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Value of Browning 30-06 WWII machine gun barrel

5mmgunguy
I am helping a older gentlemen sell some stuff on GB. He has several original new WWII GI Browning machine gun barrels chambered for 30-06, has a GI headspace gauge too. He bought them a long time ago, they were sold as war suplus but are new. Any help would be appreciated.
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8 comments

Date Votes
  • Herschel
    Years ago I would hear of people taking a .30 cal machine gun barrel and turning it down to the preferred profile for a sporting rifle. The machine gun barrel was supposed to be made of better steel. I don't know if that was true or just another gun shop myth.
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  • charliemeyer007
    My Newton rifle has a 03A3 bbl on it. It was given to me by a friend, his dad had bought 5 new in cosmolene for $1 each in the 60's (the shipping was like $7.50). Good chance he paid very little for them. I think that I would do one at a penny start and the longest duration I could. Metalurgy today is way better than back then.

    Google says 2002 a 1917 new in wrapper, cosmo went for $55.
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  • nmyers
    I doubt that you can sell it
    without the model of machine gun it's for, or, at the least, photos.

    Neal
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  • tsr1965
    The Browning 30 caliber machine gune in use in WW-II, and before, of course, was the legendary 1919. They should be worth at least $100.00 a copy, and probably more...a lot more, depending on how well they are preserved.

    Check on the auction side.


    Best
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  • 5mmgunguy
    They are mint still in the cosmoline (sp?)
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  • 5mmgunguy
    He has two heavy barrels and two light barrel. I will be putting them up for sale after I get a couple of pictures.
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  • v35
    There are three styles for three different 30 Browning MGs: the A1 Watercooled is tapered like a rifle barrel, the A4 is fat with no taper and the A6 is fat at the muzzle end followed by a tapered section increasing to the breech.
    As to quality, I inherited an Ordnance shop in 1953 and had a hard time finding a good new A1 barrel to chop up and rebarrel a Colt 455NS to 30 Carbine. Rifling wasn't so hot in the center of those A1 barrels but good enough for a machinegun. I wouldn't use one for a rifle unless it is borescoped and gaged or a lead plug pulled through to feel for loose and tight spots.
    Headspace is meaningless in BMG barrels because it is adjustable in the guns.
    There should be good demand for new 30-06 BMG barrels by MG shooters.
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  • 5mmgunguy
    He has two A1s and two A4s from your description of them. Thanks!
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