Question about the plunger on the No1Mk3 (and: another refurbed)

[Thunderbox]

Hi everyone,

While I refurbed this rifle: Refurbed No1Mk3* - Military Surplus Collectors Forums

A question occurred to me. On the No1Mk3, in the forend near the muzzle, there is a plunger with a spring. This plunger rests on the nose cap, and pushes upwards on the barrel. Doesn't this tend to make the barrel muzzle "want" to contact the top side of the hole through which it protrudes aat the front of the nose cap? I can't figure out the dynamics involved.

Lou

Yes, the nosecap actually pulls the barrel back down again, in a correctly set up No1. There should be a tiny gap at the bottom of the aperture in the nosecap where the barrel protrudes.

When (c.1900) they chopped off the barrel of the Long Lee and lightened it for the future "short" rifle, they obviously ended up with a host of accuracy problems relating to bedding and barrel vibration - that was fairly new knowledge in those days, given that most preceding rifles had been fully stocked and bedded. The SMLE's complicated bands, springs & bedding points all appear to be fixes derived from trial-and-error. If WW1 hadn't come along and forced production of millions of No1s, I imagine they would have fairly quickly moved to a heavy-barrel No1 with much simpler bedding - an earlier version of the No1 MkVI and No4.