No4 rifle bedding

[scharfschutzen63]

Is it advisable to loosen the front trigger guard screw on a well bedded No4 to help prevent the stock from changing shape and loosing upward pressure on the barrel when storing the rifle?

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[Alan de Enfield]

Is it advisable to loosen the front trigger guard screw on a well bedded No4 to help prevent the stock from changing shape and loosing upward pressure on the barrel when storing the rifle?

There should be a spacer between the body and the trigger guard, the spacer should be 'cut' to be the exact length required so that there is no undue presure on the furniture when the front trigger guard screw is bottomed out and the collar is tight.
Leaving it tight will not affect the wood. The pressure is on the metal collar.

The wood can shrink due to lack of maintenace (soaking in BLO) but that is easily corrected.

[Micheal Doyne]

I appreciate the collar prevents excess crush at the main screw, however given pressure is exerted else where by the stock I feel that reliving it can hurt. I have a little torque screw driver with a nice big flat head, all my enfields have the main screw slackened post shooting and then re torqued to the same point prior . Probably does nothing, as Alan says major crush should be prevented, but I like the solution. I wouldn’t do it if I couldn’t re toque toy the same point easily.

[Alan de Enfield]

I wouldn’t do it if I couldn’t re toque toy the same point easily.

I don't think the front trigger guard screw needs to be at any specific torque as (according to Peter Laidlers instructions) it should be 'bottomed out' into the body threads anyway.

[Micheal Doyne]

Fair enough. On the five rifles I shoot for at least three the amount of tension seems to semantically impact group sizes, with the apparent best setup being less than the full pressure tried. I do not think this is conclusive as I a strong believer that people shoot better with a rifle they feel confident in the setup.

Two point to PL’s comments,
He is a highly qualified armour with thousands of hours experience of mechanical fitting. I am relatively qualified electrical and electronic engineer, who mostly used a computer. I would hazard a guess that his basic feel tightening a screw approximately as accurate a my torque rench.
I don’t think the military accuracy requirements where as exacting as Morden target shooters.

[CINDERS]

The Military definition for the target shooters among us can be defined as ~ Man Of Angle = MOA

[Daan Kemp]

I would imagine there would be armourer and storeman and stores instructions for loosening that screw for storage purposes, if such was required, seeing that these rifles were often stored for decades without any attention.

There are other instructions for armourers, etc, about that screw that preclude any loosening. I would hazard that there be no instructions for loosening any LE screws for any kind of storage. Or tightening them again after storage.

Thus I recommend tightening it correctly and leaving it like that.

[Micheal Doyne]

That is a fair enough call. I wasn’t claiming they where loosened in service, it is just something I do. To me it makes sense to relieve pressure from a system when not in use, and given I can easily re tension it to the same point i don’t believe there is a negative. I have to admit I thought it was a more widely adopted practice than this threat so far suggests.

[Daan Kemp]

It might be that the often[?] repeated release and retightening could change the rifle's shooting performance? For better or worse.

[Mk VII]

Some people do slacken them off for storage in the winter season, but tie a label on to remind yourself in the spring.