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@Vintage Hunter, I have a Century Arms knock off that I picked up for $200. I figure if the pads don'T turn out to be garbage once the attempt at collimating gets underway (lol) then I will save some cost there. If they are junk, I would go with a set from Fultons ($200) and a bracket from Roger Payne whenever he gets some fabbed up ($350ish). Glass would be a Weaver K3. Still on the fence about replacing the barrel with a Criterion, once those hit the market ($350ish). As to intended use, I would like to try my hand at the vintage sniper competition (hense my leanings toward the new barrel- the new Gibbs and JRA 1903 repro are taking a lot of the gold from the way I understand it),and deer and black bear hunting in the fall and winter. Up until now I've been toting a M1A. Like I wrote earlier, firing that No4T made me a fan of Enfields real quick.
BTW, nice rifle you have there. I am truly jealous. I wish I had your luck. I have not encountered a scoped No4T for under 3k, and every non scoped T I've ran across has been in the $1200-$1600 range.
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Well gundoc, sounds like you got it all sorted out there. Other than what I've read in SGN and a couple other sources I have no hands on experience with the Century Arms clones but from what I hear they did a passably job on the pads as far as getting them on straight and to the correct spacing. I can tell you though they weren't selected for conversion based on accuracy as the originals were so it could be a toss up. As long as the barrel isn't a sewer pipe, the bedding is good and you don't have to white knuckle the trigger to make it go off it will probably shoot about as good as it would with a new barrel. The original No.4T's are accurate but they aren't tack driving target rifles. The L42 was/is quite a step forward in the accuracy department.
As for as the '03 winning lots of matches, well it reminds me of an old saying regarding the '98 Mauser, the Lee Enfield and the '03 Springfield. The Germans built a hunting rifle, the British built a battle rifle and the Americans built a target rifle.
I have an SA M1A too but it's getting a bit long in the tooth and needing a rebuild. The bedding it shot, piston and plug show quite a bit of pitting and the barrel has over 3000 rounds through it so it don't shoot near as good as it used to. I'll most likely send it up to FA for a tune up after deer season. Good luck with the project. Keep us posted on the progress.:cheers:
