Odd chamber damage

[fatelk]

I have an old Ishapore 2A1 Enfield rifle. It's been sitting in the safe for years, so I pulled it out yesterday and took it to the range. The brass was sticking in the chamber, so I checked it out closely when I got home.

There are some pits or damage of some kind around the rear of the chamber. I think the bore and chamber on these is chromed, and I suspect that maybe the chrome was damaged in that area and corrosion/rust got a foothold underneath it, and grew as it sat in the safe for years.

Obviously on a rifle like this, the barrel can't be set back and rechambered, even if it wasn't chromed. I wonder if there's anything at all that can be done.

[Mk42gunner]

I'd be looking for a new barrel. Probably not cost effective, but that is some ugly pitting.

Robert

[Gtek]

What would I do? Probably never going to find a barrel if there were any for less than the rifle is worth. I think I would pull barrel, blast pitting and JB Weld fill and then coarse file gently close to flush right before hard set, thinking a light filing should not hurt the chrome. Post cure sand to flush and hope for the best, not like it is a big safety thing but it would be nice to get fired cases out. Military sporter?

[fatelk]

Yeah, there's probably no cost effective, practical solution. It might just be a light cast bullet shooter, pressures low enough to not force the brass into the pits. These pits are only in a ring at the chamber opening, as you can see. The rest of the chamber is clean.

I'm not a fan of sporters. Before I did that I'd just sell it as-is for whatever it's worth. I don't have any way to remove the barrel, and it's not worth what it would cost to have a gunsmith tinker with it. My best hypothesis is that moisture got in under the chamber chrome somehow, and just rusted these pits out. I have two of these rifles, bought them maybe a dozen years ago through a friend who had an FFL. I think they were $200 total for the pair. They're complete and functional, but definitely bottom of the barrel rifles.

The JB Weld idea is interesting, might be worth a try. My experience in the past makes me suspect that the chamber pressures would likely cause it to come loose and fall out, but I still think it could be worth trying. I suspect that nothing short of silver solder would hold.

[Moleman-]

Wonder if it had a case separation and someone used a pick of sorts to dig it out?

[imashooter2]

Wonder if it had a case separation and someone used a pick of sorts to dig it out?

My first thought as well. A soldier in the field needed his rifle.

[Bent Ramrod]

I’d take a case fired in the rifle, drill and tap the primer pocket, screw on a piece of threaded rod, chuck the assembly in a variable-speed drill, smear some Clover 320 on the case (concentrating on the base area), put the stripped barreled action in a vise, and spin the case in the chamber, slowly, maybe ~60 rpm, pulling it out slightly and pushing it back in as it spun.

After a minute of this, I’d clean the barreled action (very thoroughly), reassemble the rifle, and fire a few times to see if the sticking problem his improved. If not, I’d do another polish with the lap I made, for a time period based on what change (if any) the original treatment made in the functioning.

Unless the pressures are high and the gouges deep, just getting the burrs thrown up smoothed back down will usually take care of the problem. I smoothed the chamber of a friend’s Ross .303 that had been enlarged during the Great War; maybe with a rotary file. Before the treatment, you needed a mallet to open the bolt; afterwards, pulling out the case by hand was easy.

The chamber was already grossly enlarged, of course, but the lapping didn’t enlarge it any further, and there was little to lose, since the rifle didn’t work right in the first place.

[fatelk]

I’ll give that a try, thank you!

Wonder if it had a case separation and someone used a pick of sorts to dig it out?

I wish I could say it was like that when I got it, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. I know I shot it a few times years ago, and I don’t remember any problems. I do have a decent bore scope; I’ll take some close up photos of it when I get home tonight.

It didn’t seize on every shot, only about half. The ones that did, you can see and feel the brass raised into the pits. I’m thinking that light loads probably wouldn’t do that. Come to think of it, most of what I shot through it years ago was light loads. My original intention for these rifles was cast loads.

[Mk42gunner]

Bent Ramrod reminded me of something I read in one of Roy Dunlap's books. He recommended polishing pitted chambers as BR said, only using jeweler's rouge instead of anything coarser. He said it didn't take much.

Honestly, if you totally screw it up, you aren't out much and can look at it as a cheap lesson in what not to do.

Plus you have all sorts of spare parts for your other one.

Robert

[243winxb]

Put grease in pits as needed. The tiniest amount will keep brass from flowing down into the hole. Dont over do it.

[beechbum444]

Would a 45 acp conversion fit on the receiver ??

[fatelk]

Here are some photos of the pits. They're concentric completely around the rear of the chamber, and only the rear. I chucked a 20ga bronze brush and rod in a cordless drill, and scrubbed and cleaned the chamber first. It sure looks like rust pits to me. Very odd. I've never seen anything like it before. I suspect that these have been growing for a long time, and I just never noticed them before. I hate to think they're there because of my own negligence. I'm pretty sure I cleaned it the last time I stuck it in the safe, but it's been years.



