Are Enfield barrels supposed to have a little 'wobble'?

Majo.Dump

Majo.Dump

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Hey all, I'm disassembling and reassembling an Enfield No4 Mk1 currently. Upon reassembly I noticed the barrel seems to be wobbling a bit within the stock. Is this normal? I did some googling and it seems that it might be normal, but I'd appreciate some other thoughts.

Video here:
[video]https://drive.google.com/open?id=19bBmaTY1Q_16uS4OORje6c7f-HUiXduC[/video]
 
You have two problems. The up down motion is correct, but the rifle should never rock. It must press down on the bottom of the nosecap. There are questions and answers about accurizing the No.4 that discuss the draws and bearing surfaces, but all work on the premise that the King Screw has its cylindrical bushing and is itself nicely snug.
 
Download all of these manuals:

http://photos.imageevent.com/badgerdog/generalstorage/piclinks/INSTRUCTIONS_FOR_ARMOURER1.pdf

http://www.euroarms.net/efd/manuali/No4Mk1Inst.pdf

http://www.euroarms.net/efd/manuali/No4Mk1Arm.pdf

The first link being the Instructions for Armourers 1931 edition. That's the bible when it comes to bedding the SMLE. For the No.4, the other two links are helpful - especially the second being the First Line Maintenance Instructions for the Canadian Army; back in the days of the No.4.
 
The ways (bedding) is crushed. They need to be refaced if you want the rifle to shoot well.

This happens for all sorts of reasons on these lovely old rifles.

The most prevalent reason is improper disassembly methods.

Sometimes the stocks have soaked in preservative and softened and some have done the opposite, shrinking and hardening.

maple leaf is telling it as it is.

There is a lot of information on how to fix your fore stock issues. It's not difficult but it is tedious.

Thanx 7ECA. I should have read more before posting.
 
Majo.Dump: What I look for when I disassemble a No. 4 for the first time: 1) (with handguard removed but front triggerguard screw tight) Is forend tip pressing upward on barrel? Should require around 4-6 lb of force to lift the barrel off vertically. Is the barrel nicely centered in the barrel channel at the tip and behind? When you pull the barrel tip up do you see any sign of free-play between receiver ring and wood? (if so the wood is not being nipped up by the front screw and the bushing needs to be shortened). Is there a large gap between the rear ends of the forend and the "cheeks" of the receiver? Ideally you can't even get a 0.001 feeler in there. Realistically you need to see a fair bit of contact at that bearing point. 2) With triggerguard now removed, is the forend tightly held at the rear (by the "draws")? They will vary from so tight you have to use a specially shaped piece of wood to tap the forend off (only pushing straight down at the rear- never prying from the front) to completely loose which means the "draws" will need to be repaired to regain that most crucial bearing surface.
The challenge is that when you repair the forend you have to achieve the correct bearing in 3 areas simultaneously when you tighten the screws: 1) rear area- the wedging between sear lugs and butt socket; 2) middle area- flat at front of receiver plus under the lower third of the barrel reinforce; 3) front- an inch or more of contact at the forend tip with the previously mentioned pressure. You can immediately see that the middle area is acting like a fulcrum so that altering the rear area bearing also affects the forend tip bearing.
Forend repairs are very challenging and generally require a lot of trial and error and practice. It's helpful to have a junked forend or two to practice with (and as a source of walnut patching material). For the owner of a single LE getting it right on your first and only repair will be tricky. If the forend is in generally nice shape it's nerve wracking when you take a chisel to it and carve out a big enough chunk to patch the draws. Personally I started with a couple whose wood was essentially a write-off. They had been enthusiastically used by previous owners with already wrecked draws and further damage had been done. Diving into them was a no lose scenario- either I could fix them or the rifle was unshootable. After doing several I developed the confidence to tackle more valuable rifles but would still probably choose to not touch the wood on a really high end collectable- choosing instead to warn any potential buyer that it's not in shootable condition.
For those wishing to dive into LE wood repair I would encourage you to join milsurps forum. It seems to be the forum where the most discussion about this has taken place and there are many old threads that show photos of repairs being done and there are instructional articles by a former British armourer.

milsurpo
 
7ECA said:
Download all of these manuals:

http://photos.imageevent.com/badgerdog/generalstorage/piclinks/INSTRUCTIONS_FOR_ARMOURER1.pdf

http://www.euroarms.net/efd/manuali/No4Mk1Inst.pdf

http://www.euroarms.net/efd/manuali/No4Mk1Arm.pdf

The first link being the Instructions for Armourers 1931 edition. That's the bible when it comes to bedding the SMLE. For the No.4, the other two links are helpful - especially the second being the First Line Maintenance Instructions for the Canadian Army; back in the days of the No.4.
Click to expand...

Those are the best open source references we have.
 
Hello Majo. Assuming that your barrel doesn't rattle against the fore when shaken then from what I see in the video you have
standard and proper movement. The No.4 rifle was designed to have about an inch of the barrel resting on the front of the fore directly in
the centre. Often one can tell specific location by the barrel whip wear mark in the fore. If your barrel does rattle then take to a smith/armourer as many novice modifications end up causing trigger pressure and other problems. John
 
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