I agree that I would sell for half of that also if that's what they would go for. I was asking because I came across several that I am going to be selling and I want to put a realistic number on them.
I have them in hand now, they were the Vickers barrels that I had posted here. I only looked them over again because I was noticing that the 303 barrels had British marks on them and these didn't. I looked them over and they are straight both on the outside and inside, these are some of the barrels that I bought out of a large private collection
If you are ONLY going to display them, why not buy the bent ones from Sarco at $24.95 each. You could have them straighten inexpensively and they would be fine for display. Nice straight original Colt Vickers 30-06 barrels may not go for $1,500 but they will still be darn expensive. Just a suggestion.
Just sent you a PM
I have six (6) 30-06 Vickers barrels. Two are original and were never bent, but four were previously bent. I had them straightened at a motorcycle repair shop with the use of pin gauges. All six barrels perform perfectly. The two that were not previously bent came from eBay with their chambers plugged by brazing. The braze was removed and both worked fine from day one. All six barrels show no wear using a USGI bore gauge.
Of course you will need a barrel and a muzzle cup. A British muzzle cup will not thread on to a US barrel. An 8mm lock, or just the extractor, works fine. The real challenge to overcome is the feed block. Maybe an 8mm one can be modified, but then again, maybe not. I have no clue. If/when you find a US 30-06 feed block you will see that belted 30-06 ammo using British/Commonwealth cloth belts will not feed. The belts are too thick and vertically jam in the feed slot. I have a few original 30-06 links and they work just fine. The only currently available belts that do work are the aluminum Turkish Maxim belts that IMA has. IMA also has some steel belts, but I've never tried one. The aluminum belts work equally well feeding 8mm ammo into my MG08 and 30-06 into my Vickers. They are simple to hand load and easy to work with. Should a link gets damaged, it's a simple task to remove that link and keep the belt functional. Plus, these belts are reasonably priced. You cannot beat that.
Hi Bob. The shop I used was run by a good friend of Dave Rosenfield. They are classic motorcycle gearhead and FFL manufacturer buddies. Unfortunately, a couple years ago we had one of those Texas spring time flash floods and his complete operation was washed away. Also washed away were a bunch of customers' BSA, Harley, and Vincent motorcycles. He did not have insurance enough to cover the customers' bikes and was sued into bankruptcy.
Maybe Bob will chime back in on this, but I seem to remember shooting mine with an 8mm feed block in 30-06 ? It has literally been 25 years so memory on this one is a little fuzzy. I do shoot the 303 Vickers with the 8mm set up.
