Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

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Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

Post by Download » 24 Dec 2016, 11:36 am

Some of you may remember that I was trying to track down parts to fix up my No5. I got the parts a while back and I had been planing to try and do as much of it as possible by myself. I've now decided however that I just lack the tools to do a proper job so I sent an email off for a quote to a local gunsmith. They got back to me and quoted $275 to fit the barrel and head space it, and $165 to shorten the barrel and cut the diameter down slightly on the end so the flash hider can fit on.

They initially quoted $275 but (I'm not sure if there was some confusion or something) added the $165 on.

Does this seem reasonable to other people? It seems rather steep to me for what would be a one, maybe two hour job.
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Re: Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

Post by veep » 24 Dec 2016, 12:49 pm

What do you mean cut down the diameter to fit the flash hider?

You mean thread it or are they reducing it so you can fit a clamp-on hider or something?

Either way, $165 seems a bit much to me on that one. $80 to $100 to thread a muzzle is pretty standard.
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Re: Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

Post by Download » 24 Dec 2016, 1:25 pm

veep wrote:What do you mean cut down the diameter to fit the flash hider?

You mean thread it or are they reducing it so you can fit a clamp-on hider or something?

Either way, $165 seems a bit much to me on that one. $80 to $100 to thread a muzzle is pretty standard.


It's a Jungle Carbine, the flash hider is pinned. Its internal diam is about 0.1" smaller than the barrel diam.
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Re: Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

Post by straightshooter » 30 Dec 2016, 6:51 am

If the gunsmith you have contacted rarely if ever works on Lee Enfields then the prices might be tending towards the exorbitant end of reasonable.
You would be best advised to visit your nearest NRA fullbore rifle club and ask them to refer you to a suitable armourer. Who knows, you might even like the people you meet in the process.
"Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about."
"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking." Sir Joshua Reynolds
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Re: Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

Post by Tripod » 30 Dec 2016, 8:51 am

Normally costs me $150 to fit and chamber a barrel and probably another $50 to turn the muzzle down to the correct size for the original brake. Is he including a re-blue in that price?
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Re: Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

Post by Download » 04 Jan 2017, 11:45 am

Tripod wrote:Normally costs me $150 to fit and chamber a barrel and probably another $50 to turn the muzzle down to the correct size for the original brake. Is he including a re-blue in that price?


Nothing was mentioned about a reblue.
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Re: Reasonable price to rebarrel a rifle

Post by Korkt » 03 Feb 2017, 9:18 am

You would surely hope they included a reblue in the price if threading the barrel rather than giving you it back with a bare end.
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