I like the idea of trying JB Weld first, see if it will hold up. If it doesn't, I'd try polishing it, then maybe just light loads.

Sporterizing or converting it to something else are cool ideas, just not for me.

[fatelk]

Well, I've done some online research on this subject (should have done that first), and found out that this sort of thing has been done before.

JB Weld has been suggested and tried numerous times. Most incidents I found went something like "Yeah, I'll try that and report back!", only to be the last post in a ten year old thread. I found one post where someone said they tried it and it lasted for about 40 rounds, and another thread where a guy said it worked well for him, but was a very low pressure round. I may try JB Weld, but don't have much confidence in it holding up. JB Weld is great for some things, but in some corners it has this mythical status that just isn't true.

It looks like the best way to do it would be to pull the barrel, chuck it in a lathe, cut the rear section of the chamber out, maybe .25" in and .10" deep, then make a sleeve to insert and loctite in place. At least that's the process as I understand it from what I read. I don't have a barrel vice, action wrench, or lathe, so if this rifle works with light cast ammo, that's probably just what it will be.

I'm sure a gunsmith could do it easily, but I expect it would still cost more than the rifle is worth. It's not unsafe as it is, and can still shoot full power ammo with a little pounding to get them out, but I think a cast shooter is what it is for now. Thanks everyone for all the ideas and suggestions.

[Winger Ed.]

Those dents & such sure look like someone was trying to hammer something like a stuck/broken case out of it.
It's a real odd pattern for rust, especially if it isn't all the way around and also on the top of the chamber.

Any chance it could be filled with a hard solder, then the high spots be polished off, or run a chamber reamer in it?

[Gewehr-Guy]

I've had a shotgun with similar chamber pitting, that I think was caused by a pile of dead flies or other bugs that crawled into the barrel and died. The gun was one that was left standing upright in the corner of the farm shop, and only used when I need to kill a varmint of some sort. Now I stuff a red shop rag into the muzzle, easy to see and pull out .

I would give the liquid steel a try, I used it in a spot of pitting in a iron mould, and it lasted for several hundred bullets.

[akajun]

IIRC enfields headspace can be altered by using a different bolt head. IDK if they are numbered or lettered but find out what you have on there now and find a replacement that is tighter. Since the barrels trash anyway, try this. Rent a pull through reamer a go, no go, and field gauge. Then run the reamer in till the no go gauge barely closes and the field gauge does not. If needed use the replacement bolt to bring headspace back until the chamber cleans up. You dont need spotless just better than what you have.
My old ishapore was a tack driver, they all are accurate rifles and worth spending a little money on.

[richbug]

Sell it to someone that has a lathe and a barrel blank.

I had one of those rifles back when they were $100 and I liked it... 25 years ago, I gave it to a friend who helped me change a clutch in my car after I got stranded at work.

IMHO, That chamber won't clean up, polishing won't effect the chrome. I have never seen a long bolt head for a 2A. Not enough taper in a 7.62 to get any meaningful diameter growth unless you set it backway more than what you can do with how little meat is on the barrel, and you would need a carbide reamer to cut the chrome chamber anyway(not cheap).

Nickel plated cases with cat sneeze loads are the only option I see.

[popper]

Somebody left a case in there for a long time. Silver solder should work, JB works but doesn't stick well. It's granite and epoxy.

[fatelk]

Well I took it out again today. We shot about 50 rounds through it, mostly cast bullet loads, as I recall a 160gr gas check, powder coat bullet at around 1700fps. The light loads shot and cycled nicely, unaffected by the chamber pits. I fired a few RG surplus rounds, only had a couple sticky. I think the thick GI brass didn't flow into the pits as much.

I suspect that these pits have been there for a very long time, probably hiding just under the chrome. I haven't shot this gun much in the past, and most of what I've shot through it has been light cast.

These two rifles were not particular good specimens, as I recall they were "seconds" when I bought them. The one that I've barely shot at all has loose headspace, not bad enough to split brass, but bad enough that I began to notice incipient case separation in some of the brass shot in it. I still have a few hundred rounds of old Syrian surplus 7.62x51, the ammo that was rejected because it was out of spec and will barely chamber in a normal rifle with good headspace. It chambers fine in this one (the other rifle, not the one with the pits).

The stocks have ugly military repairs to the wood. As I recall, I had to braze on the magazines to get them to latch tight so they would feed reliability. Neither are tack drivers in any way. The best I can do with the one I've been shooting is 4-5 moa at 100 yards. It works fine for busting clay targets off the berm at 50 yards, like we were doing today.

[Winger Ed.]

I began to notice incipient case separation in some of the brass shot in it.

If you baby it along with light loads and minimal neck sizing, you might be able to prolong the life of it
by just barely 'working' it in a sizer die as well as the chamber.