A 1944 No 4 T Longbranch Homage

Hi All, My first post here but I have been a longtime "lurker". I purchased a very sad No4 last year, I was told at the time the barrel was OK but on closer examination the barrel was pretty bad.

Obviously a steady diet of corosive ammo combined with years of neglect. I wanted a shooter and decided to go the No 4T replica route. I spent the latter part of last year gathering the parts as well as a new stock from the UK. There is still some fitting issues to sort out wit the fore end especially the front wood and the required pressue with the barrel.

Pads have been fitted by another forum member and we (my brother and I) fitted a used but excellent condition barrel. Please note there are still a number of issues to sort out and the final refinishing of the metal which will take place soon.

This wont be passed as a legitimate "sniper" rather a faithfull restoration / saving what was effectivley something unusable.

Can I say thank you to all of those members here that contribute a massive amount of knowledge, to Peter Laidler and the gems he has posted here as well as the other members who have some very helpful information.

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All of the parts with the exception of the pads are Longbranch, I have fired this rifle but achieved nothing near what it is capable of yet, please feel free to pass comments any feedback is appreciated.

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Nice blond wood hope you sort the issues out, one thing I noticed is the pin is missing from the rear sight axis pin they come up on flea bay at times usually on the UK market I may have a spare one some where I can give you if you have no luck.
You may wish to stake the screws on the pads if your going for the authentic look but it is up to you if they were fitted as per Peters threads they should never move but Peter L may comment on this as I think when they were fitted they slotted the screws and ran solder down whilst heating the area then did them up sequentially.

As the area cooled down it shrank and pulled the screws even tighter, if you get the book an Armourers perspective Peter wrote it is a wealth of information on the T's and a worthy addition to your collection they can be had from Ian Skennerton in Aus I picked up a signed copy from him last year.
Is that a repro 32 scope if it is how much did it set you back as I am thinking of doing a replica T so I do not have to use an original I have a spare No.4 rifle but not the other gear like the pads, bracket and scope I have a butt stock with a cheek piece fitted already just toying with the idea and trying to sneak the upgrade in under the radar. :nono:

Thanks for the comments Cinders, noticed your from WA and headed there soon for work. We have an office in Canning Vale I visit from time to time. I have the pin for the rear sight just havent fitted it yet. Was waiting for the visit to the blueing tank before full re assembly. Thank you for the offer though, much appreciated.

I have a proper front swivel and am waiting for the machining to be done as per Peters thread.

The front nosecap gave me no end of trouble and I couldnt fit the front band.

It was about this time I popped out the pins and noticed the location was a little "off". About 2 - 3 hours work fixed that although I need to fill the existing holes and re drill them on a milling machine so we dont follow the original holes.

Yes the scope is a repro alas it isnt mine yet, I borrowed it from my brother as he was lucky enough to find a geniune item for his BSA No 4 T.

This scope has some issues and needs some work to overcome problems with the elevation drum, said drum has some play up and down, a friend dis assembled his and made some adjustments. The very slight movement during recoill shifts the stadia up and down making accurate shooting impossible.

There is nothing wrong with the clarity of the optics though and my friend is fielding his replica on an L42A1 replica with no issues after 100's of rounds downrange.

I am currently restoring an SMLE that has been stripped. Have most of the parts required although the barrel is proving difficult to find.

Re: SMLE barrel:

Do you want a standard or heavy job?

Standard barrels in good condition seem to be even rarer than the post-war heavy ones. There was a bunch of NEW in the grease Indian-made SMLE barrels, complete with sights, floating around awhile ago, but I have not seen any lately.

I have never seen a Lithgow or UK-made "standard" barrel new in a wrapper. They probably exists but.........

Of course, with a bit of enthusiasm and CAREFUL machining, you could turn down a heavy barrel, thus avoiding all of the dramas involved in fooling around with the front furniture.

My efforts to make "short-chambered" SMLE barrels here in Oz seem to have become lost in circular arguments with barrel makers; mainly about quantity and costings; never mind the potential dramas involved in making a "drop-in" barrel with the RIGHT thread form and minimal headspace for the SMLE, if such a thing can even be done.

Maybe next year, if the Canadians and Yanks don't get in first.

Hi Bruce and thanks for the reply, heavy or standard whatever I can get at the moment. In the early 90's there were parts everywhere for SMLE's. Coachwood stocks were plentiful now nothing.

I would be happy just to find a tube in good condition, my brother has a couple spare but wont part with one. He even has a couple of complete sets of woodwork as new but I understand his reluctance.

I did visit a barrel maker in South Australia 2 years ago whilst on a business trip, he has the original machinery from sportco and is still making cut rifle barrels. Was considering contacting him and asking if he would profile one for me??

Sportco's "start-up" machinery was apparently from the Hendon annexe of SAF Lithgow.

Sportco made SMLE barrels in several calibres; .22/.303 (Sprinter) .25/.303, .270/.303 among them. The exterior profiles are "remarkably" similar to a standard-weight .303 barrel.

They even fitted them with "surplus" SMLE sights, though most seem to have a "commercial" style front-sight "ramp" along with the issue rear sight. Production at Sportco often ran to four barrels per hour, not bad for a small shop using traditional cut-rifling methods.

The other interesting "line" involved the "sporterising" of Martini Cadet rifles. Sportco won a tender for 40,000 of these, back in the good-old-days when governments actually sold small arms in bulk to the public. About half were then on-sold to Golden State Arms in the US.

More historical stuff about Sportco here: http://www.sportco.org.au/pdf/history01.pdf

Meanwhile, Lithgow had been in the "sporter" game for quite a while, ultimately producing a range of "borrowed" designs as well as things like the SMLE-based .22 Hornet repeater, single-shot .410 shotgun and, rarest of them all, a repeater chambered for the .310 Cadet cartridge.

The mighty Omark target rifle was originally a Sportco design and product, until acquired by Winchester, via their "Omark" subsidiary. Winchester had previously contracted Sportco to produce a range of .22 RF rifles for the US market in parallel to Sportco's small but growing sales there. The big red "W" sold these "badge-engineered" rifles for less than the "original" product and the rest is history.

The Sportco foray into shotguns is another interesting story.

Thanks for the information Bruce, the PDF on Sportco was very interested indeed. After many hours of online research I have yet to see a No4T with pale wood, everyone I have seen is dark.

Apart from the L42A1 fore ends has anyone else seen a No 4 T with pale wood?

Apart from the view that dark wood has an advantage in a sniping role, was it the case, as Peter has said, that they just spent longer in the stain tank??