New Lithgow Enfield!

[Scooter22]

WOW! That is gun porn at it's finest. That looks unissued. Ireland contract?

 

[DougW]

Scooter, the "Iriish Contract" rifles were #4mkII's from the early 50's. MJ has some of the nicest .303's you will ever see. Second is madcratebuilder's rifles. Wonderful collections. Those 2 guys have worked hard at the collecting business!

 

[Cosmoline]

I've got some new bullets on order to try out with it. I'm hoping to fine tune for some very nice groups.

The Aussies used these in both world wars through Korea without even upgrading to the newer Enfields. I'm starting to see why.

 

[Cosmoline]

Second time to the range. It does well with the Privi and S&B. Unfortunately the stock decided it was going to collapse on me. The front stock started shedding pieces around the base where there appears to have been earlier repairs and reinforcements. I was hoping it was just a crack, but after I got home it seems the wood is *crumbling* at various points of recoil. I'm not sure what happened to it in the past. I was careful not to screw it up with the rear stock's bolt head. Looking at the condition of the wood, I can only assume it has been exposed to too much oil or was simply inferior grade to start out. There are several earlier repair marks and reinforcement screws, all of which have now failed. I could gorilla glue the whole thing back together, but any reinforcement screw I put in will just weaken the remaining wood further, and the pieces that are coming off are so soft they can be squeezed apart by hand. Maybe there's some way of impregnating the whole thing with epoxy but it's beyond my ability to fix.

So, it looks like a walnut fore-end is on the menu. The stock was non-matching anyway and had been previously refinished so no huge loss.

 

[GBExpat]

The front stock started shedding pieces around the base where there appears to have been earlier repairs and reinforcements. I was hoping it was just a crack, but after I got home it seems the wood is *crumbling* at various points of recoil.

I am very sorry to hear this. If I had a backup Nº1 forearm in my kit I would offer it, but all I have is a couple of Nº4s.

 

[Cosmoline]

Thanks! It looks like fore stocks are in short supply like everything else. I'm not giving up on it yet. I've resorted to the ugly but effective gorilla glue, which penetrates into small cracks and has a flexibility most epoxy does not have. It's worked well for me in Mosin Nagant stocks. The down side is you can't really hide it. It oozed around the recoil lug and into the various cracks then expanded out. Then it's just a matter of removing the excess with a chisel after it dries. If it manages to hold this stock together, it will be amazing.

 

[krankieone]

G'day
I have had some success with sierra 125g sp with 42g AR2208 and Remington LR primers 1" @ 100yards .similar results with 174g fmj bt 40gr 2208 & 180gsierra sp 39.5g 2208 ,I had terrible feed problems untill I bought a new magazine.

 

[Cosmoline]

Is AR2208 roughly the same as our Varget?

 

[krankieone]

not sure about the Varget our local country store only stocks one brand of powders so i haven't ever bothered to look at other ones.But I'm sure someone on here will know .

My enfield has a really short stock too apparently they came in several sizes I plan to make a larger one as mine has been sporterized I have no qualms messing with it.

 

[krankieone]

found this powder equivalent chart http://www.adi-powders.com.au/handloaders-guide/equivalents.asp

 

[Jim K]

Almost all of those Lithgow Mk III's that look so good were built out of parts by John Jovino; some place on them is a very tiny JJ or JJCo. Now don't ask where, as I have been checking mine and can't find it and I know it is there - someplace. That being said, they are OK and are well done.

Jim

 

[Sergei Mosin]

The JJCO import mark is not enough to condemn a rifle as a bitser; he imported a lot of complete rifles too. The bitsers are easy to distinguish as their serial numbers fall outside the Lithgow range - generally they have letter suffixes rather than prefixes (ie, a 1945 Lithgow numbered 1234A is a bitser, a 1945 Lithgow numbered F38000 should be the real thing.)

