Australian Coachwood fore ends without copper recoil blocks?

[BushyFromOz]

Is it normal for them to have not been fitted?

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Son]

When the wood production was taken from Lithgow and given to Slazengers in Sydney, they started out making the foreends without them, probably as a production expediency. The dates are in the bible, not at home ATM so won't go guessing any more than late '42 to near mid '43.

There was a batch of foreends at the time that were not used and most of them ended up in JJ co's hands and were used in the assembly of their "Lithgows"... Hence them being pale, no copper plates, and a lot were warped.... More on this another time... Still seeking to verify some info on the topic after ten years...

[BushyFromOz]

When the wood production was taken from Lithgow and given to Slazengers in Sydney, they started out making the foreends without them, probably as a production expediency. The dates are in the bible, not at home ATM so won't go guessing any more than late '42 to near mid '43.

I don't own the bible

Its a Slaz43 foreend Son

[Homer]

Is it an intact rifle of a lose forend?

[BushyFromOz]

Is it an intact rifle of a lose forend?

It is a bitser rifle, a really bad siamese contract action with what looks like a near new coachwood fore end save a couple on one side. It certainly crosses me as being NOS and not off a service rifle

[Homer]

I've had a few of these NOS coachwood forends and one definitely had an allignment problem. But rather than warped, it seemed the profile machined for the nosecap, was off centre to the barrel channel, by quite a significant amount. Was never going to work. A friend of mine who has quite a lot of these stocks put away, has one same. Factory rejects?

[BushyFromOz]

I've had a few of these NOS coachwood forends and one definitely had an allignment problem. But rather than warped, it seemed the profile machined for the nosecap, was off centre to the barrel channel, by quite a significant amount. Was never going to work. A friend of mine who has quite a lot of these stocks put away, has one same. Factory rejects?

I dont know, it seems to have all the right service marks stamped into it and a barrelled action seems to sit straight in the channels.

How anyone gets to put a lot of these stocks away? where do people find these things!

[Homer]

Mate some of these people have been accumulating for a very long time and these bits and pieces were a lot more available from the 90's back. I never had much trouble finding these things myself but I'm not an accumulator like some. It's staggering what this bloke has in his gun room.

[muffett.2008]

The woodwork was passed over to Slazenger in November 1941, recoil plates were a standard fitment on Forewoods at that time still being predominately Qld Maple.
When Coachwood became the predominant timber, these plates were still being fitted, but towards the end of 1942 and into 1943, the practice ceased.

With the increase of failure of Coachwood stocks the practice recommenced mid 1943 and continued until the factory ceased repairwork in 1960.
Several different methods of repair were tried from 1930 on, the copper plates being the most cost effective.

The Jensen Report and Tony Griffiths volumes cover part of this information.

[BushyFromOz]

Thanks muffet. If you are going to make target rifle with it, would it be worth altering the draws straight away? Seeing its NOS and not of a service rifle, i would be happy about altering the barrel channel for H barrel, seeing its clearly not seen service