Building a No.4 Enfield

[Gaz]

Update: I remembered that I have a de-ac No.4 quietly gathering dust, so I swapped the forend from that onto the live rifle. I was a bit dubious at first because it was heavily oil-soaked in the bedding area, but it made contact in all the right places and had the correct pressure at the muzzle end - between 3lbs and 7lbs of downwards force with the muzzle sitting centrally.


Then I went and fired it at Bisley on Saturday. It grouped! Not particularly well, because Bisley zero range's targets are a fair bit higher than the firing points, which I find very uncomfortable to deal with, but I'm pretty sure that was down to the "nut behind the butt" rather than the rifle.

It's still grouping off to the right and I have a hunch that one of the handguards might be touching the barrel. The foresight blade is hard over to one side, in the same position as it was with the old forend.


As this thread is a sort-of logbook of everything I've done with the rifle so far, I should probably describe how I check where the metal contacts the wood. I take a stick of chalk and rub it all over the places where metal should be touching wood, or where it's likely to make contact even if it isn't meant to. Then I put some oil on a piece of 4x2 and give the metalwork a light coat of oil. Not dripping wet, but enough to make sure any powdery substance sticks. Then it's a simple case of carefully assembling the rifle and dismantling it to see where the chalk's been taken off the wood.