Lee Metford as a Deer Gun

You might consider picking up a new foreend, there's lots around for cheaps. Figure out whether its walnut or beech.
As far as the bore is concerned, its pitted from the effects of corrosive ammo. Its not worth trying to clean it excessively. It could be still a low mileage bore which would shoot OK, or could be quite shot out. Stick a bullet into the muzzle - how much of it sits proud of the muzzle?
 
You guys who know where all these Lee-Metford fore-ends are lying about would do the world a favour if you would let the rest of us in on the secret.

Just in case nobody ever bothered to check, all Lee-Metfords and pre-SMLE Lee-Enfields used a heavy barrel. All those Bubba'd fore-ends that are lying around are from wrecked SMLEs: lightweight barrel, inner band assembly and all the rest. You can MAKE them work, but they are anything except a bolt-on fit.

Same thing goes for the synthetic fore-ends that you can get: the ones that fit the ACTION all are for LIGHT barrels, the ones that fit the BARREL all are for a different ACTION (Number 4). What half of you guys are suggesting is something like trying to fix a '73 Winchester with '94 parts..... or rebuilding a Chevy block with a Ford crank! Just because they are British and have 'Lee' in the name does not necessarily mean that the parts interchange; the LM/LE series has been in production since 1879 and there HAVE been a few changes.

The OP's BEST BET is to repair the original fore-end as suggested, then handload his ammuntion with a FLATBASED bullet. This will solve the apparent problems as well as they can be solved without going to expensive extremes: having wood and/or metal parts custom fabricated.

These can be a DANDY little rifle. I have one here which is undergoing rebuild: an 1894 heavy-barreled Lee-Metford with a custom Parker barrel. The conversion was done about 1920, exactly as with the OP's rifle. I DO know what I'm talking about.
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And I am following your suggestions Smellie! I wound up using JB Weld in The Damn Crack, and it is setting up as we type.

BTW, I did notice a slight crack in the wood at the forend of the magazine slide, I plan on doing the same with it (more or less) as with The Damn Crack. Sound right?
 
smellie - Not to offend, but my understanding is that the OP's rifle has been retrofitted with a BSA LE barrel (ie likely a No1 MkIII*). If the original stock had the wide barrel channel, it would have offered very little support ahead of the breech, perhaps contributing to the damn crack! Moreover, if the barrel was floating freely, it would unlikely have given any decent accuracy.
 
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Sorry, COSMIC, we're getting our wires crossed here.

My Sparkbrook 1896 is also a BSA rebarrel but it has the correct early-model heavy barrel. Also, the LM is an AG Parker 1920 rebuild, again with a heavy-profile barrel although only 23 inches and with a gold front sight.
I just assumed that an older rifle would have been rebarreled with a barrel approximating the original profile; that seems to have been what actually happened. It just never dawned on me that someone would rebuild with the light barrel: it was just so execrated, excoriated and other nasty words that I suppose I didn't think of it. My bad.

Nice thing is that it CAN be fixed and it IS BEING fixed.

Yes, if there is a crack up ahead of the magazine, you repair that one, too: it also can make a fair difference to the accuracy. You CAN use products such as JB Weld to do the repairs, although I usually use Brownell's original Acra-Glas, but in the GEL form: much easier to work with than the liquid (which is miserable at best). A point to remember: ALL of these are epoxies and they just LOVE to glue things together.... permanently. Always use some kind of a release agent if you are bedding a rifle or otherwise getting things too close to your glue. I use that pretty blue ESSO Unitol grease: it's bright blue and really easy to see and it wipes off afterwards and you can put it on so very thin that it makes zero difference to a bedding job.... and you can still get your rifle part afterwards.

Good luck with the project!

Hope this helps.
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Cosmic, I owe you a coffee.
 
And the results are in! Not a great test today as it turned out that the "rifle" range was closed, so I hit the multi purpose range, which is 30 yards at best. BUT... after fixing the damn crack, she, as Smellie said, groups!

I also learned something else. It turns out that she does not like the Prvi Partisan ammo... maybe the boat tail bullets don't agree with her, but she gobbled up and spat out some tight groups with some old school English ammo I picked up from the last gun show.

Time to learn hand loading I think.

I was very happy and wound up being able to hit golf balls (my favorite targets) at 30 yards, which boast well for it's long range accuracy. I hope to get back to the range sometime this week, and will bring a couple different types of ammo and see if I can get some decent accuracy with commercial stuff at some longer ranges.

Looks like the old girl might make a deer gun after all!
 
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Red Herring said:
And the results are in! Not a great test today as it turned out that the "rifle" range was closed, so I hit the multi purpose range, which is 30 yards at best. BUT... after fixing the damn crack, she, as Smellie said, groups!

I also learned something else. It turns out that she does not like the Prvi Partisan ammo... maybe the boat tail bullets don't agree with her, but she gobbled up and spat out some tight groups with some old school English ammo I picked up from the last gun show.
Time to learn hand loading I think.

I was very happy and wound up being able to hit golf balls (my favorite targets) at 30 yards, which boast well for it's long range accuracy. I hope to get back to the range sometime this week, and will bring a couple different types of ammo and see if I can get some decent accuracy with commercial stuff at some longer ranges.

Looks like the old girl might make a deer gun after all!
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Just in case they are - lots of old english 303 ammo is corrosive - make sure your bore doesn't rust!
 
bushwhacker said:
Gun Nutz - The Firearms University of the internet! Smellie is one of the Doctors of Musketology!
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Ha! So true. He has also given me some great advice on hand loading for the old girl.

H Wally said:
Just in case they are - lots of old english 303 ammo is corrosive - make sure your bore doesn't rust!
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Thanks for the tip. I always make it a habit to clean the guns after each outting. They never get put back in the safe unless they have been Hopped, oiled and Howardized.:D
 
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