Hi!
I got that weird 1944 longbranch today, 5 grooved barrel, c broad arrow markings everywhere, rear handguard is not grooved, no import marks, no ftr marks... There was a rubber piece like some sort of bedding abour 6" from the muzzle. This is the first time that i see a canadian service rifle that is not 2 grooved, except for 4t. Can someone give me more info? By the way the rifle do not have rcmp markings.
Thank you
Kegcaissy
The rubber piece added is a cheap and poor fix at bedding, you have wood shrinkage at the rear area of the fore stock. This means the fore stock can rock back and forth at the forward trigger guard screw like a kids teeter totter. If you shoot your Enfield rifle this way you might damage the rear draws area and even cause the stock to crack.
Below the rear draws area of your fore stock is loose at the areas of the red arrows. And when it becomes loose at this area, the rear of the stock moves upward and up pressure is reduced at the fore end tip.
And when you add shims below at the white arrows, this does two things.
1. It pushes the stock to the rear and into contact the receiver ring.
2. The shimming forces the rear of the stock "down" and raises the fore end tip "up" and increases up pressure.
The king screw or forward trigger guard screw is the fulcrum point of the fore stock. If you add shims in the rear the front of the stock moves up, if you decrease the shims the front of the stock moves down. And you shim the stock to have 2 to 7 pounds of "UP" pressure at the fore end tip and you adjust the up pressure weight to "TUNE" your Enfield to shoot the best groups.
Now before you do any shimming or anything else keep applying a 50/50 mix of raw linseed oil and turpentine to the stock until it will not take any more oil. This "may" hydrate the stock and cause the wood to swell and shimming may not be necessary or in the least reduce the amount of shimming.
Below only thin shims were needed to tighten up the No.4 fore stock below. These thin shims are cut from brown paper grocery bags and super glued in place, then sanded to the right thickness and also to center the barrel in the fore stock barrel channel. The light colored wooden shims at the top help prevent the rear of the stock from moving upward and loosing up pressure. See the Canadian Marksman and the No.4 Canadian manual for bedding instructions.
Once you understand that wood shrinkage and wood crush are your biggest problems fixing the bedding is easy. My first Enfield rifle had a loose fore stock and the rifle was stringing all the shots vertically and at 50 yards I was lucky when firing five shots if 3 or 4 shots even hit the paper.
And after reading everything I could find on the subject of bedding and shimming the fore stock on my first Enfield the bottom photo is the result.