Lithgow SMLE Accuracy project

Late last year I managed to pick up 3 Lee Enfield rifles from a nearby dealer for a really good price. My initial thought was to have one as a parts rifle, one as a dedicated sporter, and the other as a Full wood "accuracy Project". Although I originally intended to buy just two of the, the dealer threw in another one for free, as he said he just couldn't sell it.

Easy to see why.....it was the most bubba'd Lithgow I have ever seen. In an attempt to "sporterise" this poor rifle, someone had used a hack saw and angle grinder on the bolt to duplicate a Mannlicher style and failed miserably, as well as a flush fitting 5 shot magazine tack welded to the trigger guard etc. Oddly enough, this misguided soul had fitted what appeared to be a handmade trigger of quite good proportions and style, fitted a solid quality bridge mount ( with a woefull, cloudy, bottom end 'scope ), with mismatched after market custom butt and forend. I thought it would be good for parts anyway, and it was free, so I grabbed it.

The main buy was a 1918 BSA full wood, shot out barrel and non matching bolt, but otherwise period correct, right down to the stacking swivel. This was to be the donor rifle for the other one, a like new condition 1943 Lithgow, R.A.A.F. issue that had also been sporterised. Take the timber and fittings off the BSA, put them on the '43 Lithgow, and then use all the tips and tricks I've picked up over the years, and make a really accurate Full wood, without ruining a collectible.

Although the BSA had no real value for a collectors piece, and was too dangerous to shoot, I still had some misgivings about its donor value. With no stamps or discerning marks or dates on the timber and fittings, I decided to reluctantly sell sell the whole Full wood and fittings to another collector who desperately wanted a WW1 BSA restoration. He was really happy with it, and the money was to be put toward finding another more suitable non-valuable set of woodwork.

I'm taking my time getting to the point, but just wanted anyone who wants to read this to understand I had a particular end goal in mind, and there was no great rush. So, about a month ago, I contacted another dealer who used to advertise "as new" repro stocks for Lithgows. As luck would have it, he had one complete, as new, set of full wood timber for a reasonable cost, so I grabbed it straight away. The priced was reduced due to some minor surface damage on one piece, but otherwise brand new unfitted, and much better suited to my purpose.

It should arrive this Friday, so I've stripped out the '43 Lithgow and cleaned off the cosmoline, and gave the sporter stock to a mate who needed one. The barrelled action is in remarkable condition, matching numbers, with the rifling practically 10/10 and shiny as a mirror. The headspace is perfect, just a fraction tight, with all of the blueing still on the bolt surface and magazine, and the locking lugs identical on their contact surfaces. It looks as though it has hardly ever been fired. I have a central No 4 Range sight which I'll fit to wring the most out of it at some stage down the track, but for now I'll use the standard sights. I'll do my best to post some pics of the project over the next week

While I didn't intend to get side tracked in this thread, I thought it would be interesting to someone to know what happened to the Bubba'd parts rifle that I got for nothing. She ended up being the classic dark horse of all time. With nothing to lose, and a pile of spare parts and some curiosity, I assembled a bolt, swapped out the trigger guard, and fitted a magazine. With the forend off, I shimmed up the receiver area to float the barrel, and cleaned up the drawers for a snug fit.

I gave the barrel a good scrub, which came up remarkably well, and swapped around some bolt heads until the headspace was spot on. I then cleaned up the trigger and sear, polished up the cocking piece, and put on a spare scope that was lying around. I didn't bother with the finish on the stock because I just needed to know it would work properly before getting too carried away. I figured if it shot minute of deer, I could just sell it as an inexpensive sporter to someone local and recover my costs.

Even now, I can't believe the transformation. Sighting it in with cast loads first, I actually thought it was so inaccurate I was missing the target completely. Turns out it had shot a ragged hole with a three shot group. Adjusting the scope, it shot another ragged hole with 5 shots, no flyers. In all my years with cut down and sporterised SMLE's, I've never had one this accurate. Somehow, it had all come together out of what I believed was a total junker.

Needless to say, I won't be selling it at all, and will probably take it Deer hunting next season. I'm even reluctant to re-finish the stock or tidy up the bluing in case I disturb something. I've heard of freak rifles and always been dubious of the claims, but to get one for nothing that would have otherwise been dumped in the crusher has changed my opinion. I'll try and post a picture of the original bolt once I figure out the process for photo's.

Pictures!

Have to get my son to post the photo's as I can't do it from where I am. Hopefully some pics by next Monday ( still waiting for the stock to arrive )

I agree with 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. Leave that rifle as is, never 'fix' anything, except for judicious cleaning. Don't change the recipe for the cartridges that made the one-hole groups, in fact, stock up on them.

The replacement stock arrived yesterday, and is in better shape than anticipated. It is virtually identical in every aspect to the original, with a very good matching finish on all four pieces of timber. The discounted price tag was over some "cosmetic" damage, which ended up being the most superficial of scrapes on the underside of the butt, and very simply touched up. The grain is similar to black American walnut, and the hardness is about the same as Queensland Maple. The quality of the inletting is very impressive, and the forend fits snugly around the receiver with no play or binding. I'll assemble the rifle later in the week, and check the muzzle pressure using both the spring tension and shimming to get the correct amount. Hopefully some photos by tomorrow or Thursday.

Still working on putting up pictures......the stock is coming along quite well, although a few minor gremlins arose in the fitting. There are numerous small discrepancies in the machining and inletting i.e high spots around the receiver area, holes drilled 1/16 of an inch off centre, or too shallow, excess timber not trimmed off and so on. While this may sound like a quality control issue, it also means that I can do some precise repairs and alterations to suit my project, without fear of ruining a collectable's value.

