Enfield barrell movement

Picked up my first Enfield. A Long Branch no4 mk1* 1945. Almost passed because of the price and avail of ammo. I took the plunge because I always admired the Enfields. Found some surplus Iraq and South African ammo. I'm 67 and only a recreational shooter. Get to the public range maybe once a month. Have not done a lot of shooting with long guns. Mostly hand guns. With that said this has decent accuracy as is. I can hit a pie plate out to 100 yards with the irons. Rounds are a little all over the place (that's me) but ok for battlefield accuracy.
My question: I have found a lot of info,especially from Mr. Laidler, on how these guns are made. In an article he had about bedding my rifle passed his basic test. Everything is tight. The barrel is centered. 4-5 pounds when pushing on the bottom of the sight protector. The only thing I'm not sure of is my barrell,at the muzzle, has very SLIGHT movement sideways but only to one side. Just curious as to what that may mean. Sorry to be long winded. Thanks.

Average Joe: Not sure exactly what you mean- you noted 4 or 5 lb to lift the barrel off the tip of the forend and, when lifted, you can deflect it sideways a bit but only one direction? It might mean the forend is a bit out of true or warped and rides up one side of the channel when lifted. It should be perfectly centered in the channel. Maybe elaborate a bit about what you're seeing.

Ridolpho

Thanks for your effort to explain. With the butt on the floor I grab the fore end. Put my thumb under the sight protector and press. There is 4-5 lbs to deflect the barrel up. When looking at the barrel in this position it is centered. When I take my thumb off the bottom of the site protector and put it on the sides of the protector (one side at a time) and press the sides to move the barrel sideways one side as slight movement and the other way no movement. Hope this explains it better.

That's what is called "muzzle-bound" I believe. Florida being high humidity, wood is inclined to move and swell, especially if it hasn't been oiled for decades. If you have a particularly dry place in your house you could leave it there for a few weeks and see what happens. Upshot is, forend needs to come off, be thoroughly dried and then well oiled with raw linseed so that moisture cannot be absorbed so much or so easily.

You used a scale to measure the force required or estimated it?

The muzzle of the barrel must sit in the centre of the fore-end. Depending on everything else, you CAN move the fore-end over a tad by moving the body over at the rear end and seating it so that the muzzle is in the centre. It will only take a VERY small bit of tweaking due to rotational cumulative error about the screw, front trigger guard. But like Surpmil says, the fore-end needs a good dose of linseed oil.

One of our tests was to repeat the test you did, with the thumb and lever it up/left and then up/right anhd see it slide back into the centre.

I did use my trigger pull scale. Thanks for all the tips. Have a Merry Christmas in case I don't post before then.