no4 sporter butt fitment

As Peter points out the butt is aftermarket and not inletted (machined for the purist) to military specifications. Firstly check for the presence of the flat bearing washer by inserting a magnet or long screw driver in the long mounting hole. It's got to be there to achieve and maintain the torque from tighting the stock bolt. Secondly use "Devcon" or "Accuglas" and bed the stock to the butt socket. It's been done to many target rifles. I've got a couple done this way. Your rifle needs a secure butt if you want any degree of reliable shooting. You may want to bed the forend while your at it. A new stock set will have the same issues so why not correct the issues with yours. Hope this helps. Ron

The whole piece that fits into the butt socket should be slightly tapered NickCJ and should tighten up into the socket when the stock bolt is tightened. When it's done up so that it what we Armourers technically describe as 'xxxxing tight', there should be a slight gap of, say .020" or so between the remainder of the wood and the rim or rear edge of the butt socket. This is to ensure that when the butt is a) tight and b) is test fired on the rest with the recoil set to hard, the rim of the butt socket doesn't slice or chip away a chunk of the wood.

Hope that's answered it all.

These commercial butt makers just sling a butt on the copy lathe to get the pattern but ignore these important bits.

Just another very minor points chaps................ I don't ever remember accubed or epoxy fillers or plastic wood being a feature of our woodworking lessons during my apprenticeship or being in use in our workshops. They MIGHT have been, but if they were, I was probably off or asleep when they were. If you have a loose butt, as we did on the No8's, then cut a 1" long x 3/8" deep approx. dovetail out of the top, cut a hardwood patch and file to an oversize fit, glue and cramp/clamp in place. THEN when it's dry and solid. drill and peg THEN rasp and file so that you return to a good tight fit. That's the Armourers way. There are other methods......................

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

Hope that's answered it all.

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perfectly...I'll check the 'armory' and pull it out and take a closer look at it and see what type of measurement i have !

thank you once again.....

I have to thank everyone for their input, particularly Bearclaw and Peter.

I'll add a picture of the original and sporter butts together. From some angles the sporter butt had no taper and others, a large taper. I wonder if it was 'fitted' to the previous rifle.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...no4butt4-1.jpg

Peter, you mention cutting a dovetail in the wood, do you have a picture of such a repair that I can look at and understand the exact details? As much as the devcon/epoxy idea appeals, I would like to try doing it the 'correct' way first. I am hankering for a 303 sporter in the future and want to figure out how to correct any problems. I will buy something sporterised, not bubba-ize it !

I haven't got a picture of how we repaired ours and with the backlog of articles and other stuff (nagging wife, 2 always skint kids, VW golf with broken timing belt etc etc) I won't get round to it for ages.......................

But you can see how I picked the fault up straight away, after having seen and fitted about a zillion of them in the past...................

I would be very surprised if with your skill and experience if you didn't pick it up !! :)
I will figure it out ... I am a visual person and like to see something to get the idea.
Understand about priorities so no sweat there, thanks for your help.

so, I fixed it tonight after putting a new to me butt on and finding out it moved too. This made me go and find the original butt which pulled up really tight. So I got the washer off the spare bolt and put that on ... voila, tighter than a fish's butt at 40 fathoms. It seems that the sporter butts get the hole drilled to a less exacting standard. No idea if it will make any difference to the accuracy but I can at least rule it out. I have also changed scope which may or may help. Suppose I should have waited to try it out before changing scopes but the screwdriver was handy.
Extra thanks to Bearclaw too.