All this and NO PICTURES? What's the deal with this JM? Are you going to make me get out my shoe box of top wood and take pictures? By golly, I just might....

Quote Originally Posted by jmoore View Post
Warning: Extreme Weapons Nerd (Anorakish) Alert!!!

Been studying the exposed rivet tails that retain the handguard nosecap metal a bit (!), lately and just found one lone NON Enfield manufactured assembly that has solid round exposed tails as opposed to the usual Tubular (countersunk looking tail) rivets. Just how common are these?

ID marks on this assembly include a small rounded (normal) "S" on the metal just behind the cutout, and a largish "(EG)" that has lines connecting the ends of the "(__)" top and bottom that is located in the center of the underside of the handguard. Unlike the Enfield "Trials Rifles" these rivet tails are uniformly rounded. Oddly enough, the rear metal clip IS retained by tubular rivets.

Have I missed the boat here, or are these solid rivets a bit unusual on a production No4?

BTW If you've made it this far, but don't know just what a "Tubular Rivet" is, well, in its "undriven" state it looks like a regular solid shanked rivet, but with a hole drilled into the end to a controlled depth. When used with special forming tools, they allow the fabricator to more easily assemble relatively fragile parts (such as thin wood sections) to other parts without damage. The forming tool will flare the hollow end a fixed amount so that it rolls over uniformly, securing the pieces with much less effort than cold forming a solid tailed rivet.

Sometimes I think its time to call the men in the white coats!