Peter, sentencing process queston

[Patrick Chadwick]

Peter, just what does ZF stand for. Being infuenced by a lifetime in Mauserland I can only think of things like Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, ZielFernrohr, maybe Zat's Fubared. Please, do tell!

Patrick

[Brian Dick]

Paul, I visited a place in Essex last Summer that has a load of the remaining SMLE and No.4 spares from Charnwood Ordnance which were purchased directly from MoD stores. Most of those parts are new in the wrap or repack to "as new". I'll be buying from there from now on as it takes the S.S. guesswork out of ordering. I've noticed that S.S. is also refinishing many of their parts which makes me wonder too. Yes, they're cheap but you have to buy ten of each to get four good ones and six crappy ones. ATB, Brian

[Alfred]

saw one so marked rifle and on closer examination saw that the locking lug on the body had been rebuilt and had a size 1 locking catch. This immediately told me that the body was worn and after the lug had been rebuilt with weld, and reverted to the original size locking catch, then once it wears again, it wasn't good practice to rebuild and re-size a second time. So it was scrapped.

Sometime back I mentioned that I suspected that the locking surfaces of a Lithgow I own looked to have been welded over and re cut.
I was told this could never have happened. Now you tell me that re welding and re cutting of receiver bodies has been done.
If such welding up and re milling was done that might explain why the cocking piece track is milled off center. I don't see how it could have passed inspection at the factory in that condition, so it may have been re welded and re cut at a later date, and poorly done.
This rifle had a non matching bolt and the extractor spring was a small coil spring such as was used in some non firing drill rifle conversions.

I still have the action.

[Gibbs505]

Thanks for the interesting info there!

[Mk VII]

He's talking about SLRs, and the 'Shoulder, Locking' (I think)

[Alfred]

He's talking about SLRs, and the 'Shoulder, Locking' (I think)

Could be, I see he mentioned SLR in the first of that post.
The terminology can overlap, locking surfaces of an LE action body are often called Resistence Shoulders.
The shoulders of the Lithgow I mentioned had a very lumpy look to them, but since the AB had been pretty well ravaged by a wire wheel at some point that could have been due to the softer metal around them being diplaced.

Still I suspect this rifle and the rest of that lot were reactivated DP rifles, probably not meant to be fired but mixed in with other barreled actions sold off at the time.
The welding up and re cutting of the locking recesses of some Egyptian training rifles , such as those blocked to allow only a welded up bolt with shortened left hand lug to fit does complicate the matter. Those don't have blocked chambers. Most of those appear to be Lithgow but of pre WW2 manufacture.

[Peter Laidler]

I think that there might be some mis-information about the Enfield floor sweepings.................

While there were undoubtedly some odds and sods, I have just spoken to someone who assures me that Enfield were a Ministry of Supply factory and just made what the were ordered to make for whoever. They weren't a huge Ordnance Store as such. The Ordnance store that they supplied small arms parts was Donnington.

What locking surfaces are you referring to Albert? The slot for the SHOULDER, locking or the actual SHOULDER locking or the body locking lug on the rear of the body?

It was a Base workshop repair to weld up and re-face the locking lug on the body and I'll explain that in a forthcoming article.

Ah, yes. ZF is one of a series of codes, known to Armourers as 'condemnation codes' I'll explain all later but briefly, ZF indicates repairable at a Base Workshop with a Factory repair facility or running a factory repair programme. In other words, if yoy have a rifle with ZF on the butt, in yellow or white paint, then it BIG - BAD wrong. But it does mean that it CAN be repaired. However, if it's marked ZF-BER in red, then it's the same but a highly qualified examiner has deemed it to be beyond economic repair

[Alfred]

What locking surfaces are you referring to Albert? The slot for the SHOULDER, locking or the actual SHOULDER locking or the body locking lug on the rear of the body?

I was speaking of the receiver locking surfaces that the bolt locking lugs mate to. I've seen these refered to as resistance shoulders.
The lefthand surface would be in the milled recess, the right at the front of the receiver/action body wall mating with the guide rib lug surface.
Were you speaking of the bolt latch?
or perhaps the Safety?

3. Locking bolt and safety catch:—
Place the safety catch on the stem of the locking bolt so that the line marked across the face of the catch is parallel with the flat at the end of the locking bolt. When the safety catch is screwed home, the top end should be in line with the rear end of the thumb piece on the locking bolt.
Page

If you can point me to a illustrated list of the nomenclature of the Action Body that would be a great help.

Divided by a common language once again.
What we call locking lugs you call recoil shoulders or resistance shoulders. The safety mechanism of the ShtLE is far different from any other rifle I'm familar with so theres not much to compare it with so far as the names of parts go.

It was a Base workshop repair to weld up and re-face the locking lug on the body and I'll explain that in a forthcoming article.

Be nice to hear of any such repairs and how to spot them.
I've seen a lot of people write of having DP rifles that look to be in good condition, but perhaps these had been radically repaired then didn't pass inspection anyway or there was no longer a need to risk issuing a rifle that had been rewelded..

PS
One reason I'm concerned with how well the action body would handle having any welding done is the numbers of No.4 Mk1* rifles with broken wawy or worn tracks. I've seen it said that these can be rebuilt by welding and machined.
Springfield Drill Rifle receivers that have only had a minor welding at the cut off are not considered repairable, though some re activate these and use light cast bullet loads only.

[Peter Laidler]

Breakdown in communication. I/we were talking about the locking shoulders of L1A1 rifles while you were talking about No4's

There was a Base repair facility to repair Mk1/1 and 1/3 rifle bodies with torn body ribs.

[Son]

Peter, you've just explained the ZF mark painted on a butt, what about ZF stamped into a No4 butt, pic attached.... (sorry if this has been explained- I couldn't see it above anywhere...)