Howdy All!
Here we go again. I bought this 7.62 No4Mk1/3 range rifle basically because it had a mint heavy barrel in it. When I got a good look at it though it became apparent that while it is heavily flawed it is basically a mechanically very sound proposition.
On the downside, it has a short butt, the forend is cut down in an unappealing way, the bedding sends the barrel off down the barrel channel at and angle, so that it very nearly contacts the wood at the front, meaning that the wood is cut out to a knife edge at the tip of the forewood, the rifle was originally a savage and the US property mark is ground or linished off, and the markings on the side look fake/home done.
On the upside, the bolt is a very good fit, in that the locking lugs bear fully and evenly, the striker protrusion is right, the trigger is good, the headspace is right, the bolthead doesn't overturn excessively, all the bands were included in the sale and I have all the other necessary parts.
I intend to rebuild the rifle using the provided forend, which I will patch and modify to L42 style (using Peter Laidlers tutorial as a guide), top wood, I'll replace the butt with a standard one, but I'll need to patch the socket/where it enters the steel wrist(anyone with details or photos of this repair please post them so I can copy), I will cleanup the cutout for the central sight plate but allow one to be mounted, I'll ream out and mount a standard foresight block and fit a protector.
I will fit a 7.62 enfield mag, and extractor (still need to source a new extractor spring), remove the brazed on section of the trigger guard, and bed the rifle in newly patched draws and knox, plus removing and patching out that steel plate. I'll fit a new rear sight (made for a No5). I'll cleanup the metal work, and re dip the thoroughly cleaned wood work in hot boiled linseed oilicon and let it dry.
Once I've done all this, I'll shoot the rifle to test and ensure that it performs beautifully and then I'll sell it, and do the next one.
This rifle will be nothing more than a shooter, but I think I've got the bones of a superb shooter here and so I'll spend some time on it.
There will be so many repairs and wooden patches on this piece that if they are not all done perfectly, the rifle will just look like a pig, but if i get it right I think I'll come out with a rifle with real character, fingers crossed!
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