SMLE No1 MkV Restoration (Part's 1 thru 7)

[bigduke6]

I was wanting to get the woodwork finished and the barrel started in this part but had a few delays and the doner barrel i was going to relign from a 1966, 7.62mm Ishapore 2A1, turned out to be OK (and am now the owner).

With the barrel on hold thought i,d see what it all looked like with the action.

Where i left off last time the handgaurd was in its finishing stage, and i did the cut out at the rear. (still to finish this and the barrel clip but left it until i knew what barrel was going on)

After a few coats of Boiled linseed oil,




Two things i had to remove from the old fore-end, the stock bolt plate, and the gaurd screw bushing.





after fitting these to the new fore-end it was a case of putting it together to see how it looked ...








The butt i wasn,t happy with (first thing to be replaced when i find one) if i do use it, will need to remove some material to allow the safety to operate and to cut the recess for the butt disc.

The last pic shows that the hangaurd still needs work, but will wait till i get the barrel on.

Am awaiting for the extra barrel band, and while I,v ordered this and have done the handgaurd, i may have a original band and rear handgaurd on the way.

Sods law once you make a start, things start coming to the surface.

Last thing is the rear sight, have a few pics on hand of the original, so plan on making this but will use something as a stand in. If bubba had not had his way, then spending the cash on a sight from EFD would be worth it but as its never going to be perfect I will bide my time,
Am still tempted to put a barrel on chambered to .30 M1 carbine, it would be single shot and I have a bolt head and barrel, everything else would be unchanged.

Hope to be finished in part 4, but its suprising how many photo,s you end up with.