the barrel just in front of the action to aid in the barrel removal. Don't want to chance cracking the action and it eases removal of the barrrel. Yes even the Winchester and Remington barrels were installed with lots of torque.

George- Thanks alot, that is exactly the info I was looking for. The Remington has been rebarreled so there should be no problem in getting the new barrel off. I'm still a bit confused about the left hand thread buisness but I take your word on it. Anyway it will become apparant when I unscrew the action. I've heard of this issue before, but would be much happier with right hand threads. Do you shape your threading tool to match the pitch of the threads? I don't exactly know how to do this although I have cut square threads before, I simply made sure I had enough relief and went very slowly. Since you have done this before, I would appreciate learning.
In the past, I've cut cones using the compound just as you describe and am confortable with the procedure.
Thanks again for your help-Rob

I have done about five. The threads are no problem. Copy the old ones. Cut your major thread diameter. Thread using a tool with the correct coutour. I like to make the tool a little skinny then make some relief as I go rather than just going straight in. Less chance of reaking the tool. Uou can then touch up the thread spacing after the depth is correct. Take shallow cuts and use lots of oil. As for the coned breech, you may not need it. P-14s did not have it. The back of the barrel is flat. Just copy what you got. It works, right?
The right of left thread business..... It is a normal right hand thread. The rifling twist is backwards in the issue barrels. That was part of the justification for putting the barrels in so tight. They were afraid the bullet engaging the rifling would unscrew the barrel.

Your bottom metal, if you plan on restocking it, throw that home workshop mess in the ash can. It is very easy to do it like a M-70 with the front screw escuchion forming the hinge for the floor plate. Trimms up the rifle a lot. Investigate using Post 64 M-70 steel bottom metal. I think they made some of it in steel . Cheap and looks fine.

Best of luck.

QUOTE]Originally posted by Robgunbuilder:
George- Thanks alot, that is exactly the info I was looking for. The Remington has been rebarreled so there should be no problem in getting the new barrel off. I'm still a bit confused about the left hand thread buisness but I take your word on it. Anyway it will become apparant when I unscrew the action. I've heard of this issue before, but would be much happier with right hand threads. Do you shape your threading tool to match the pitch of the threads? I don't exactly know how to do this although I have cut square threads before, I simply made sure I had enough relief and went very slowly. Since you have done this before, I would appreciate learning.
In the past, I've cut cones using the compound just as you describe and am confortable with the procedure.
Thanks again for your help-Rob[/QUOTE]

Thanks alot, this is great info and saves me alot of time. I'm going to take the old barrel off this weekend and start this thing going. I just found that JGS has a .585 Nyati reamer and go guage and I ordered a barrel from pac-nor. This will be great fun!-Rob

Rob,

if the barrel is in decent shape after you get it off, and you want to sell it, let me know. Thanks,

Sam B.
scb3@bigfoot.com

Sam- Once its off its yours! let's keep in touch.-Rob