1940 Lithgow No1 Mk3 question

[Alan de Enfield]

I would certainly endorse dry firing the rifle with the forend removed. If the two stage trigger pull is restored it would suggest to me that it is likely the stocking up (woodwork) that is at fault. If it remains single stage then you will need to look carefully at the component parts that influence the trigger pull. The trigger & guard, as already mentioned, & also the height of the collar, the the front edge of the cocking piece, & the sear. The rifle may not have been deliberately 'got at', it may just have had a replacement part installed without proper hand fitting. This problem occurs very readily when trigger guards, cocking pieces & forends have been replaced without due attention to the EMERS/Instructions to Armourers for correct fitting.

That is a very good point.

When building up my 'bitsa' it all worked perfectly until I attached the forend when I could not cock the rifle. No matter how much fiddling about with the forend off it worked OK, with it on it wouldn't cock.

I took another forend off my LE 410 shotgun, and fitted it to the 'bitsa' and hoooray - it worked.
I put the 'bitsa' forend onto the shotgun and hoooray - it worked.

Two working LEs.

There was obviously a small slither of wood fouling somewhere in the trigger-group of the 'bitsa' and stopping it cocking - maybe a bit of woodworking could have solved it, but swapping them over made no difference to either rifle / gun and was a quick and simple fix requiring minimal skills.

We should all remember that these rifles were individually hand built using Victorian engineering practices - "keep grinding it down until it fits".
Interchangabilty and mass production were almost unknown concepts when the No1 Mk3 was designed.

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