No 4 (T) loose cheek weld

[Peter Laidler]

Paul.........., shame on you! Lazy way or not, a day on the Armourers test range shooting in and zeroing No5's should cure you!

[Alan de Enfield]

I use the DAC gunsmiths screwdriver set (yes there are a few you wont use, but there are 12 flat bits) and have not yet found a No1 or no4 / No5 screw that they wont fit. Everything from the rear trigger guard screw to the front trigger guard screw. - except the butt-bolt.

price at £15.00 - very reasonable.

I have seen them on ebay as well - type in 'Gunsmiths screwdriver'

Click the link : (about half way down the page)
If it doesnt work click on "Accessories" then "Gun care"

Airgun buyer, Blackpool Air rifles and Airgun products Air pistol supplies and accessories Care Accessories

[grant580]

There is a company here in Canada called Lee Valley Tools that sell an excellent tool to repair "buggered" screw holes in wood. It is called "The Plugger" and sells for $19.95 and comes with 10 wooden dowels to repair your wood with.

It is a drill bit that has a 16 degree taper, is very sharp and designed to bore a tapered hole in damaged wood. Then you take one of the cedar dowels that comes with the kit and sharpen it in an ordinary pencil sharpener, dab a little glue in the hole, tap the tapered dowel into the hole and cut off the excess wood with a flush cutting saw (also sold by Lee Valley). The good thing about this bit is that if drilled free-hand with a portable drill it will automatically center into the damaged hole and you can't go wrong. I have been using this bit for years and would not use anything else for this kind of repair.

[Peter Laidler]

Before you embark on any of this B&B, be advised that directly below the cheek rest screws is the stock bolt. You don't want to try drilling into that with a wood drill - twice! That's the reason why one is short and the other is long

[RobD]

Hollow-ground screwdrivers at low cost: buying a set of hex driver bits of different widths and spend a little time making a selection of different thicknesses in each width. You can use a little grinding attachment on your Dremel to do it. Keeping the edges parallel is actually not hard to do. Simples.

[Brit plumber]

My Screw drivers must be 1940s or 50, they came from my Great Uncle who worked in the Radio workshop at RAF Carlisle (They repaired more than radios) and they are identical to the type you find in Armourers kits. They are perfect and although they are 60 odd years old, theyre the best I have. If you look on ebay, they come up quite regularly.

[breakeyp]

Paul.........., shame on you! Lazy way or not, a day on the Armourers test range shooting in and zeroing No5's should cure you!

Peter, in the day, I would have been tickled pink to use someone else's ammo and get paid for it as well. Yes the No.5 is nasty in recoil but I suggest the Ross M1905 match rifles are worse. After three rounds, my shoulder felt like I had been driving an axe blade into it. The butt is short and narrow. The owner said I have fired it once more than he ever did.

[Baal]

Paul.........., shame on you! Lazy way or not, a day on the Armourers test range shooting in and zeroing No5's should cure you!

I'd love to be punished that way.

[bearhunter]

Stripped holes for wood screws are quite common on milsurps. I've never seen one on a T cheek pad before though.
One of the tricks I use, is to clean up the hole, if its oily, then fill it with a gorilla glue/sawdust mix. Use lots of sawdust. Push the mixture into the hole and let set overnight. Very carefully, scrape off the excess glue. Gorilla glue, has a habit of expanding as it dries. Then drill a pilot hole of appropriate size and reattach the piece, with the original screws. This repair, is as good as any and better than most. It is also invisible, if care is taken.

[Peter Laidler]

What I try to get across all of the time Bearhunter and others is the way that Armourers were taught to do it and would always do so. That way, many years in the future, someone will look at the repair and because it's 'the real McCoy' and a service repair, it'll be acceptable. Much like, if an Armourer refitted a bracket or telescope or even, say, fitted a long butt for a sniper, then it's acceptable. That's how it was done in the service - and done properly.

Most of the old time apprentice Armourers will remember that for butt plate screws, we didn't just use hardwood dowel plugs but we had to square the holes out and use squared plugs glued in place too. No Gorilla glue here.......... what is gorilla glue anyway?