ERRRRRR !!! No1 Mk3 Forend Problem

[Brian Dick]

Read #8 carefully again and then line one of #16. Next question please.

I had to saw an original No.5 butt off a nice but rusted BSA last winter. That was a first and it was painful. Replacements aren't too common in this neck of the woods.

[Flying10uk]

Read #8 carefully again and then line one of #16. Next question please.

Ok Brian, thanks, I thought that we talking about the SMLE, not the No4.

CINDERS, you come across as pompous at times; I wasn't aware that I ever ranted.

[browningautorifle]

CINDERS, you come across as pompous at times; I wasn't aware that I ever ranted.

You DO understand he can't read that statement don't you? You understand the part about having someone on "Ignore" on forum means? That's like punching a blind man...

[Flying10uk]

I do Jim, thanks. Surely I have a right to reply to his post?

[Brian Dick]

I think that sometimes we all need to read and reread sometimes before we comment. I know that I do. It's just a human thing to interpret things incorrectly when you read something hastily with an ingrained attitude and all that. He was discussing the fact that these problems were remedied with the simplified No.4 design which they most certainly were!

[RobD]

Martini Henrys have a similar stock bolt / butt socket arrangements. My experience with Martini Henrys is life-long - I got my 1st licence to shoot a MH when I was 14 yrs old, in the green hills of Natal - entirely agrees with Peter's observations - stock bolts really don't unscrew themselves mysteriously: As Peter says... nor did they seem to work loose. And even if they did, usually due to dried out old butts...

[bob4wd]

Martini Henrys have a similar stock bolt / butt socket arrangements. My experience with Martini Henrys is life-long - I got my 1st licence to shoot a MH when I was 14 yrs old, in the green hills of Natal - entirely agrees with Peter's observations - stock bolts really don't unscrew themselves mysteriously: As Peter says... nor did they seem to work loose. And even if they did, usually due to dried out old butts...

So THAT explains why all of my rifles have gotten loose! Dried out old butt indeed!

[RobD]

Yup...

[browningautorifle]

Surely I have a right to reply to his post?

I'm not sure the point though...

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I occurred to me that, rather than butchering the butt, would it not be better to destroy the screw?

Run a series of drill-bits up the hole in the butt and steadily cut away the head of the screw. Once it snaps away, use the "usual methods" to "tap and wiggle" the wood to the rear.

Once that is off, choose your best method of removing the main body of the screw; hack-saws, Dremels, etc............ Obviously, with a SMLE type, with the square "extension", you are still going to have to remove the fore-end, but undamaged and under control. It the screw has been hacked off, and the fore-end removed, the remaining square stub can also be grasped with the "wrench" (Box, open-ended, Vise-grip, etc.), of your choice and then carefully wound out of the body.

Chase out the thread in the body. It is as close as you can get to a 7/16" 14tpi BSW, i.e. Whitworth standard, the ONLY such thing on a SMLE) and is EXACTLY the same thread as on a No4 / 5.

All you then need is a NEW stock-screw and a bit of grease.

Also bear in mind that SMLE wood was soaked for ages in linseed oil and that the tapered end of a "new" butt, was factory-fitted using what was essentially a powerful press. Once in place, the assembler whacked in the big bolt and single washer and wound it up tight, with the forward-protruding square stub being aligned using a gauge.

Nothing like "living history"!!