Longtitudinal Crack in Fore-end forward of Trigger Guard

Just wanting to clarify the effectiveness of a repair I need to do on a few of my MKIII's:

Its a normal split that runs from the main screw hole in the stock, usually with a busted out piece of wood closest to the mag, and extends towards the rear sight protector ear fixture hole. I have a picture here of a more extreme version of the cracks on my rifles just to give an idea (Credit to whoever took the picture). Mine are nowhere near this bad.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/para...3/DSCN0034.jpg

I remember someone mentioning a repair for this (Might have been Mr Laidler himself) whereby you drill a hole at the very front/end of the crack (vertically), use a big beefy bit of dowel, glue it all up, and then when its done make a plug for the bottom of the dowel so it doesn't stand out so bad against the fore-end. I'm only curious as to the effectiveness of this repair accompanied with repairing the rear of the fore-end that is always split as well. If its a repair that can stand up in military practice then should be ok for me, or if someone has a better idea let me know.

Cheers.

This was a common fault and an everyday repair for us, well into the No4 era. The repairis described in detail in an earlier thread if anyone cares to resurrect it.

Thanks Mr Laidler, I'm fairly certain I remember reading a comment from you about how to do it ages ago, but now trawling through threads about stock repairs I can't find anything about it.

nijalninja: For the wood-shop dropout (like me) here's another approach. Amazingly I had to order from the US to get slotted screws that resembled the screws in the great many "Ishapore Screw" equipped No's 1 and 4 rifles in my collection. The rifle pictured is a Siamese contract No. 1 that the previous owner had found wanting in the accuracy department. The forend was, essentially, shot but I liked the appearance of it so much that I put in a total replacement of the draws area and the screw to stabilize a forward crack. It shoots good now because the bore, amazingly, is near perfect. If I had it to do over again I'd use a dowel as per Capt. Laidlers advice.

Ridolpho

Peters Articles

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....0622#post90622

Article from Son

http://www.milsurps.com/content.php?...a-Lithgow-SMLE

Ridolpho, I too love battle scarred rifles, but I reckon I can cut it with the dowel. I've done a set of draws, partially, before and little bits since then, and now finally I understand what I need to do. I'm not too fussed on how my rifle shoots after this since the bore is beyond toast, but the next half nice gun that needs this repair I will be not so worried about it.

Dan, I have read both of those before a few times, but after re-reading them I now know what must be done. Thanks for refreshing me. I should have known the answer was already easy to find.

Don't mean to double post but figured some pictures of it now I've started would be appreciated. Turns out the wrist face of the fore-end was way worse than I first thought and will need more work than anything.

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The LHS wall at the rear of the fore-end is slightly split from the back towards the front, but not far. I reckon its probably too fragile to open up, so I just put two holes down from the top and glued and plugged it in. Then relieved the split under the fore-end and plugged it too. While I was trying to open the crack I found a few new ones and realised the split did in fact run through the top into the barrel channel where before it looked clear. Also the RHS of the rear of the fore-end is pretty much coming apart, but I'll see what I can do. Because of that and the fact I will be dowelling it crossways under the knox form I figured opening and gluing the crack itself was not over important.

Also need to work on my wood skills so the holes turn out neater.

nijalninja: There's sure a lot of forends out there that are at the point of no return. If one is willing to attempt repairs like this it adds a whole new dimension to Lee Enfield collecting. The Siamese rifle I mentioned might be considered a "collectible" but I only payed about $400 Can for it and in the Canadian market there's more shooters than purist collectors. Personally I dislike rifles that have well worn, patinated metal that are thrown into a new, unissued forend. Keeping the very well used forend on it but making it shootable again seemed to me the best course. There's no worries about fakery as the work most of us are capable of will never be confused with the amazing patches and work that was done by bona-fide armourers. On the other hand, I too have high end collectables that I would never dream of altering in any way and, if unshootable, I don't shoot. Each one's got to be looked at as an individual case.

Ridolpho

Well I'll try nearly anything. Just hate to see a gun get wasted unless it is actually unsafe to shoot, and I have to agree again. I have a few rifles I wouldn't shoot for their collectible value as well.

Now onto part two of the repair: Tidied up the plugs I did yesterday somewhat and they look alright, then drilled and plugged the crack in the top as well as the crossways dowel and that is where the good news ends. Figure I'll share the screw up too.

As always I can't get two holes from either side to line up perfectly so there is a little step at one point that the dowel has to go past, but having a tapered end and doing a test fit I figured it would be fine... apparently not. Dowel got to the last 10mm and stuck fast, then split where I was tapping it it, then wouldn't go back either, so now its sitting in there halfway and split. I'm waiting for glue to dry before drilling it out and trying again. Very annoying. Something for another day.

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Next time you put large dowels in, put a little V shaped cut down the side of the dowel to let the air and any excess glue out of the bottom.

Nice work on the stock repairs. I'm doing the draws on my No4 right now. (because I think I buggered them up 15 years ago)

Roy

Good idea, but its a hole straight through where the excess glue can just run out the other end.

I've started on a set of draws, which was quite daunting, and now this. Its pretty good fun when things don't go pearshaped so much. Best of luck with your's. May I ask how you buggered it up the first time?

Slight update. I don't want to be the only one reviving this thread but I suppose in the future if someone finds it I hope it has the answers they need.

Also bonus picture of other fore-end I was going to patch at its rear then scored a chip forward of the trigger guard.

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I think I didn't know how to properly take a forend off and pulled it off from the muzzle end. This was in the early 2000's before the wealth of info that is available online. Its was my first enfield and cost me $190

It’s a bit late now, but opening the crack and getting glue intonation t is absolutely essential to this sort of repair. The dowel should reinforce the repair not be the repair. May I suggest that you drill out the dowels you have put in forward of the crush collar, open the crack and get some good wood glue or epoxy in there, clamp it up and redowell after the glue cures with the next size up of dowell!

Regarding the repair at the rear I feel that might give you trouble too, I’ve posted a similar repair to that before, but I think you’ll find that with the whole area collapsed as it appears, there’s more to it than you’ve addressed. I’ll try to post the pics of what I’d suggest you try at the rear

Hey Tbone, yeah everyone seems to reckon that but every split like this I have tried to repair with glue always splits back open again after unclamping it, even on guns other than Lee Enfields. I also can't say I feel confident in opening up that crack too much without the stock splitting anymore. I can get the dowel out and re-do it after gluing the crack but its never worked for me yet, hence I would rather place more importance on the cross-dowel. I also have had trouble getting glue into cracks before. I've tried using little pins to prod the glue down in there, heating the area, etc, but maybe the problem is that I am not spreading it open enough.

And yeah what I have done so far on the rear is just the bit which I already know how to fix, or at least stop from worsening. I also have seen pictures of a job you did which looked like what I will have to do with this one. Basically take everything out, glue a block in, and then re-cut the rear end entirely and hand-fit it to the action. Probably dowel or brass rod it in in there too. Not something I am keen on, but I'll take my time to make sure I know what needs to be done as best I can before starting. From what I can see the draws have sheared from the stock altogether and been allowed shift backwards and then break out the little bit of wood joining the two sides of the wrist face of the fore-end. Meaning I will need to cut out and replace the entire draws area.