No4t l42 loose for pad

[Micheal Doyne]

Hi all,

I have a rifle (my go to shooter, an L42 clone) with a loose forward scope pad. The screws are staked, and have apparently not budged. However there is a perceptible wiggle, wide enough to slide a cotton fourbytwo between. I am sure it was firm, and the latest time I shot I noticed ~ 1 in 8 shots way out of group. Any suggestions?

Ideals so far are:

detach completely, assuming I can the stakes a pretty robust, sliver solder in place and screw back in.

Try heating the pad enough to get solder to melt on it and fill under, removing the gap.

Give it to a good Enfield gunsmith, trust them to fix it good and pay be bill?

Thoughts?

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Brian Dick]

Get three new screws and fit them, remove the pad, degrease, flux, tin both the pad and body with soft solder, then solder it by heating from the body side and tightening the screws at the same time. Make sure you run some solder down the screw holes too before you install it. That's how it was done originally. No high temp silver solder. You can stake when cool if you like, (I never stake them). Stake the screw head into the old stake mark instead of staking the pad if you want it staked.

[Roger Payne]

I do exactly the same as Brian. The correct instrument head countersunk 4BA screws are readily available in the UK from model engineers' suppliers, & I also use solder paint as it is so much easier than trying to use a soldering iron the old fashioned way. Do not use silver solder, you only need soft solder. Make sure the two mating surfaces are clean & apply the solder paint. (As well as this I tin the screw threads). Heat until the surfaces go molten & then wipe off the brown impurities/flux which form on top, & you will have two nicely tinned surfaces (body side wall & rear face of pad). Mate them together, applying heat & tightening screws as described by Brian, & it should be fine.

In fact, if we get a chance to meet up I'll give you ample solder paint & screws to do the job.

[Micheal Doyne]

Hi both,

Thanks fo me the advice I will take it!! I presume not using silver solder is so as not to bugger up the heat treatment?

[Micheal Doyne]

Thanks again for the info, and Roger thank you very much for the screws a d solder paint. Pad re attached, I will check effectiveness my ability to follow instructions on the McQueen castle tomorrow.

[GeeRam]

Hi all,

I have a rifle (my go to shooter, an L42 clone) with a loose forward scope pad. The screws are staked, and have apparently not budged. However there is a perceptible wiggle, wide enough to slide a cotton fourbytwo between. I am sure it was firm, and the latest time I shot I noticed ~ 1 in 8 shots way out of group. Any suggestions?

Ideals so far are:

detach completely, assuming I can the stakes a pretty robust, sliver solder in place and screw back in.

Try heating the pad enough to get solder to melt on it and fill under, removing the gap.

Give it to a good Enfield gunsmith, trust them to fix it good and pay be bill?

Thoughts?

I'd be taking it back to Fultons for them to fix it, seeing as they built it (IIRC?)

[Micheal Doyne]

I'd be taking it back to Fultons for them to fix it, seeing as they built it (IIRC?)

They didn’t attach the pad, it was build using an action with existing pads. If they had attached them I would have. Additionally I was quite keen to both use the rifle that weekend and carry out the fix myself. So far it seems to have worked ok.

[Roger Payne]

Glad to see nothing fell off your rifle after using the solder paint!

[Micheal Doyne]

Not as yet! Thanks for that stuff very helpful! And the better still no major damage to the suncrenite (I’m pretty sure that is horrendously miss spelled).

Does any one have any info on how often pads need replacing. I know manuals say to always check them implying it was an issue.

[CINDERS]

Close Micheal - Suncorite