Long Branch No.4 Mk1 wood/finish

[Brian Dick]

I like both of your rifles Mr. Clark. I have two 1903A4 snipers. One with a Lyman like yours except an M82. The other with a Weaver M73B1. The Lyman is so much better that I seldom shoot the one with the Weaver which still has it's NRA sale tag from the 1950's or 60's. I always considered the Weaver a .22 riflescope to be honest. Your Maltby also looks great. a small critique is that you need to refit your front handguard so it doesn't contact the front sight base. As far as the spirit based stains. They are available over here from Brownells but very expensive. A small 4 ounce bottle running about $30. I was buying Chestnut Ridge for $28 in a 16 ounce bottle! I recently restored a 1943 No.4Mk.1T and used Minwax dark walnut oil based stain on the new reproduction cheek rest. It seemed to do OK and blended well with the S/A marked nos beech. The rifle had been sporterized and still retained the original buttstock so I traded out the customer supplied beech rear handguard for a grooved British walnut one. It looks as it should but there is a bit of contrast in the wood color. Managed a 2" group at 100 yards during the range test a couple of days ago with a perfect bracket from DRP and Mk.1 scope supplied by the customer. I had a couple of rounds touching so the rifle is probably capable of MOA at 100 yards. I just can't hold them anymore with my arthritic shoulders, arms and hands! Keep up the good work.

[mrclark303]

I like both of your rifles Mr. Clark. I have two 1903A4 snipers. One with a Lyman like yours except an M82. The other with a Weaver M73B1. The Lyman is so much better that I seldom shoot the one with the Weaver which still has it's NRA sale tag from the 1950's or 60's. I always considered the Weaver a .22 riflescope to be honest. Your Maltby also looks great. a small critique is that you need to refit your front handguard so it doesn't contact the front sight base. As far as the spirit based stains. They are available over here from Brownells but very expensive. A small 4 ounce bottle running about $30. I was buying Chestnut Ridge for $28 in a 16 ounce bottle! I recently restored a 1943 No.4Mk.1T and used Minwax dark walnut oil based stain on the new reproduction cheek rest. It seemed to do OK and blended well with the S/A marked nos beech. The rifle had been sporterized and still retained the original buttstock so I traded out the customer supplied beech rear handguard for a grooved British walnut one. It looks as it should but there is a bit of contrast in the wood color. Managed a 2" group at 100 yards during the range test a couple of days ago with a perfect bracket from DRP and Mk.1 scope supplied by the customer. I had a couple of rounds touching so the rifle is probably capable of MOA at 100 yards. I just can't hold them anymore with my arthritic shoulders, arms and hands! Keep up the good work.

Hi Brian, thanks for your kind words. I have to be honest and say my A4 build is possibly my favourite rifle to shoot, I just wish it wasn't so expensive to feed!

The A4 Alaskan combo works well and (non milsurp collectors) people are always surprised by the quality of the optics after they stop mocking the tiny scope!

Re the Maltby, the picture doesn't show it, but there was adequate clearance re forend/ sight base ... That said, I had to replace this forend anyway as it developed a lateral split through the forend muzzle rest and running up the dead centre.

When I checked it after stripping you could see there was a knot just 'offset' the rest, the split started there and with No4 muzzle tapping followed a natural fault line in the grain....

Hey, it's wartime production, so hay ho...

It was simpler to replace it that attempt a repair, as it would have inevitably failed again at that point..

A few years back No4 woodwork was still plentiful and relatively cheap here in the UK too.

---------- Post added at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:44 PM ----------

I forgot to say, I've actually used Liberon Dark Oak before on well used darker rifle Walnut, to great effect, it's actually a better Walnut match than the same companies Dark Walnut!