1915 Lithgow Gem (Need Advice)

[smerdon42]

Matty so true I have 3 x 1914 lithgows one remained with the Aussies the other to England repaired at LSA and another was ftr’d in Indian 1932 . All nice rifles if only they could talk .

Information

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[Bruce_in_Oz]

The inner band and the spring and plunger hiding above the "strap" on f the nose-cap were part of the "tuning" of the standard barrel to the issue Mk Vll ammo.

The "inner band" and its spring and screw pull the barrel down and the "hidden" one pushes the muzzle end upwards against the top of the muzzle hole in the nose-cap.

Change the ammo and all bets are off.

Swap in one of the "H" barrels and ditto.

The HT sniper rigs ALL had "H" barrels and a different "bedding" setup. A real HT fore-end has a wooden plug filling the hole for the "inner-band" screw and spring, and absolutely NO inner band. Totally different barrel vibration pattern to the "standard" barrel.

Among the "full-bore" range types there was a culture of "tuning"; albeit often without a lot of empirical evidence or craftsmanship.

Many had the muzzle hole of the nose-cap opened out with rather injudicious use of a coarse, rat-tailed file. The resulting clearance, usually neither circular or concentric, was often graced with a short length of rubber hose, hammered in from the front. A "flexible front bearing", of sorts. Another triumph of "psycho-ballistics". My very first No 1 was one of these

Note that the genuine "factory" HT rifles do not have this quaint nose-cap feature, despite using the SAME barrel and firing the SAME Mk Vll ball ammo, and they seemed to work OK. My father did the machining to a rear-sight bet to enable it ti fit the "H" barrel and noticed the "interesting" placement and shape of the big hole in the nose-cap. His solution? As the fore-end had been carved well clear of the barrel forward of the Knox Form, he suggested letting it sit naturally within that ragged hole and pump in some black industrial Silicone Rubber to fill the space. Trim the excess flush once set and give it a whirl.

It worked quite nicely, especially when fed the wonderful post-WW2 "surplus" FN Mk Vll ball; "pour Bren".

[mrbennet]

Lovely rifle.
Just some info on the enlarged hole in the nosecap. I suspect it has been modified to take a rubber bush to locate the heavy barrel. As far as I know, this modification was developed by Reg Dean, armourer and shooter from the Robinvale Rifle Club (Victoria, Australia) in the 1950/60's. The "rubber nose" 303 is reputed to be the ultimate development of the SMLE for full bore target shooting. Reg won the New South Wales Queens in 1963.
The first photo below shows the rubber bush in place in a nosecap. (Apparently the rubber bush was made from the rear spring shackle rubber from the Holden car of the time.) The other photo is of the steps down to the butts of the Robinvale rifle range, the steps being held in place by SMLE barrels, no doubt courtesy of Reg and a testament to the many years of experimenting with his rifle (and many others!) to get the best out of the 303.

[TheAlpineWolf]

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I let this thread go as life has gotten in the way over the past few months.
Thank you for all of your info and dedication, I ended up just putting on a new nose cap and that was all. Going to get the headspace checked and head out to the range with this old beauty soon!
Best Regards,
Sam.