Bolt head for Lithgow #1 rifle

[mhb]

I will cease troubling the members of this forum. I do appreciate all the helpful and well-intended input provided by most of you. I even appreciate the factual information contained in Mr. Laidler's writings, which have helped me better understand the issues involved.
I am still certain I can do what I set out to do, when and if I can obtain the needed parts, and there is good reason to think I can.
I have the necessary skills and experience to do whatever hand fitting may be needed: I've made around a thousand rifle barrels from bar stock, made the tools with which to rifle them, built a couple of hundred rifles with my barrels and others, assembled, rebuilt and re-barreled many more over the past 50 years or so.
I am satisfied, from close inspection, that there are no other mechanical issues with this rifle which would preclude it from being 'corrected', to resolve the one problem which I have identified.
As for you, Mr. Laidler: though I do not doubt your qualifications as an expert on this topic, and have already acknowledged the usefulness of the information you have made available to the participants in this forum, I cannot say much for your inexplicable attitude toward what has been an honest request for assistance. I'm not even sure whether your rather contemptuous interjections reflect your general personality traits, or, possibly, and more excusably, an ongoing flareup of hemorrhoids. You haven't even said whether you think what I hope to do is impossible, improper, or blasphemous, nor given any reasons for so believing.
If you merely think I can't do it, my response, in a vernacular I understand is still current in the U.K. is: Bollocks.

mhb - Mike

[Ridolpho]

mhb: I would suggest you lead off a thread with your credentials as opposed to revealing them dozens of posts in. Many members of this forum have little or no mechanical experience and the true experts like Mr. Laidler patiently explain basics to us. With your background I don't quite understand the posing of questions you already know the answer for (and on multiple forums).

Ridolpho

[Peter Laidler]

I'm certainly no expert mhb and never ever said that I was. But I have a gift of putting over what I know - but it just seemed to me that you weren't willing to listen to sound advice of others and what I call '......the bleedin obvious' and take it on board. And from reading your threads that Ridolpho alludes to (thread 32), it's clear that you didn't know it all and aren't the expert you said that you were. But, like it or loathe it, I say it like it is.

[browningautorifle]

I will cease troubling the members of this forum.

I think you should just post a WTB for the parts you want and do what you want to do. You aren't interested in advise or information so just go ahead.

[mhb]

Attachment 82143Attachment 82142
As it turns out, I was able to acquire the bolt head I needed (MA53). It timed perfectly with the original bolt body, and restored the rifle's headspace to well within the 'GO/NO-GO' range (actually, .065"). I did not buy the specimen offered on Australian e-bay, which went for $88 AUS (plus shipping), but found one closer to home for $38 US, shipped.
The rifle now looks good and shoots excellently - it won the local MILSURP 'As-Issued' monthly BR match last Friday with a score of 191 - 4x, on the NRA 100 yard smallbore target, and am sure it (and I) will do better in future, when we become more accustomed to each other.
Anyone have a spare windage-adjustable rear sight assembly for the #1 Mk3?

mhb - MIke

[BushyFromOz]

Anyone have a spare wondage-adjustable rear sight assembly for the #1 Mk3?

I dont think there is any such thing as a spare one of those

Theres on on ebay right now. My advice would be, take them when you see them and not worry about the price. Waiting for a bargain on one of those usually means waiting and awfully long time

You will also need a tool for adjusting the fore sight blade windage, a set of new foresight blades to do it properly and a some instructions on zeroing which are here in the Knowledge Library

[CINDERS]

Thing is with the adjustable windage sight it was discontinued mid 1916 in WWI I think so if your rifle is after that date and you wish to shoot in the "As issued" category then it is not compliant because later rifles did not come equipped with the windage sight if they did it was probably put there by a target shooter at some point in time. My 1916 Lithgow has the adjustable rear sight on it the H barrel & stamp on the wrist the barrel being done in 1937 for some strange reason a whole lot were done that year.

I do have a spare Lithgow rear windage sight for my '16 if the one on it sh*ts the tin (sorry NFS), they come up on flea-bay from time to time you may jag one cheap but not likely.................especially if it is Lithgow manufacture.

P.S If I am incorrect on the deletion or reinstatement date on the rear sight I am sure to be corrected, glad you got your rifle sorted congrats on the win.

[mhb]

Thanks for the input. I probably should have asked whether anyone had a rear sight assembly he could spare...
I corrected the elevation in the process of sighting-in by replacing the installed '0' blade with a '+.045', and do have a sight pusher for windage adjustment, but that isn't really a viable alternative for match shooting. For those MILSURP rifles without windage adjustment, I just establish a good windage zero and hold-off as needed as light changes, wind, etc., make it necessary during the course of the match.
I have read that the windage adjustable rear sight was dropped as a wartime expedient sometime around 1916, but was re-instated, at least for some manufacture, after the Great War, and was again dropped for Round 2.
For our matches, the Rules Committee (me) has established that the rifle must be representative of the type as manufactured at some time in its service life, not necessarily exactly as it would have been at the time the action or other major parts were made. And, since this particular rifle is frankly an assemblage of spare parts, it doesn't seem improper to install the desired rear sight type, if it can be had.
The search continues...
Oh, and CINDERS - thanks for the colorful addition to my variant-English vocabulary: 'sh*ts the tin', which I presume, from the context, is an Aussie variant of 'packs it in'.

mhb - MIke

[Brian Dick]

I've got a few wind adjustable sights here if in need. Please contact me directly if interested. bdlltd@bellsouth.net.

[30Three]

Pleased to see you got the rifle sorted and shooting well.
If you competitions are at 100 yards; do you really need a windage sight? I would think it's got to blowing hard to make a difference at that range! Or do you shoot multiple distances?
The other option for windage adjustment is to move into the modified class with a dioptre rear sight.
Attachment 82167