 

[Cosmoline]

Well I wondered about that. My receiver and bolt are a match and all the metal parts were given a very dark bluing/blacking at some point. The SN seems to line up with the date, too. So it's not a parts gun as far as the core steel. But I have heard that substandard wood was used on some of these assemblies, so that may be why my stock is crumbling. It does have recoil lugs, but while they're holding the wood around them is splitting in all directions.

 

[Sergei Mosin]

Could be that the recoil plates were installed improperly. You might want to visit http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewforum.php?f=27 - lots of folks who are intimately familiar with Lithgows and stock repairs there.

 

[Cosmoline]

Thanks! I have searched there and on other SMLE forums. The cracking appears to be a recurring problem that is to some extent an inherent weakness made worse by the buttstock's screw head placement, poor fitting, and other issues.

I've ordered a new front stock to replace this one. It's just too far gone, though I may use it for a bedding project later on. If I do I'll add steel strengthening wrap to the thin parts around the receiver.

 

[Cosmoline]

I got the front stock from Numrich. This is one of the walnut ones from parts unknown. Possibly India. But the quality is sound. The wood is reasonably tight grained and chisels well. It doesn't have that grease impregnation the Lithgow coachwood had. I had to do some woodworking to fit the trigger. The wood/barrel fit seems about right. I'm going to take it out soon and if it has troubles I'll probably take more wood from the barrel channel.

If you order one of these from Numrich, be prepared to do some hand fitting. I suspect they're made oversized to permit adjustment to individual firearms.

 

[Ohio Gun Guy]

Here is my 1942 SMLE in Original "MA" Lithgow wood, note it's dated 1942 but the wood says 1943, but the serial numbers all match. I suppose this means it was made in January of 1943.

With lithgow bayonet from December of 1942 "12/42"

 

[Cosmoline]

Very nice one!

I got the renewed 1942 out to the range Saturday. Inletting and fitting the new foreend was quite tricky. Even the trigger wouldn't function until I removed wood to fit the trigger plate better. The design is far from simple to work with, and the push-pull-push arrangement on the barrel makes everything extra difficult. You can't just clear out wood around the stock, stick some cork at the tip and call it good.

So my group size was reduced. Loosening the barrel band improved things a bit, but it still wasn't as good as it originally had been. So it's back to the drawing board. The barrel is sitting very tight in the nose cap, which it apparently isn't supposed to be. So I suspect what was happening is the nose cap gripping the barrel fast while the mid-barrel band just torqued it downwards. The barrel should not float, apparently, but it does need to have a little wiggle room between the pushing of the front end spring loaded plunger and the pulling of the barrel band. Both are spring loaded so you should be able to grab the crown and move it slightly even with the nose cap on.

I'll play around a little more here but I may need to try a different nose cap. If it's firmly fixing the barrel's end then nothing I do to improve the rest of the fit will matter much. The SMLE may have been the best battle rifle of its era, but it was a complex beast for sure.

 

[MJ]

Hmmmmmm

You keep talking about the mid band but never mention the the front barrel guide that is screwed to the stock from the btm.?

What is the contact like at the draws?

 

[Cosmoline]

I had to shim it at the receiver contact points L and R to lock the stock in place. Otherwise it was loose.

The "mid barrel band" I'm referring to is the "inner" band or barrel guide that loops around the barrel inside the stock and rides on the spring.

 

[Cosmoline]

Update--I did some close inspection yesterday night. I removed the front hand guard and inspected the barrel/stock fit with everything else screwed in place. The stock was pushing pretty hard to the left, driving my shots that direction and no doubt messing up the accuracy. The cause? Believe it or not it appears to be related to very, very subtle wood fitting way back by the trigger and at my shims in the back. I reshimed it to be more even and carefully removed wood more evenly around the base of the trigger guard, and presto the barrel righted itself and is now running down the center of the channel. A word to folks fitting new SMLE wood--it's much more sensitive to fitting than a Mosin or Mauser.

Hopefully this, plus some other tweaks, will get it shooting better.

 

[MJ]

Hmmmmmm

A word to folks fitting new SMLE wood--it's much more sensitive to fitting than a Mosin or Mauser.

Yes they are but that is the price for a line rifle to have accuracy.