1940 Lithgow No1 Mk3 question

[Alan de Enfield]

Forgive my ignorance, but what part is the fore end ? Thank you

No problem, another case of "Two nations divided by a single language"

In English it is a 'forend', in British military language it is a "stock, fore-end" and in American a 'forestock'

Item 50 on the parts list :

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Because Australia only ever had ONE overall maker of these rifles, and the machinery and metrology was pretty much all built by one company, Pratt and Whitney, interchangeability among rifles built with all Oz components is very good.

Start introducing UK or Indian parts and it can get interesting. See the saga of the Pratt and Whitney Inch vs the Enfield Inch, covered hereabouts on a couple of occasions.

A side issue is some of the counter-productive / horrible / dangerous "modifications" made by some members of the "target-shooting" crowd.

[CINDERS]

From my book shelves an interesting read along the lines of what Bruce has mentioned.

[30Three]

If you are going to remove the woodwork to examine the trigger function; please ensure that you remove the wood carefully as per the correct method.
Once the metalwork items are removed.
The wood is in firm contact with parts of the receiver and needs to be released at the rear (wrist) end first, by a downward pull or gentle tap down with a wooden block.
Do not pull down from the muzzle end! It will damage the wood at the draws.
I would recommend studying the articles on this website by Capt Peter Laidler for Lee Enfield maintenance.

[mrclark303]

Just to second that excellent advice, we've all seen forends needlessly damaged by people trying to pry from the muzzle.

I made myself a nice simple tool from an old plank of wood, cut to size and notched out, with leather pads on the end to give equal force to both corners while knocking down.

They just fall off some rifles, others are 'incredibly' tight!