No4 mk2 target rifle

[Bruce_in_Oz]

That'll teach me to keep several tabs open at once!

Second time lucky??

[ssj]

"when you add a US or British icon pattern sling" Yes I have read this and experienced it. Hence its not unknown for target shooters in NZ to make thier own front ends out of a stiffer wood. I am going a similar but different route this winter to stiffen a spare fore end.

[harry mac]

The poor old P-14 was treated as "the dodgy cousin that nobody wants in their house" and rapidly offloaded to the outer colonies or "emerging states" post WW1.

So many were given away / dumped at sea etc, that when the next "great unpleasantness" started, those at the low end of the logistic food chain often found themselves clutching a "pike" (bayonet on a broomstick), .

The funny/tragic thing is that our politicians still haven't learned a damn thing, and if ever anything big and nasty kicks off again, we'll be in exactly the same boat, with the added twist that our army won't be big enough either. Oh, it's all sounding strangely familiar.

[ssj]

The world has changed, a world war 3 fought today is going to be over quickly. The assets you have at the start once consumed wont be replaced there isnt the time, materials or energy to replace them. On top of that I'd hope the ppl and youngsters today would be worldy enough now not to fall for the cr*p of doing your duty and be cannon fodder for us thanks.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The other "over-looked" trick is the fitting of the bedding plate, (a la the L42), in the fore-end.

This nifty little steel plate stabilises the fitting of the fore-end quite a a bit. It also appears to function as a "stress-spreader", distributing the compression load from the front screw / trigger-guard over a significantly larger area of the fore end timber than "normal".

Fitting such a plate requires the correct tools and a certain amount of "carpentry" skills to do the job properly.

See the works of a well-known armourer and author for details.

[Frederick303]

Having fitted the L39/L42 front guard screw support plate on a few target No 4 rifles, I think there primary purpose is to make sure once you get the front reinforce pressure right ( and the correct collar length) it prevents wood crush from messing that fit up. And in the same way I will maintain the front or center bearing pressure.

I found an easy way to make the mod to a No 4 Forend: use the dremel tool with the flat sanding pad on it. With the variable speed tool it makes cutting the wood very easy and once installed there is nothing to indicate it was done. You do have to cut a small channel a few mm from the magazine well to the guard screw hole, but this channel lets you make the cut evenly. I use the bottom of M14 magazines plates, which for some reason I have a few on hand. The actual L39 plates are a wee bit thicker, but a shapped/cut up M14 floor-plate works fine and dandy.

[Peter Laidler]

The actual reason for the plate was a combination of all but principally, to prevent the waste of otherwise perfectly serviceable fore-ends that would have been scrapped due to that part of the fore-end already having been crushed. So you machine out the damaged part, insert a steel plate (that target rifle builders such as Fultons of Bisley had been doing for many years) that will spread the load of the tight FTG screw down onto the trigger guard, onto the plate, then onto a greater area. To be honest, it was a brilliant modification.

Not done to all rifles originally but adopted and codified for production

[ssj]

"The other "over-looked" trick is the fitting of the bedding plate, (a la the L42), in the fore-end"

got some pics / drawings please?

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Page 23 of Ian Skennerton's S.A.I.S No. 18, 7.62mm L42A1 Sniper, L39A1, 2A & Lee Enfield Conversions booklet illustrates it and identifies the part no. as: 1005-99-963-1592 and drawing no. CR1473.

A quick search has not revealed a dimensioned drawing of this component (or the specs for the fore-end modification), in "the crypt", but some happy camper out there may have this information to hand.

[enscien]

The modification looks to me like the standard one made by gunsmiths in the UK to accurise No.4 rifles for shooting at Bisley. Part of the key to this was ensuring that the forend was a really tight fit between the 'draws' (the sloping faces at the rear of the lug that supports the sear and magazine catch) and the front of the socket for the butt. Typically the original wood bearing at the draws was cut away and new inserts, ideally made from hornbeam on end-grain, were glued in and secured by transverse wood screws from the outside of the forend. The heads are normally recessed with the holes filled with a section of dowel.
There is a good description of the modifications in 'Target Rifle Shooting' by Major E.G.B.Reynolds and Robin Fulton (Barrie & Jenkins 1972 ISBN 0 214 65353 6 )

Enscien