Having trouble closing the action on my No4 Mk1*, need advise please.

[cthulhudarren]

Pretty much worthless as a collector or a shooter the way it is now.

I disagree. And it does shoot great. Just not going to do any mad minutes.

[Brian Dick]

Repairing it to MoD specification as instructed would only increase it's value in my humble opinion.

[vintage hunter]

I disagree. And it does shoot great.

Well then I reckon we'll just have to agree to disagree. There are exceptions I suppose but damage and/or malfunctions aren't normally considered to be the attributes of a collectors piece or a good shooter, IMO.

[Parashooter]

I'm afraid that doing this would make the rifle worthless as a collector. So I guess I'll just have to live with it, I'll try some heavy grease in the bolt threads and perhaps create some washers for the striker spring. Anyone know the dimensions that I would need to make these washers?

I'm afraid you're laboring under a couple of misconceptions there.

Welding to repair the missing bits of rail should be essentially invisible since it merely restores metal that was originally there. (If I'm visualizing correctly, the copper plate mentioned is simply a temporary "spacer" to avoid filling in the groove under the rail when adding weld.)

As was advised earlier in this topic, the striker spring plays no part in the inadvertent bolt head rotation you've encountered. As soon as the bolt body is rotated, a cam surface at its back end engages a small lug on the cocking piece and moves the striker away from the bolt head. Since the striker spring is behind the striker flange, it then has no possible interaction with the bolt head. In any case, since the striker is firmly affixed to the non-rotating cocking piece, there's no mechanism by which it can cause bolt head rotation. I suspect you are confused by the fact that striker spring torsion has been alleged to cause the bolt body to rotate slightly during striker fall.

If you're unable to undertake the welded restoration, the "field expedient" methods of a small chamfer and/or a little discreet peening can effectively alleviate the problem in most cases. The chamfered groove has been widely reported as an original feature on at least part of Mark 1 production.

[Patrick Chadwick]

"I'm afraid that doing this would make the rifle worthless as a collector..."

Apparently against the mindset of some collectors, the function of a rifle is to shoot, not fill up expensive cabinet space.

Repairing it in the way that an armorer would have done is NOT Bubbaring or falsification. But the first quote implies precisely that, and is effectively a denigration of Peter and his professional colleagues the world over.

Proper repair is applying what should have been "part of its history" - for those who place value on that weasely phrase - as it should have been properly maintained. Conserving bad maintenance is ridiculous.

"...And it does shoot great."

So fix it properly as Peter described, and enjoy it as a good-shooting rifle.

[Peter Laidler]

Wow....... this has been a difficult thread for me to digest. Cthulhudarren, I'm afraid your comments separate the real Armourers of the world from enthusiastic amateurs. So you need to sit back, listen and take on board a few words of wisdom. If you repaired your rifle in the same way as the Army repaired and then refinished their rifles, it would be as good and presumably as valuable as it ever was. And how do you know that there aren't a zillion more, repaired exactly like that, out there STILL giving perfect service throughout the world. I'd say that there were. And you wouldn't need a Mk1 or 2 rifle!

As for this ridiculous notion of using a brass washers grease to prevent this that and the other, then I'll say two things...... First, this is not even a palliative and certainly not a cure.... it's STILL defective or wrong and b) It's the bloody bolt head that is jumping out of the broken track and not the striker spring or striker or the cocking piece. How many times do you need telling that the striker spring has no effect whatsoever on the bolt head. Listen.... THE STRIKER SPRING IS TOTALLY SEPARATED from the bolt head and EVEN MORE SO the moment you close and open the bolt. I could go into the technical aspects of this that and the other but feel I'll be wasting my time - much as you will be doing by suggesting what you have

What other doses of reality do you a) want or b) need.......?

PS someone's PM'd me and said I sound a tad frustrated! You're right..... It's like someone has a slight problem, asks for an answer, gets the only correct one from 'the wisdom of the crowd' - and then gives you HIS answer as the definitive answer!