Fore-end tie plate

[madcratebuilder]

How tight should the fore-end tie plate screw be? I don't want to over compress the wood.

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[RJW NZ]

What rifle do you refer to, the no4mk2? If so, the answer is, don't crush the wood, but over time its almost impossible to avoid chewing into the soft organic surface with a metal nut.
Is there supposed to be a brass washer in that hole?
Seeing as how much the army feared soldiers toying with their own rifles I'd bet Mr Laidler has a precise answer on this and I'd like to know too...

[Peter Laidler]

Th SCREW, Tie, fore-end should be just tight enough to stop the back end of the fore-end from spreading. It was also punched to prevent the nut from unscrewing. It was also well recssed into the wood so the usual tinkering squaddie (we called them crunchies in Australia. Do they still?) couldn't get to it. We always knew when they'd been taking the fore-ends and handguards off because the band screws would be cack-handed instead of ALWAYS going in from the left to right (just follow the lead of the rear trigger guard screw)

There was a way of patching these holes when they failed but it's a bit long winded so I'll do an illustrated article when I get a few hours to myself, together with the CORRECT way to patch stripped butt screw threads so that they're better than new!