Help with a Number 4T

[jimmieZ]

Ridolfo
I think you might be on to something. I, too, have 4 No.4 (T) rifles and can confirm that I can switch scopes (with brackets) between several rifles and require very little adjustment to re-zero them. The same holds true for the bracket I got from Dr. Payne.

Jim

Information

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[jmoore]

I, too, have 4 No.4 (T) rifles and can confirm that I can switch scopes (with brackets) between several rifles and require very little adjustment to re-zero them.

The drama being that the pads were not finished machined until AFTER installation. The spigot OD and front pad face along with the beveled locating cuts of the rear pad were formed whilst the barreled action body was located by a fixture on a dedicated machine at H&H. (A converted old lathe bed, according to Peter Laidler.) So one would expect a high degree of interchangability on freshly converted rifles. I reckon there may have been some minor fitting required from time to time, but only a few thousandths here and there. But that interchangibity would be lessened as the rifles were used and services such as front pad resoldering were performed.

Any "as new" pads with spigots already machined are not from British military stores. Israeli, possibly. Fakes and forgeries for the most part.

A gross misalignment of the front pad to the rear in any direstion than straight fore and aft would mean that the rear pad's mating surfaces would not be fully engaged without some distortion of the bracket. Which is entirely possible, and unlikely to be noticed by most folk. Try "bluing up" the mating surfaces sometime to see what precentage contact is achieved.

I have had to "scrape in" a couple of well worn L42a1s. Although matching, they had only about 20-30% contact without really bearing down on the thumbscrews.