One for the Armourers

[Brian Dick]

I DO know one thing; shims are a BIG NO, NO. Bring it on and we'll have a look-see.

[Ridolpho]

Speaking as a rank amateur I was able to force an aftermarket bracket to fit onto a faked No.4T by filing only on the bracket (figured it was disposable whereas the pads were on solidly and didn't want to touch them). The main filing was on the part of the bracket that seats against the boss on the front pad using a rotary file in a pillar drill. The bracket (and scope) were aiming left of the bore as viewed from the rear and this worked quite well, with the bracket drawing up in near perfect alignment with the bore as viewed from above. As viewed from the side the bracket/ scope were pointing up above the bore and this is where I ran out of luck. Careful hand filing on the rear mating surface on the bracket got it close but not perfect. The problem stemmed from the original "craftsman" spotting the pads rather poorly. In any case, it works quite well with the post/ crosshair in the replica No. 32 Mk 1 being noticeably low in the field of view. It was nitt-picky work with a lot of trips between the workshop and the kitchen where the bore-sighting was done but I learned a bit doing it. But I would love to hear how base armourers installed replacement brackets when called on to do it. Were pads altered or was work confined to the brackets, or both? My favorite rifle is an early '43 Shirley "T" that has been through a Maltby FTR and currently wears a bracket with 3 rifle serials on it, including the current rifle. That's one well used bracket!

Ridolpho

[Lee Enfield]

I think this was asked a while back but I don't remember if it got an answer or not nor do I remember which thread it was in. The question had to do with fitting a mismatched No.4T scope bracket from one rifle to another. As an example I have a No.4T with mismatched scope/bracket, after centering the grat and mounting it on the rifle with all screws done up tight I have to move the aiming post 14 MOA left in order for it to line up with the center line of the bore @ 28 feet. How would an armourer correct this?

Is it a repro bracket?

[RobD]

Question:
- I understand the need to line up (colimate) the optical centre of the scope with the bore, and the lengths which H&H went to to accomplish this. I also understand that faux No 4 (T)s suffer from not having the scope colimated to the bore.
- Now, ignoring any talk of repro scope brackets, repro scopes and repro pads, and ignoring rifles which have had pads mounted by amateurs, here's the question:
Can it be assumed that a genuine No 4 (T) which was scopeless, and subsequently paired up with a genuine bracket plus genuine No 32 scope, will be correctly colimated?

[Brian Dick]

In my experience dealing with mismatch brackets, (original not repro), Some drop right on within spec and others need fitting to get in spec. It's more or less a crap shoot.

[Peter Laidler]

The answer to RobD is an emphatic NO! Oh, they MIGHT......, but on the other hand........ The mechanical centre line of the bracket is collimated to the mechanical centre line of the bore of the rifle at the factory. That is why the telescope number is on the butt of the rifle. The PROBLEM arises when the telescope is taken out of the bracket, in a workshop for example, where 20 or so might be stripped, refurbished and rebuilt. That's why, later there was a miscellaneous instruction to number the bracket too.

You'll understand now why I say that changing telescopes is relatively simple. But changing a bracket.............. Don't expect an easy ride!