Building a No.4 Enfield

[Dave 101]

Hi Gaz

Butt Bolt .
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/lee-enfield-b ... 23188e847d

Dave

[dave_303]

Plus a rear sight plunger, as the leaf sight/spring/plunger/axis pin/retaining pin I bought as a kit from Welsharms turned out to contain a stainless steel nail instead of the actual plunger. :cool2:

It's looking good Gaz, I do have a spare rear sight somewhere, but I have just returned to uni and wont have access to it for some time, if you still need/want it let me know

[ovenpaa]

Looks very good so far

[Gaz]

Question: Why would a No.4 fore-end, some 60 years old, never have been fitted to a rifle before?

Answer: cos it's buggered, that's why!


The fore-end I bought, in all its brand new glory, looks like it might have been a factory reject or similar. Basically, the cutouts for the receiver are too far off to one side for it to sit square. Even without a barrel, it's all but impossible to bed it properly.

So, it looks like I'm in the market for a good condition beech (not blonde) fore-end!


Dave - thanks for the offer mate, but luckily someone at one of my clubs donated a No.4 rearsight to me. Unless you have a plunger you're willing to part with?

[ovenpaa]

Gaz, any chance of chopping it to suit? If not the wood will be handy for patching with.

[Rearlugs]

Question: Why would a No.4 fore-end, some 60 years old, never have been fitted to a rifle before?

Answer: cos it's buggered, that's why!


The fore-end I bought, in all its brand new glory, looks like it might have been a factory reject or similar. Basically, the cutouts for the receiver are too far off to one side for it to sit square. Even without a barrel, it's all but impossible to bed it properly.

New forends often require a great deal of careful fitting, but I've never come across one that couldn't be made to fit the receiver. You can usually turn the receiver laterally by adjusting the inside of the forend walls, the recoil faces and the butt socket abutment.

Post a photo?

[Gaz]

Everything's locked away at the mo, but here's a quick diagram of what I mean. Fig 1 is a normal fore-end, and Fig 2 is an (exaggerated!) diagram of how mine looks.



I only spotted it when I saw the sear bearing heavily against one side of the trigger mechanism channel. I relieved it just enough so it wasn't bearing but then realised the channel was way off-centre. I'll take a photo of the actual channel tomorrow so you can see what I mean.

[Gaz]

Been busy recently - phone camera doesn't want to play ball either so no picture at the moment sorry!

Receiver and barrel are currently at Fulton's. Can't say I was impressed - having politely mentioned that I'd previously been quoted £175 to have the barrel fitted and here was the receiver I wanted them to screw it to, I got a lot of dubious quibbling ("can you describe the person who quoted this" - I'm only a customer, why should I trust what one of your staff tells me? Next time I'll take a damn video camera) until I settled the matter by asking them to bring the barrel out - which had the price and my name attached to it.

They then discovered that the receiver didn't have any proof marks on it and asked for another £75 to have it proofed. This wasn't covered in the original verbal quote (fitted AND proofed, £175) but without anything in writing what could I say? Lesson learned ...

So, later today I'm handing over 250 beer tokens instead of 175. This takes the total cost of the rifle to about £400. Given that the original idea was to build a cheap Enfield for less than the cost of a decent one, I'm now less than happy with the project. However I'll still keep going.


If anyone feels like saying hello, by the way, I'm at Bisley tomorrow for a morning shoot at 500x. You'll recognise me easily enough - I'm the bearded one with Brunel Uni TSC.

[Rearlugs]

They'd have had to proof it anyway by virtue of a new barrel being fitted; hard to understand why they'd add on another quote for proof afterwards, or because the receiver was unproofed.

Is the barrel one of the new Walthar Lothar type, or a used original No4?

[Gaz]

Barrel is a used original. Not in great condition - for about an inch in front of the bullet seating area it looks like someone's painted it black. Still, I never imagined that this would be a match-winning rifle, just one that goes bang and hits the target.


Project is at a standstill at the moment while real life gets in the way. I'm going to Bisley at the end of the month so will hopefully find a barrelled action waiting at Fultons.

Something tells me I'll find it's failed proof, or had the barrel bent, or something else equally "amusing" instead.