Working with brand new timber also means no oil soaked or crushed bits of wood. What ever shimming I may need will be brass or aluminium instead of the more traditional cardboard or cork which tends to compress over time. It took a couple of hours of patient sanding and inletting to get the fore end to sit properly, but I'm really pleased with the progress. The trigger guard in particular has to be just right to wedge up the fore end so the drawers sit at the correct angle with the recoil lugs and have equal bearing on both sides. Like wise floating the barrel from just in front of the knox form to just past the barrel band and then bedding it correctly up to the nose cap to give the correct upward pressure between 4 and 7 pounds.

Still undecided on whether to use tung oil on the internal timber, and Linseed oil on the exterior, but once the rain stops and the weather warms up I should have made my mind up. Just to recap- I'll make this one as close as I can to "as issued" set up the way the original armourers had them, and see what kind of accuracy I get to start with. With brand new stock and as new metal work, the basics are already there, although it may take some seasoning to settle things down. I don't want this thread to draw out, so if it shoots 2MOA as is I'll leave it, and if it doesn't, I'll keep going. Hopefully some photo's soon.

Don't knock the traditional methods, they are tried and tested and must be good if they are still working well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AradoAR234

Still undecided on whether to use tung oil on the internal timber, and linseed oil

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Go with the original substance: warm raw linseed oil, with the stocks dipped in them for 8 hours. (You probably don't need to warm up a bath of oil though...;))

You'll find that in manufacture, the raw oil was used and in service a mix of raw (stays 'wet' longer) and boiled was often used for maintenance. The affect of boiled was often a more shiny, slick finish that was generated form the thicker oil drying on the surface and being polished through constant handling.

But tung oil was not part of the Australian inventory. Might have been for the M1 Garand, but not the SMLE.

You cannot really do much better than follow the original instructions to armourers :

Thanks for all the tips and advice on stock finishes everyone:). As this is more of an accuracy project as opposed to a restoration, I was tossing up using tung oil on the interior of the timber as it appears to dry and seal better than Linseed oil. The weather in Tasmania is pretty ordinary, with lots of rain, snow, sleet and assorted moisture that gets inside full wood timbers after hours of exposure to the elements. Once I get it shooting as well as possible, I intend taking it deer Hunting in the highlands next season, as I have done with my Remington P14 for years. I didn't want to have to disturb the set up too much by stripping it down to dry everything out afterwards.

Plus rust seems to form on everything over our long winter inside the gun safe, so I need to liberally coat all the hidden metal surfaces with a film of relatively thick oil which I don't want seeping into the timber work when everything heats up from firing. Believe me, I have been hunting with my service rifles for nearly 50 years in the worst possible weather, and I understand why synthetic stocks are so popular. No way would I fit one to my Lee Enfield though:eek:

My last BSA ( circa 1920 ) was so oil soaked that repairing the fore-end around the receiver was very problematic and I ended up just living with it instead of risking more damage.

Back on topic though, the timber on this reproduction stock is very hard, much more so than coachwood, and the grain appears to be very dense, particularly on the butt. Being new, untreated timber that has never had a finish applied represented a bit of a novelty after always working on much older seasoned timber. I found the raw linseed oil application ( as per the original treatment ) acted differently on the separate pieces. I actually did seal up a length of guttering to use as a bath for the fore-end and handguards ( I used a new piece...the house renovations can wait :p ) and a large deep baking dish for the butt. Keeping the fire extinguisher handy, I placed the containers on a barbeque plate so no naked flame was directly on them, and heated up the oil until it was nearly too hot to touch then put in the pieces.

I don't think the armourers at Lithgow will be falling over themselves to duplicate my set up, but it worked for me. Pretty labour intensive, as I had to wear welding gloves and keep removing the oil baths before they got too hot, build up or dampen down the fire in the barbie, and try and keep the heat as constant as possible. When I took them out hours later, I let them stand vertical in a tub for all the excess to drain off overnight.

Although all made from the same piece of timber, the for-end absorbed and dried out from the oil much faster than the other bits, with the Butt appearing to be the most dense grain of all. It was sticky days later, so I wiped off the excess with a turps rag and is now dry to touch. So all the inletting , screw holes and impossible to reach parts of the wood have been thoroughly soaked as per the "official" treatment, and I'll let them sit until my next lot of days off come around ( I'm a shift worker ). Sealing the inside of the fore-end might end up being a mixture of tung oil, beeswax and linseed/turps mix heated up to a paste like I used on the internal timber of my P14, but I have the rest of what passes for summer here to decide.

Sorry no photo's yet....I've taken them but am still waiting to get them uploaded....

Leaving the woodwork for now, one of the issues I was going to run into was accurate windage adjustment. Even though I have modified a front sight adjuster for an AK47 to fit the Lithgow sight blade, it still mean removing the nose cap every time, which is something I'm trying to avoid. With the fore-end fully assembled and bedded correctly, I really would prefer to leave it as is.

No way was I going to pay the exorbitant prices they want for WW1 Lithgow windage adjustable rear leaf, however I did manage to find one for half the price they had been going for. I have used them before and found them very precise, and so much simpler and quicker to use than drifting the fore sight left and right. Even though I'll have the mounting plate for the Central range sight fitted, it is still about accuracy from a standard issue rifle.

I always thought the sighting set up on the 03 Springfield was overated and a little fragile, and the first batch of Lithgow rifles ( 1912 onwards----) had a very robust and practical military sight. The windage feature was dropped in later rifles for a number of reasons but for this project it will be invaluable.