No. 4 Mk 1 Endield questions.

Hello,
I recently picked up a No 4 Mk 1 Enfield. It was really clean The bore is shiney with sharp rifiling.; my guess is that the dealer re-finished the wood and cleaned the metal before he placed it for sale. It has a BB pre-fix so I'm guessing from what I've read is was made at the BSA plant in 1943.
I took it to the range this past weekend and with Privi partisan 174gr FMJ it was grouping about 3" at 50yds and kinda all over the place at 100yds. When I got home, I slugged the bore and got a reading of .312 - .313 with the Privi bullets measuring at .310. WOW! what a difference!! I started reading in some of the forums out there about the rifle bore varied especially for war-time builds. Okay, I was going to reload for it anyway and I did see that Hornady has 150gr .312. I would like to try to get the full potential of this rifle, so I'm starting to gather information to accurize it while maintaining it's military configuration. I read about properly applying and maintaining linseed oil to the fore stock so not to cause shrinkage but I also was considering glas-bedding by the front lug/ 2" of barrel and the rear contact points of the receiver/forestock. Even where the butt stock mounts to the receiver. I've read conflicting information about free-floating. Is the barrel supposed to free-float the whole length or up to the end of the forestock where the wood is raised? Is there supposed to be any upward pressure at that point? Has anybody done this? Anything else to look for or consider? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks for looking!! :thumb:

http://photos.imageevent.com/badgerd...0correctly.pdf
Milsurps - Worn draws in your No1, 4 or 5 fore-end .... (by Peter Laidler)
Milsurps - 2002 No.4 (All Marks) .303 Rifle Manuals (Complete Set)

How long is the front guard bushing?

I might be a bit off with my advice so hopefully others will chime in and steer me in the right direction if im giving you bad or ill informed advice.

Firstly reloading, 150 gr projectiles ive had better responces from my wife bringing home 3 new rifles to my collection than trying 150 grain projectiles, the dam thing wont stabilise and often as you are finding are on the slim side, can i suggest getting some 312 Hornady rn, they are 180gr, ugly as sin, but a far better bearing surface, longer and wider!! flat base and seem to be rather forgiving, no target round i agree but a comercail round that i have found to be like i said, forgiving. I cast my own projectiles and after slugging barrels and making throat casts you soon realise just how big some of the old girls were! im sizing rounds at .316!

The other aspect that i found to help with rifles that were less than snug in the draws and reciever area was the following practice. I went and bought a storm water down pipe capped one end. bought raw linseed oil and mineral turpentine, mixed 50/50, poured into pipe and soaked the woodwork for some time, then hung it, soaked it, hung it repeated over a couple of days and re assembled, often with very good results.

but now in saying that i am about to try Mr Laidlers draws techniques, why, because he really knows his S**T big time, my trick will only work while the wood fibres are able to spring back and retain their shape and strenght. Mr Laidler tech will work a lot longer, but first i need to practice on a few donor stocks!

Read this same post on another forum, at least someone was smart enough to point him here.

Than you everybody for your comments!