'42 Long Branch No4 MK1* gets a new butt

[Littlejohn]

I've been unhappy with the fit and appearance of the butt stock on this rifle since I acquired it. The butt was loose, and after tightening the bolt, it was drawn up tight against the butt socket. It also had a couple of cracks in it, and had been sanded heavily.



The rifle was also missing the upper sling swivel, so I recently ordered a new LB walnut butt stock, sling swivel, and No4 MKII bayonet from Springfield Sporters.

The package arrived the other day, and I got a chance to work on the rifle today.

The butt required a little fitting, and may still need to be fit closer. I'd like to hear the armorers opinion on that. I didn't want to get the shoulder up against the socket, so I stopped fitting with a bit of a gap still showing.





Now all I need is a sling, action cover, grenade launching attachment, bayonet frog, carrying case, bandolier....anything else??

Information

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[CINDERS]

Have a look on the threads for fitting a L E rifle butt

[Frederick303]

Might be nice to save the butt, if it is the original butt.

I found some years ago with loose butts that I could restore them somewhat by soaking in raw linseed oil, and then one more or less dry the last step is too soak in a linseed /turpentine/beeswax/solution.

One last way I have seen on guns is to get brown paper and a single wrap around the butt, held in place with the same wax mixture.

This seemed to work on guns that were dried out. cracked wood would generally indicates that. for some reason wood that has been really wet and then dried seems to do that as well.

Also I have found with dirty stocks that using a turpentine/linseed oil/white fruit vinegar solution cleans them quite well of surface dirt, though it will not get rid of mold stains.

[Littlejohn]

There were supposed to be a couple more photos in the original post. Don't know what happened to them. Trying it again.

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[browningautorifle]

Nice looking rifle...

[Brian Dick]

You have a bit more work to do fitting the butt. A gap the width of a hacksaw blade should be present.

[Littlejohn]

Well, this is about as good as it's going to get. I did a little more fitting on the butt, then snugged up the stock bolt, to see how far it would draw in, and it stuck tight, and wouldn't come back out, without applying excessive force. So this is where it's going to stay. The gap is about .080, pretty close to the 2mm that Peter Laidler recommended in his article.

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I can't help but wonder where this rifle has been. So much history. Maybe it was in North Africa, maybe it came ashore on Gold, Juno, or Sword beach, maybe it helped liberate Caen, who knows... all speculation now, but that's what makes military rifles so interesting.

[CINDERS]

War trophy with the MP-40 last pic

[Peter Laidler]

Nope, just my observation (photo 1, thread 7), based on nothing more than experience, but that butt to butt socket gap is about twice what it should be. It'd be a shame to leave it looking amateurish when you could get that EXACT in about 3 minutes by taking a tiny amount of wood off the taper, knock the butt in from the rear, get the gap correct, then lock up tight. Make sure that you have the flat washer inside the butt AND the double coil spring washer between the flat washer and the bolt head

[Richard Hare]

Like grandfather said, "It'll do" won't do....."It's either right or wrong".

Nice clean rifle BTW!