Questions on No 5 MK 1 authenticity

[Steve H. in N.Y.]

"The handguard ring comes right off of this one."

Sorry, thought you meant a pitted retaining ring that secures the rear of the handguard, not the front band.

Information

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[Aragorn243]

finlog,

The aperture of the sight is bent. It looks like it took a direct hit from the top left side. The sight itself is not bent at all so the aperture took all the abuse. The elevating part of the sight works fine. I'm wondering if the metal is soft enough to tap it back into shape or if it is the type that is brittle and will break if trying to reform it. I've seen them for sale but would prefer saving the $27 or so to replace it. I don't know how much it would affect accuracy, it's a mighty big hole, probably for low light conditions.

This stuff almost looks like varnish rather than shellac. I haven't touched it yet to see how thick it is but I may try the citristip in a small out of the way area. I like the dark color.

Steve,

No that ring is in good shape, thank goodness. I don't want to mess with taking the flash suppressor off. I'm not the best with parts names so sorry for any confusion.

[jmoore]

I'm about 50/50 at straightening bent aperatures. They're pretty soft, but if it's already started to crack then straightening operations will usually finish the job. Usually though, even the cracked ones can be made so that the fracture line doesn't show.

The scary part is that it's best to be aggressive when straightening. One or two heavy (but not TOO heavy) blows is better than trying to speak up on the repair w/ a series of light taps!

Heat may be advised, esp. if you're timid, but I've done plenty either way (cool or hot) and haven't seen any change in the success rate. Basically, if you can detect the beginnings of a crack before you start, it's gonna finish up under load.

Yours doesn't look too bad. I wouldn't worry about it if it were mine, but it DOES look repairable.

[Aragorn243]

I was looking at it today with natural sunlight and in holding it in just a certain way I could read everything clearly except the date. Still can't see that final number but the first two are 2/4.

[finloq]

I was looking at it today with natural sunlight and in holding it in just a certain way I could read everything clearly except the date. Still can't see that final number but the first two are 2/4.

Using this site, it would seem to reason that you have a: 2/46. With U7929 as a serial number. http://home.earthlink.net/~smithkaia...ists/id21.html

[finloq]

Sorry, duplicate post.

[Aragorn243]

2-46 makes sense. Once I thought I could make out a 3 or a 6 but I knew the 3 wouldn't work. I can't see the 6 anymore so that may have been a figment of my imagination. I "saw" it before I wiped the thin coat of grease off of it.

[A. F Medic]

Try using a tire marking stick like I did. Talcum powder may work also.

[Aragorn243]

I've looked around the house for something to mark it with but didn't come up with anything. It isn't a big deal, has to be 46.

New question. I stripped the rifle down this evening to give the metal a good cleaning. I mentioned before that the trigger guard assembly is in pretty rough shape. Some deep pitting that while I don't think it is enough to weaken the structure, I'd like to control it and possibly fill it in if possible. All this pitting is where it can't be seen on the underside. For now I've wired brushed the rust out and sprayed it with rem oil.

All in all everything else is in pretty good shape, there was a bit of rust in the butt stock cup but I kind of figured on that. The rest of the metal cleaned up pretty nice.

I'm seeing a lot of "F"s stamped on everything and a few "B"s on the small parts. Would these be the id marks for the two manufacturers? Mostly "F"s, maybe three "B"s.

I decided to leave the rear sight alone. Pounding on it doesn't appeal to me. What would your thoughts be on using small files and just reshaping it?

[Peter Laidler]

Why don't you just gently bead blast the rust pitted parts then have them phosphated. That's virtually protected them for good now. Then, get them black painted to protect it fully - for good. Assemble it up with lashings of GREASE, PX11 or XG49 between the wood and the steelwork. That's just what we did with our No5's. Thousands of them........ At last you and everyone after you knows that it's as original as it gets.