Longtitudinal Crack in Fore-end forward of Trigger Guard

[nijalninja]

Just wanting to clarify the effectiveness of a repair I need to do on a few of my MKIII's:

Its a normal split that runs from the main screw hole in the stock, usually with a busted out piece of wood closest to the mag, and extends towards the rear sight protector ear fixture hole. I have a picture here of a more extreme version of the cracks on my rifles just to give an idea (Credit to whoever took the picture). Mine are nowhere near this bad.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/para...3/DSCN0034.jpg

I remember someone mentioning a repair for this (Might have been Mr Laidler himself) whereby you drill a hole at the very front/end of the crack (vertically), use a big beefy bit of dowel, glue it all up, and then when its done make a plug for the bottom of the dowel so it doesn't stand out so bad against the fore-end. I'm only curious as to the effectiveness of this repair accompanied with repairing the rear of the fore-end that is always split as well. If its a repair that can stand up in military practice then should be ok for me, or if someone has a better idea let me know.

Cheers.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Peter Laidler]

This was a common fault and an everyday repair for us, well into the No4 era. The repairis described in detail in an earlier thread if anyone cares to resurrect it.

[nijalninja]

Thanks Mr Laidler, I'm fairly certain I remember reading a comment from you about how to do it ages ago, but now trawling through threads about stock repairs I can't find anything about it.

[Ridolpho]

nijalninja: For the wood-shop dropout (like me) here's another approach. Amazingly I had to order from the US to get slotted screws that resembled the screws in the great many "Ishapore Screw" equipped No's 1 and 4 rifles in my collection. The rifle pictured is a Siamese contract No. 1 that the previous owner had found wanting in the accuracy department. The forend was, essentially, shot but I liked the appearance of it so much that I put in a total replacement of the draws area and the screw to stabilize a forward crack. It shoots good now because the bore, amazingly, is near perfect. If I had it to do over again I'd use a dowel as per Capt. Laidlers advice.

Ridolpho

[DanL96a1]

Peters Articles

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....0622#post90622

[DanL96a1]

Article from Son

http://www.milsurps.com/content.php?...a-Lithgow-SMLE

[nijalninja]

Ridolpho, I too love battle scarred rifles, but I reckon I can cut it with the dowel. I've done a set of draws, partially, before and little bits since then, and now finally I understand what I need to do. I'm not too fussed on how my rifle shoots after this since the bore is beyond toast, but the next half nice gun that needs this repair I will be not so worried about it.

Dan, I have read both of those before a few times, but after re-reading them I now know what must be done. Thanks for refreshing me. I should have known the answer was already easy to find.

[nijalninja]

Don't mean to double post but figured some pictures of it now I've started would be appreciated. Turns out the wrist face of the fore-end was way worse than I first thought and will need more work than anything.

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The LHS wall at the rear of the fore-end is slightly split from the back towards the front, but not far. I reckon its probably too fragile to open up, so I just put two holes down from the top and glued and plugged it in. Then relieved the split under the fore-end and plugged it too. While I was trying to open the crack I found a few new ones and realised the split did in fact run through the top into the barrel channel where before it looked clear. Also the RHS of the rear of the fore-end is pretty much coming apart, but I'll see what I can do. Because of that and the fact I will be dowelling it crossways under the knox form I figured opening and gluing the crack itself was not over important.

Also need to work on my wood skills so the holes turn out neater.

[Ridolpho]

nijalninja: There's sure a lot of forends out there that are at the point of no return. If one is willing to attempt repairs like this it adds a whole new dimension to Lee Enfield collecting. The Siamese rifle I mentioned might be considered a "collectible" but I only payed about $400 Can for it and in the Canadian market there's more shooters than purist collectors. Personally I dislike rifles that have well worn, patinated metal that are thrown into a new, unissued forend. Keeping the very well used forend on it but making it shootable again seemed to me the best course. There's no worries about fakery as the work most of us are capable of will never be confused with the amazing patches and work that was done by bona-fide armourers. On the other hand, I too have high end collectables that I would never dream of altering in any way and, if unshootable, I don't shoot. Each one's got to be looked at as an individual case.

Ridolpho

[nijalninja]

Well I'll try nearly anything. Just hate to see a gun get wasted unless it is actually unsafe to shoot, and I have to agree again. I have a few rifles I wouldn't shoot for their collectible value as well.

Now onto part two of the repair: Tidied up the plugs I did yesterday somewhat and they look alright, then drilled and plugged the crack in the top as well as the crossways dowel and that is where the good news ends. Figure I'll share the screw up too.

As always I can't get two holes from either side to line up perfectly so there is a little step at one point that the dowel has to go past, but having a tapered end and doing a test fit I figured it would be fine... apparently not. Dowel got to the last 10mm and stuck fast, then split where I was tapping it it, then wouldn't go back either, so now its sitting in there halfway and split. I'm waiting for glue to dry before drilling it out and trying again. Very annoying. Something for another day.

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