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!