No4 Mk1* Refurb

Hi guys here's my most recent refurb. It's a Longbranch No4Mk1*, 1943. It was pretty well all original, with some pretty bad corrosion to the front band and bolt handle as well as the muzzle, and other small parts.
I replaced the barrel with a very good 2 groove second hand barrel, and bead blasted and painted the badly corroded parts to prevent further damage. I patched the draws, removed, cleaned up, reglued, and pegged the original armourers heel repair, removed the varnish sanded and oiled the timber, rebedded the rifle and pegged the patches as in Peter Laidlers articles (first time I've done this from the outside and they look very subtle) thoroughly cleaned and oiled all parts, and adjusted the fit of the trigger guard and crush collar. Also straightened the striker and verified headspace in spec. Trigger a little heavy, but crisp, and I don't mind them not too light, may adjust after range test.
It's come up great. I think it will shoot very well, and I'll range test Saturday.
One thing I may do is paint the forend and front guard metal caps as they are the only things that look ratty still.

Rifle range tested today at 100m. Performed perfectly. All shooting done standing but groups were good. Needed to hold off a bit as rifle was shooting a bit high (6") and right (6"). Adjusted the foresight after shooting, but will replace with a higher one.
Also hit the foresight protector, and forend and front guard caps with some flat paint and it really tidies it up nicely.
Happy to call this one done! Very happy with the result.

Nice job!

Lots of work done there, tbonesmith, good job!

Second range test at 300m. Rifle is still shooting right about a blade width, trigger is costing points, the rifle is good, but not shooting as well as I'd like. I'll further adjust the sight, and do the trigger adjustment to make it lighter.

Keep at it, don't give up so close to the finish line? :)

Good made! Check up the under barrel pressure. For testing use thin layers of cork and replace them in the correct thickness by a piece of walnut wood. Also check how good the rifles system has contact to the forestock and fit it as long as it is really tight. I made it with my Savage No.1*´s and brought both to be excellent shooters from a 5 round grouping of more than 5" down to 1.5".

Tbonesmith, one thing puzzles me about that rifle. On the left side of the action body, in front of LONG BRANCH, is the import mark of Frankonia Waffen Würzburg (it's an FWW monogram).

This indicates that the rifle was, at some stage, imported into Germany. In which case, it ought to have German proof marks and a date (maybe coded) somewhere on the action body as well. Please have a look for non-Enfield marks on the barrel (maybe underneath) and the bolt body.

:wave:
Patrick

A good eye, Patrick!

Some times when I can't put my finger on the problem, I put the project aside and come back to it a bit later. I was bedding another No4 last week, and I'd patched the draws like this one, and fitted it up. It all went well, but the bedding just didn't feel perfect. I get it quite often where the muzzle is sitting as far as you can tell in the middle of the channel, but not perfectly evenly snappy left and right. It's a bit hard to explain. Anyway the last week rifle, I kept at, scraping here and there, and just working on it in the most ridiculously fine increments (because if you go too far and take too much off you have to repatch and start again, and it's SO EASY to got too far...), until it was absolutely perfect. Bearing as it should, muzzle absolutely perfectly centred and even snappy response left and right.
It must be the problem here, the bedding is not perfect, it is very close, but needs to be perfected. TONIGHT!

Yes, i understand the problem! Its a scary thing to work out to much from the bedding. For this reason i´m using the most times only the cork layers. Once i have found out the correct thickness and position it is easy to make some more layers and change them if they were worn out. And this takes a long time till they´re worn out. Normaly it is enough to change it once a year if you shoot it very often, if not it is enough to change them every second year.

Well tonights work did not end in success! I'll cut out and repatch the draws and go again. Just when everything looked like a winner, I'd lost firm contact with the draws... game over. Disappointing but how it goes sometimes I guess. Still, I learned a few things, and it's been a while since I've had to repatch one, so I'm improving at least, and at the end of the day who cares if it takes 2 or more goes at it as long as the end result is on the money.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gunner

For this reason i´m using the most times only the cork layers. Once i have found out the correct thickness and position it is easy to make some more layers and change them if they were worn out. And this takes a long time till they´re worn out. Normaly it is enough to change it once a year if you shoot it very often, if not it is enough to change them every second year.

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I'm not using cork, I'm not using glass, I'm not using shims. I'm doing my best to learn and use military armourers methods on No4's and that's it. If it takes ages it takes ages, if some rifles or parts get damaged along the way, so be it. I will just ensure the lessons learned are as valuable as the cost of the damage and I'll be square.

Will sort it out this week and (hopefully) have another range report on the weekend.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tbonesmith

I'm not using cork, I'm not using glass, I'm not using shims. I'm doing my best to learn and use military armourers methods on No4's and that's it. If it takes ages it takes ages, if some rifles or parts get damaged along the way, so be it. I will just ensure the lessons learned are as valuable as the cost of the damage and I'll be square.

Will sort it out this week and (hopefully) have another range report on the weekend.

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Hat up to you!:thup: Good to know that some guys doing it the correct way! BTW the cork method i´m using is from an armourer too but not as a forever solution.

Over the last little while I patched out the draws again, pegged them in with oak dowels and stocked the rifle up again and I'm absolutely thrilled with the result. The bedding is absolutely perfect. I might add some pictures later but the receiver print on the forend and the barrel print on the tip of the forend, and well as the clearances and pressures is just spot on. Barrel is centred etc...
So how's it shoot you ask...
Yesterday I shot it at 50m, 100m and 500m. At 50 m they were clustered nicely, at 100m it was shooting very well (a scored target so no group size) and at 500m is was holding a group a bit less than half the size of the 4 ring,(on a full bore target) so I'd say it's holding 2.5 MOA which is pretty darn good from where I sit.
For zeroing windage I've still got the foresight over at the edge of the bock, but the edge doesn't protrude past the edge of the block, so it's fine.
Trigger is good too.
Goodbye to this one!

TBone has pretty well duplicated what the sniper trials team established at the end of the war - and done us all a favour at the same time. That a properly set up No4 consistently out performed any other method of stocking up a fore-end.

What about putting all this down, together with the shooting results on the Lee Enfield forum TBone just to reiterate what us old time Armourers have been saying since we fitted our first fore-ends. Good on yer!

And some more good pictures of your wood patching skills too. I show these to the young Armourers as an example of how things SHOULD be done. Naturally, I tell them that it's my work of course. But, like Christmas, you can't let a few little white lies spoil the show!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

What about putting all this down, together with the shooting results on the Lee Enfield forum TBone just to reiterate what us old time Armourers have been saying since we fitted our first fore-ends.

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I'll do it on the next one, the photo's didn't work out great.
Now to find another No4 to work over, I've run out of donor junkers and half decent barrels... time to start sniffing around...

What amazes me is that every No4 I work on teaches me so much (in a way, then, these rifles are similar to you, Peter ;) ). I think there's no end to this learning path.