Lithgow HT Restoration Complete

[tbonesmith]

This week I completed the restoration of a Lithgow HT. It was a disaster when I bought it, but I've brought it back as far as possible and practical. I would have liked to reparkerize, but HOW??? Bead blasted and re blued does the trick for me anyway. The scope is good and I tested it at 50 m a couple of days ago and it shot about an inch with any ammo I fed it, so there's nothing major wrong. I'll shoot it a scoped service shoot in Sydney in 2 weeks and see how it measures up!

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[gunner]

Good job. Let us know how it shoots.

Regards

Gunner

[louthepou]

Fine looking indeed, but as Gunner says! Howzitshoot?

[Danny]

This week I completed the restoration of a Lithgow HT. It was a disaster when I bought it, but I've brought it back as far as possible and practical. I would have liked to reparkerize, but HOW??? Bead blasted and re blued does the trick for me anyway. The scope is good and I tested it at 50 m a couple of days ago and it shot about an inch with any ammo I fed it, so there's nothing major wrong. I'll shoot it a scoped service shoot in Sydney in 2 weeks and see how it measures up!

It looks great, not much different than parkerizing. What grade of glass beads did you use?

Danny

[tbonesmith]

Don't know but very fine, will check on the bag and get back to you.

[tbonesmith]

By the way, shot it today in a 200 meter scoped comp, and did terrible. But when I grouped it it shot 10 rounds into about 8 inches about a foot low and right (at 200 meters) so I'll have to zero the windage and correct the range drum and I should be getting close... the saga continues

[Lithgow 41]

you have done a good job cleaning and fixing it up.
my question goes out to those that have HT snipers. where I am looking at converting my standard issue 1941 Lithgow SMLE to a replica HT sniper, i have a replacement, non issued/unfired (as much as a war production barrel goes) Heavy 1942 Lithgow Barrel.
my question with this is how was the original HT barrels bedded into the forend, I have seen around half dozen varients of them, and wanted to keep it to original specs.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Regarding Parkerizing:

I get mine done at a local business that refurbishes / custom-grinds engine crankshafts and camshafts.

The catch is that they are set up to use REALLY coarse grit (not on the journals, though) at quite high pressure, so I go to one "big shed" to get the "gentle", fine grit blasting and oiling done and then drive briskly to the place with the big phosphate tanks. Here, they promptly hose off the excess preservative oil, whack it in a serious detergent bath, hot-rinse and then straight into the phosphate tank.

If you want a "grey-ish" finish, you need zinc added to the bath; for "black", add manganese. Talk to the phosphating chaps first.

[the old gringo]

nice job on the rifle !!!!

[CINDERS]

Hi TBone how did the L42 replica turn out