ANother fitting teh NO.4 forend thread.

[newcastle]

So here's a question. Tried the talcum powder and oil trick to see where there is contact between forend and Action. The barrel sits to the left at the muzzle, appears to push on the right side of the forend about 2 inches in front of action to just in front of the knox and doesn't seem to touch anywhere except on the draws / recoil lugs and against the butt socket . (forened does not appear warped from side to side) It DID touch on the right side of what I think is called the reinforce (the tapered bit between threaded chamber in action and the barrel) and I followed peters advice, removed a Gnats knacker of wood from there and now it doesn't touch anywhere at all. I'm guessing this foreend is screwed by being way too low under the Chamber and reinforce, or is there something really really obvious I'm missing? As I can't afford more wood I'm thinking this could be one for the acraglass bedding and forend reaming experiments.

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[bow]

I'm only a newbie. Your question is interesting... I have some minor fore end problems: my fore end isn't to bad, but in order to tryng wood bedding tecnique, i've bought two other fore-ends My advice: whatever you want to do,look for another foreend and take your time to make experiments. It's only 3 mounths i train myself in No.4 bedding and i found that the thing is more diffcult than restoring old style kitchen tables and chairs.
I hope more experienced members will anzwer your question.

[Thunderbox]

So here's a question. Tried the talcum powder and oil trick to see where there is contact between forend and Action. The barrel sits to the left at the muzzle, appears to push on the right side of the forend about 2 inches in front of action to just in front of the knox and doesn't seem to touch anywhere except on the draws / recoil lugs and against the butt socket . (forened does not appear warped from side to side) It DID touch on the right side of what I think is called the reinforce (the tapered bit between threaded chamber in action and the barrel) and I followed peters advice, removed a Gnats knacker of wood from there and now it doesn't touch anywhere at all. I'm guessing this foreend is screwed by being way too low under the Chamber and reinforce, or is there something really really obvious I'm missing? As I can't afford more wood I'm thinking this could be one for the acraglass bedding and forend reaming experiments.

So long as the forend is straight and hasn't been too hacked about already, it should be possible to make it fit correctly. I find its quite rare that a random forend cannot be fitted, unless its really been scraped out by someone.

It sounds like you have the barrelled action lying straight in the forend, so what happens when you reassemble the rifle, fit the trigger guard and tighten the front trigger guard screw (without the bushing)? Does the barrel show a down-pressure at the muzzle, or is it rattling around? If you talcum powder'd the forend, where does it show the receiver, reinforce and chamber touching?

Its hard trying to analyse a bedding situation via a forum; you just have to spend some time loose-fitting the action to the forend and observing where it pivots, and visualising the effect that small adjustments might make.

[tbonesmith]

I'm guessing this foreend is screwed by being way too low under the Chamber and reinforce

You can patch the reinforce, just like the draws. There are some threads on it...
No4 Mk1 T Rebuild
New Long Branch No.4 Mk.I * and fore ends problems..
The Canadian Marksman (Bedding the 7.62mm No.4 Rifle) - 1965 [Archive] - Military Surplus Collectors Forums :"Some fore-ends have been found to be too low at the reinforce bearing and there’s no way of checking these before you start! Many came to light during the L42 programme and ….., I’m going off the subject, but just remember the ‘plate, reinforce’ saga! If your is low, then the only answer is to chisel it out and insert a hardwood insert….. or start again or just commit suicide………. "

[newcastle]

This has been hacked out it appears a little before i got my hands on it. This is why I'm angling towards the acragalss bedding. I really don't have the skills or tools to cut out wood and replace it and chisel it out all over again.

[Brian Dick]

Sure you do Charlie. Just take it slow and careful. I've glassed a few synthetic sporter stocks to No.4's and doing it properly with wood is actually easier in it's own way.

[bow]

I've glassed a few synthetic sporter stocks to No.4's and doing it properly with wood is actually easier in it's own way.

Why working with wood is easier than using bedding compound? i found it is not so easy as the reinforce form is a bit complex

[Peter Laidler]

Bow and others, it's just time and more time.......... There's no need to practice on real fore-ends or butts. Just use a piece of good wood to practice on. Imagine how frustrating it was for us three year apprentices who did our first dovetail and pegged 'butt' patches on odd lengths of hardwood! Only when we'd done many practice runs would 'Paddy' Reilly lean into his box and give you a real butt to patch and months after that, a real fore-end and then a Bren butt - or pistol grip - or Sten grip or...............

A monkey could do it with all of this acracrap and other stuff............. It's the true Entered Apprentices and Fellow Crafts who can strut their stuff with the woodwork. I seem to remember TBone having to start re-patching again about 3 times but guess what, he persevered and got there!

I was watching a true craftsman trim a VW Beetle some time ago. He stripped out the foul fitting, glued in, cheap Chinese carpet and seat covering set and set about starting from fresh. Sorry........, I was just about to go off at a tangent but you get my drift.

[newcastle]

This thing was flummoxing me totally. got it so that it was sitting right in the action but still leaning slightly left at the end. I checked again very closely and there was a nearly imperceptible warp in the fore end - bugger. Tried some extreme measures to save it from the garbage can. The fore end soaked for two days in linseed oil and is now hanging with a very heavy weight on the front to pull it back the other way. it may work , it may not ,but we shall see. If it does not, has anyone reamed out the forends of a No.4 enough so that the barrel is free floating everywhere? is that even possible with the design?

[Thunderbox]

If it does not, has anyone reamed out the forends of a No.4 enough so that the barrel is free floating everywhere? is that even possible with the design?

A No4 forend has to be quite badly (visibly) warped before it becomes totally unusable. If you are doing this as a training exercise, then there is a lot you can do to make the forend work. You can channel out the warped side, you can rotate the entire action to one side to centre the barrel at the muzzle end, you can insert a wood patch at the front end to achieve "down pressure" if the forend is bent down at the tip. The draw-back of using a warped forend is that it will often drag the handguards out of alignment. You might need to shape the hanguards to fit the curve of the forend, channel them out to make room for the barrel movement, and even work back as far as inletting the rear handguard retaining ring in order for it all to line up.

This might sound pointless, but it is possible to make a more or less invisible use of a warped forend. I've done it for one or two people where they particularly wanted to keep the original numbered forend on the rifle (e.g. quite a few of the "near mint" No4 mk2s coming out of South Africa have warped forends)