Enfield # 4..Mark 1..New to me..

[Roger Payne]

I'm not best qualified to talk about No5's either, but I do rebuild genuine ones from time to time. I presume you have access to a lathe? You'll need to turn the barrel to the correct length & you'll need to turn a step into the end so it fits into the barrel recess in the flash eliminator. Getting a flash eliminator is another issue. Originals are made from unobtanium these days, although some outfits your side of the pond have made repro's in recent years. Perhaps someone in the US will chip in to advise if they are any good & still available. I'm not really sure as I've only used originals, but I think some of the repro's have thinner walls so that the the FE can be used with an unmodified No4 barrel (ie without a step turned in the end of the barrel). Again, maybe someone clued up can help here. You can fit a No5 forend to a No4 body (receiver) but as Nijalninja said, you may need to do a little work with a wood chisel. The position of the barrel bands is not the same in No4's & No5's, so if you swap the forend over it will be better to swap the handguard as well. In fact, if you have a No5 handguard you can cut down a No4 forend & recut the barrel band slot, using the guard as a template to show where to cut the new (barrel band) slot. It sounds complicated but it's not too difficult. If you do cut down a No4 forend at the correct length you will also find that you have cut it right through the lightening cut in the barrel channel. Again, not a big deal: degrease, patch & glue a shaped piece of wood into the defect from the now redundant front part that you've cut off.

You've set yourself a bit of a task simply because the bits are hard to find; both a set of wood & a FE. However, if you can track these down it's not too difficult, & as mentioned if you can get a guard you can then mod a No4 forend to do the job.

Hope this helps a little. (But if it were me I'd just rebarrel the No4 with another (unmessedabout with) No4 barrel, & if I wanted a No5 that badly I'd buy one that was complete!)