Help! Misaligned Pads on No 4.

[jr57]

Help ! To cut a story short. I have a No 4 with misaligned pads.

Is there ANY way that this can be rectified?

I fear not but if you don't ask !

As a warning to others, I gave my No 4 (a very good one at that) to an old very experienced REME armourer who said he had seen loads of them during his time and that the necessary attachments had to be aligned with the bore of the weapon

I assumed from his comments that he was familiar with the process of mounting the pads etc (he wasn't).

As it turned out, he had SEEN loads of them but that was all.

Result: A very hard lesson learned.

Information

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[CINDERS]

Others will no doubt be able to assist you but I have been harping on this subject for a while and it is not a reflection on any one but the way it is going the people with the real experience are getting thin on the ground and that knowledge base is dwindling yes you can say that in this Mod instruction manual it says so and so but it is the hands on from years that is ebbing. What would an armourer trained on today's weapons systems think of a 1942 weapons system do they even teach wood working skills to the armourers of today or just give them a tube of green loc-tite for the plastic stuff they have today.
I mean no disrespect but for us the collectors/users of these rifles where will we go in 15/20 years people like Peter L and Brian D and others in the background are like all of us on a clock where as properly cared for these Enfields/Mausers/Garands/M-1's will outlast us as long as the spares allow them, there is always reverse engineering.
I am sorry you have had a bad experience hopefully it will be able to be corrected but it may be that the weapon may need a journey to a reputable and known fixerupperer of these things or at least they may be able to PM you with a person who can fix up the faffed effort of "I have seen heaps of them" but obviously worked on none as far as putting the pads on correctly!

[Gil Boyd]

Sadly,
It does really depend on how badly the pads have been misaligned to be able to give an opinion on whether they can be reinstated without causing long term issues when the scope is mounted.
Any chance of some good close up photos?

[bigduke6]

Pics would help..... but to be honest its probably scrap, I've saved one in the past but involved plugging the the rear screw hole and re drilling etc, too much work around this area for my liking so its now a .22 No4T .....

[Peter Laidler]

We need to know EXACTLY what went wrong. But, I can tell where YOU went wrong before we go any further if I might be so bold. You didn't give him the precise details that I set out in the 4x part article wot I writ several years ago which has been read, re-read, again and again and fully digested BEFORE starting the job. It tells you and him all you need to know about the alignment and ultimate collimation of those so important pads. The bad news is that with countersunk screws, the thing you are screwing down - the pad in this case - goes just where the centre of the screw hole goes.

There might be some hope, but I doubt it. A few photos will confirm your/our fears

Maybe you ought to pm me regarding the 'REME Armourer'. Sometimes, some people fail the acid test................

[Gil Boyd]

Very odd to hear a REME trained tiff get it wrong. They breath plans and drawings before lifting their fingers to anything.
Perhaps his eyesight failed him when he needed it most by the sounds of his "old very experienced age".......feel sorry for you in what you seeked to achieve. Maybe all is not lost yet, I am sure someone with the requisite skills will bring her back!!

[villiers]

Sorry to read of your predicament! But, if it´s any consolation, the scope pads on my No. 5 were installed by a very reputable (and expensive) Bavarian gunsmith. And it all worked perfectly for a while ... and then got steadily worse ... until my granddaughter took up shooting last week and scored an ever larger hole in the 10 at 100 metres. You can, at least try and get hold of a new No. 4 action, have it scoped professionally, and expect it to shoot precisely. But what can I do, now that I´m eighty and am saddled with the standard, geriatric eyesight??

[browningautorifle]

So to clarify, is this a set of #4 T pads you speak of or a set of Weaver type bases mounted as per civilian scope mounts on top. There's a vast difference in that part. One can be sorted and one can't...

[jr57]

So to clarify, is this a set of #4 T pads you speak of or a set of Weaver type bases mounted as per civilian scope mounts on top. There's a vast difference in that part. One can be sorted and one can't...

#4 (T) pads.

[RobD]

By mis-aligned, do you mean the distance between the pads is wrong, so you can't screw on the bracket - or that the pads are tilted - and if the latter, in what way.?