My K98 and Long Branch

[David1974]

Here are the 1937 S/27 K98 and the 1944 Long Branch N04 mk1*

The K98 cleaned up really nice thanks to your advice. Thats about as light as it would go without resorting to sanding and ruining the stamps on the stock.

The Long Branch doesn't look much different, but under that wood.. it was a cosmoline nightmare.

Needless to say I am extremely pleased with them.

Information

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[Skippy]

Nice looking couple of rifles. Is that K98k a reclaimed RC?

[David1974]

Yes the K98K is a RC.

A quick question about the No4 though. After I got all the crap out of the stock, the barrel floats inside the stock Infact from what I can see and feel I don't think the barrel touches the stock at all and there has to be 1/8 inch of play coming out of the nose cap in each direction. Do Enfields have floating barrels?

[Skippy]

That should be fine.
I think it's only the No.1's which were supposed to have the barrel come in contact with the wood near the muzzle.

[Cantom]

Yes the K98K is a RC.

A quick question about the No4 though. After I got all the crap out of the stock, the barrel floats inside the stock Infact from what I can see and feel I don't think the barrel touches the stock at all and there has to be 1/8 inch of play coming out of the nose cap in each direction. Do Enfields have floating barrels?

David- That is not normal. I've been installing various rifles into various wood sets recently and have recent experience with this. The barrel is supposed to have 5-7 lbs of downward pressure at the muzzle end, such that you lift it up, it comes back down. This is unless someone did a center bedding job on it which is not that likely but who knows.

Your front trigger guard bushing is likely too long, careful shortening of it is often all it takes to eliminate that up and down slop.
Somewhere recently someone posted a procedure to adjust the bushing length so that the down pressure is right and the forend isn't being crushed.

Ha- found it!
Gunboard's Forums - View Single Post - Bedding in a Mk4 No1* savage
Bedding in a Mk4 No1* savage - Gunboard's Forums


BTW, the front guard screw needs to have a lock washer under the head, and there must be a tubular bushing in the forend under the trigger guard. (many are missing both)

[David1974]

Thankyou for the info Cantom.

As it turns out it wasn't the king screw bushing. I needed to 'shim the draws'. I added a shim to each side ( approx 3-4 thousands of an inch ) and that magically?.. put about 3-5 pounds of downward pressure at the cap.

[Cantom]

Thankyou for the info Cantom.

As it turns out it wasn't the king screw bushing. I needed to 'shim the draws'. I added a shim to each side ( approx 3-4 thousands of an inch ) and that magically?.. put about 3-5 pounds of downward pressure at the cap.

Okay, there's something I wouldn't have known what to do...glad it worked. I think that info was in the same article wasn't it?
The bushing was exactly the right length?

[David1974]

Okay I am not sure what happened to my first response, so here it goes again..

After checking the king screw and finding it to be okay, I started looking for contact areas that the page was telling me to look for. I found that there was a slight gap between the stock and the butt stock socket. So, I shimmed the draws and doing so magically snugged the stock against the socket and gave the down pressure at the muzzle.

So I guess the next phase is taking it to the range and see what happens.

Thanks for the info Cantom I really appreciate it.

Dave