Lee Enfield 7.62 no 4 conversion

[Frederick303]

It was a mod originally used on the No1 MK III by Fultons, and transferred to the No4 rifles and even the Envoy rifles worked over for the 1970 Palma by Fulton's had this mod applied. I have also seen it on some of the Fulton 7.62 No 4 mods, which look liked of like an L39 variant made in the early 1970 to mid 70s.

As to exactly what it did, well unfortunately when Robin Fulton went to his grave all of the family records were destroyed, or so I was told when making a formal inquiry to Fulton's 15~16 years ago. When trying to figure it out and looking at the full compendium of mods and why they did them The best theory that explains why they did it I can come up with is as follows:

The pegs really do nothing on a brand new and correctly bedded rifle. However over time stocks dry out, recoil loosens the draws and at some point a minor amount of play an develop in the rear draws/forend seat. Not exactly loose, but with sufficient loss of tightness that things can move under recoil and consistent side sling pressure. The pegs then, because they push against the side of the big metal thingy that forms the front of the draw, does not allow the rear forend set to shift side to side under recoil, which becomes a distinct possibility when shooting with a tight sling like competitive shooters do. So its primary purpose seems to be allow the bedding to last a bit longer, exactly how much longer I have no idea.

It had some utility as the Canadian 7.62 Mod used it as well, though they had 2 pegs on each side, one high and one low, which was applied in 1963 and later rifles, though it might actually have been used even earlier. Single peg mod rifle exist too, though exactly who did that is unknown.

In the Fulton mod No 1 MK III rifles form the post 1934 rules (which allowed up to 2 oz of added metal bedding ads) to the 1950s, they originally had 2 sets of screws on the forend that fixed the side to side play of the action body, and even had a modified welded flat added to the action bodies to provide a larger bedding seat. So the procedure goes back at least to the 1930s, in a modified form.

It should be mentioned that when talking to a older Canadian service rifle shooter form the era (mid late 1960s) who was a bit of a iconoclast, that a lot of the so-called mods were really window dressing, that it was more of a selling point that actually doing anything. It was his assertion that a lot of the hidden art of service rifle bedding was simply bunk (with the exception of center bedding), that standard service action body bedding, in particular getting the front forend action screw pressure correct (British ordnance had a tool to do that), barrel seat pressure and correctly fit draws was the key. So he alleged that a lot of the services of match tuners was really nothing more than collecting money from folks and giving the shooter the confidence he had the best possible rifle.