No4 Mk1* Refurb

[gunner]

Yes, i understand the problem! Its a scary thing to work out to much from the bedding. For this reason i´m using the most times only the cork layers. Once i have found out the correct thickness and position it is easy to make some more layers and change them if they were worn out. And this takes a long time till they´re worn out. Normaly it is enough to change it once a year if you shoot it very often, if not it is enough to change them every second year.

[tbonesmith]

Well tonights work did not end in success! I'll cut out and repatch the draws and go again. Just when everything looked like a winner, I'd lost firm contact with the draws... game over. Disappointing but how it goes sometimes I guess. Still, I learned a few things, and it's been a while since I've had to repatch one, so I'm improving at least, and at the end of the day who cares if it takes 2 or more goes at it as long as the end result is on the money.

For this reason i´m using the most times only the cork layers. Once i have found out the correct thickness and position it is easy to make some more layers and change them if they were worn out. And this takes a long time till they´re worn out. Normaly it is enough to change it once a year if you shoot it very often, if not it is enough to change them every second year.

I'm not using cork, I'm not using glass, I'm not using shims. I'm doing my best to learn and use military armourers methods on No4's and that's it. If it takes ages it takes ages, if some rifles or parts get damaged along the way, so be it. I will just ensure the lessons learned are as valuable as the cost of the damage and I'll be square.

Will sort it out this week and (hopefully) have another range report on the weekend.

[gunner]

I'm not using cork, I'm not using glass, I'm not using shims. I'm doing my best to learn and use military armourers methods on No4's and that's it. If it takes ages it takes ages, if some rifles or parts get damaged along the way, so be it. I will just ensure the lessons learned are as valuable as the cost of the damage and I'll be square.

Will sort it out this week and (hopefully) have another range report on the weekend.

Hat up to you! Good to know that some guys doing it the correct way! BTW the cork method i´m using is from an armourer too but not as a forever solution.

[tbonesmith]

Over the last little while I patched out the draws again, pegged them in with oak dowels and stocked the rifle up again and I'm absolutely thrilled with the result. The bedding is absolutely perfect. I might add some pictures later but the receiver print on the forend and the barrel print on the tip of the forend, and well as the clearances and pressures is just spot on. Barrel is centred etc...
So how's it shoot you ask...
Yesterday I shot it at 50m, 100m and 500m. At 50 m they were clustered nicely, at 100m it was shooting very well (a scored target so no group size) and at 500m is was holding a group a bit less than half the size of the 4 ring,(on a full bore target) so I'd say it's holding 2.5 MOA which is pretty darn good from where I sit.
For zeroing windage I've still got the foresight over at the edge of the bock, but the edge doesn't protrude past the edge of the block, so it's fine.
Trigger is good too.
Goodbye to this one!

[Peter Laidler]

TBone has pretty well duplicated what the sniper trials team established at the end of the war - and done us all a favour at the same time. That a properly set up No4 consistently out performed any other method of stocking up a fore-end.

What about putting all this down, together with the shooting results on the Lee Enfield forum TBone just to reiterate what us old time Armourers have been saying since we fitted our first fore-ends. Good on yer!

And some more good pictures of your wood patching skills too. I show these to the young Armourers as an example of how things SHOULD be done. Naturally, I tell them that it's my work of course. But, like Christmas, you can't let a few little white lies spoil the show!

[tbonesmith]

What about putting all this down, together with the shooting results on the Lee Enfield forum TBone just to reiterate what us old time Armourers have been saying since we fitted our first fore-ends.

I'll do it on the next one, the photo's didn't work out great.
Now to find another No4 to work over, I've run out of donor junkers and half decent barrels... time to start sniffing around...

[louthepou]

What amazes me is that every No4 I work on teaches me so much (in a way, then, these rifles are similar to you, Peter ). I think there's no end to this learning path.