SMLE Trigger work and handguard question.

[englishman_ca]

Ok. I understand your frustration. Many of us have been where you are right now.

I will try to give you some tips, but understand that I am not an apprentice served armourer, but only an enthusiastic amateur who has done a couple of dozen sets of wood from square one. I have experienced many perplexing problems, but always managed to fix them by working though the process step by step. It takes time. Follow Capt Laidler's instructions to the letter.
,
What you have is fat wood. Fat in the body, fat in the barrel band inlets, fat in the draws, fat in the barrel channel. Replacement stocks are thus oversized as it is a lot easier to fit something up by removing wood than it is trying to add it. You will get there with patience, but there is a procedure and sequence to go through.

So you have some extra triggers to bugger up, um , I mean adjust. That is good. The procedure has a learning curve.

Not too sure about the cocking piece being marked DP. Somebody thought that is was worth marking DP so it would not be used in a live rifle. It might have been ground or modified sometime in the past, who knows why it is DP marked. I don't think that it is the likely cause of your trigger pull off problem but might cause other issues. Get rid of it.

When you fit the stock to the action, are you happy with the bedding? The action sits right down in the wood. Good contact on the underside of the receiver? Have you smoke smudged the metal to see where it is touching when bedded down into the wood?
Edges of the receiver ring not hanging up on anything? Barrel reinforce sitting on its inlet? Does the stock give upwards pressure on the underside of the barrel at the muzzle?

Without the fore stock bedded and the action sitting down tight, you will not get anywhere with the trigger.

Let me ask you a couple questions which might give us some clues. I spend hours at the bench making wood from scratch and always enjoy the stocking up part. To some it is a nightmare, but to me is hours of relaxed time at the bench.
It can take me a week to get an action fitted, working on it every evening. It takes a lot of time. For the final final stages of stocking up, I use shaped scrapers to get in there and shave off the smallest amount of the wood to make things bed down. I probably fit and check the wood a hundred times in the process.

Take the wood off, fit the front trigger guard screw bushing and mount the trigger guard. What do you get happening with the trigger pull off? Take some pics of the sear, trigger and cocking piece in the cocked position. Show us what is happening. We will adjust from there.

With the trigger guard and wood removed, how much engagement of the sear are you getting on the cocking piece bent? You mentioned it was almost on the edge at rest? Take a pic for us an show how much engagement.

Remove the bolt and take a peek down into the receiver from above. Look to where the upper face of the sear arm touches the underside of the receiver. It should be right there under the bolt way. Get a good light and see if there are any punch marks or any damage to the metal in the receiver, an eight of an inch above where the sear touches the corner edge of the receiver.
I ask because this is where one can set the height of the sear at rest. The sear tip should sit a little bit away from the edge of the cocking piece edge to be taken up by first pressure on the trigger.

Only when you are satisfied with everything is a go, then start stoning the bumps on the trigger. I have take off triggers in the bins where the bumps have been stoned down to almost nothing. So have at her, keep your original trigger aside and bugger up a spare one first.