No4 Mk1 T Rebuild

[tbonesmith]

I fitted the rear guard, which was a bit too tight under the retainer by rubbing it over some 80 grit paper laid on a flat surface. It didn't take much and it now fits really nicely.
I just got back from the range where we were shooting 300m. It was a scoped shoot and I thought I'd run the barrel in, in the morning and then shoot my Tikka .223 in the scoped shoot in the afternoon, as my scope/bracket is not collimated yet.
The rifle zeroed easily with iron sights while running in the barrel, and appeared to group well. And I thought I'd shoot it in the afternoon with iron sights, but my mate offered to lend be his excellent No32 mk3, and I slapped it on, bore sighted it and adjusted as req'd. The first shot on a 4 footer was a 3 at 12 o'clock, I adjusted down, second sighter a "V", 3rd a "V", fourth and fifth both "V"s. Alright!!
The shoot was essentially 2 strings of ten round single snaps on a figure 12 with a 3" bull on it. The first string I got 6 inners, four outers, and the second I got 3 inners,6 outers, dropping one shot.
All in all, I'm wrapped with that. I think with my scope, the cheekpiece, and a little load development I'll come close to holding the bull.
I'm very glad that the bedding appears to be up to scratch. And that the rifle is a shooter. I also replaced the trigger and sear, and when I get a new striker, I'll replace that and the cocking piece and then tune the trigger.

Attachment 16698 - Attachment 16699

[tbonesmith]

I received my EFD repro cheekpiece yesterday, and today I located it for fitting today or tomorrow. The colour something to deal with but such blond timber is easy to colour to desired tone, the only mabe is how the stains (spirit based) react with the linseed oil, but I'll sort it out easy enough.
One problem that raises its head again is the collimation of the telescope, that is substantially out, and also the scope doesn't appear level, ie. the pointer is not vertical when the rifle is held vertically. I presume I can fit the bracket to the pads to collimate, but I'm stuffed about the out of level bit. I fitted another no 32 Mk3 scope on an original bracket and it zero'd fine on the scope adjustment. Don't get me wrong this is not unexpected, just a little run of the mill befuddlement to address. Before I get too fussed about that issue, ]I'll fit the cheekpiece, look at it again, and read Peters books again.

Attachment 18125 - Attachment 18126 - Attachment 18127 - Attachment 18128

[tbonesmith]

Tonight I fitted up the cheekpiece, I'm pretty happy with the result, but as usual with these things it would be nice to have a second chance to do over and get a better result. It's pretty close fitting, and I can probably improve things a little bit with some tidying up when I finish sand the item, and prep it for finish.
This cheekpiece came somewhat rough finished, in that I could see the spokeshave/ plane marks on it, and having seen that I'm confident that I can reproduce another one from scratch if the final fit, or colour of this one bothers me at all. I don't think that'll be the case, but who knows...

Attachment 18129 - Attachment 18130 - Attachment 18131 - Attachment 18132

[Peter Laidler]

Am I the only one, or are there others that think that TBone should get all this written up together with the photos, padded out and if necessary, written/edited by someone else locally and put into a small book? It'd go like hot cakes TBone. I appreciate that you were just restoring/rebuilding a bit of a clunker, albeit an original T but there's a whole lot of others out there that would like to do the same but just need a bit of guidance....... You've virtually done a complete Base Workshop rebuild on a No4T without the a) experience b) the knowledge and c) without the bloody EMER to help you.

As I said, my friends did it about restoring his MG........

[OxfordAndy]

Peter - I'm with you.

Paul who did my "conversion" has done a small article on his website (I posted a link yesterday) but TBone's thread shows so much more detail and depth.

+1 on TBone writing it up!

TBone - FWIW I think you've done an amazing job! Good on yer!

[Peter Laidler]

Maybe TBone should join forces with your man and pool the info. What about it TBone, a bit of world fame!

[tbonesmith]

Tonight I had a good look at my telescope in it's bracket and on the rifle the horizontal crosswire is without a doubt offset from the horizontal plane of the foresight protector, which is properly set up.
I removed the telescope from the bracket and mounted the bracket without the cradle caps and checked that the plane of the top of the bottom halves of the "rings" was in plane with the top of the foresight protector and it was.
I then placed the scope in the bracket and again same problem.
I looked at the little locating screw on the bottom of the scope and it is just a little bit bent to one side so the scope fits in but offset to horizontal. How best to rectify this? Can I remove this screw and straighten it without stuffing the setup of the scope(which is perfect), or do I just file a smidgen of the interfering side, or attempt to straighten it without removing it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

[Peter Laidler]

I've never come across that predicament TBone....... But I am sure that there must be many No4T's/L42's where the upright pointer isn't quite upright with apparent uprightness of the rifle. But surely, all that matters with a telescope rifle is that the grat post is square with the crosswire. THEN, the sniper aims and kills with the post upright, regardless of what the foresight indicates. Obviously it can only be a matter of minutes of angle of course.

By ensuring the exact square and horizontal of the rifle by the protectors, this is not an exact test. The TRUE horizontal test of the rifle is by the backsight axis pin hole. But if you have tested the foresight protector squareness against the backsight axis pin hole and then the bracket caps against it, then it tells me that the anti rotation screw isn't exactly square to the graticle - OR that the grat post and cross wire are square, but not square in relation to the telescope. It's getting complicated now....................

[Peter Laidler]

Has anyone gone onto the Lee Enfield pages of that auction site and noticed someone in the UK selling 'genuine, new old stock cheek rest screws'? Have you ever read such a load of pure old horse manure............? Go on, be honest! Just looking at the steel versions he's illustrated, they are plainly everyday modern posi-driv threads with round headed heads and screwdriver slots. The brass ones are sort of right-ish if you were blind and deaf and didn't read what he says. He also says that the long one goes into the front and the short one goes into the rear. He's obviously never put the long one into the front and found it trying to wind itself into the steel stock bolt

Still it takes all sorts and you've got to make a living I suppose. And yes, before you ask, I have absent mindedly put the long screw back into the front hole and let it unsuccessfully ram into the steel stock bolt. It wouldn't cut a thread but did wind out and strip the thread out of the butt that I'd just patched! So for my pains, I then had to drill out, patch and patch the stripped thread........... That's how I know!

[Thunderbox]

Has anyone gone onto the Lee Enfield pages of that auction site and noticed someone in the UK selling 'genuine, new old stock cheek rest screws'? Have you ever read such a load of pure old horse manure............? Go on, be honest! Just looking at the steel versions he's illustrated, they are plainly everyday modern posi-driv threads with round headed heads and screwdriver slots. The brass ones are sort of right-ish if you were blind and deaf and didn't read what he says. He also says that the long one goes into the front and the short one goes into the rear. He's obviously never put the long one into the front and found it trying to wind itself into the steel stock bolt

Still it takes all sorts and you've got to make a living I suppose. And yes, before you ask, I have absent mindedly put the long screw back into the front hole and let it unsuccessfully ram into the steel stock bolt. It wouldn't cut a thread but did wind out and strip the thread out of the butt that I'd just patched! So for my pains, I then had to drill out, patch and patch the stripped thread........... That's how I know!

Peter,

Have you come across a UK source for the correct screws? I've searched just about every old-fashioned ironmonger in the south-east, without much luck.