Lithgow #1 Mk III* "restoral"

fat tony

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Well, this is not going to be a completely correct restoral, didn't bother to find a coach wood woodset, walnut woodset is on the way from Numrich, foreend was bubbad horribly and damaged, been thinking of placing a scope on the old lady but had second thoughts as I don't think that would be historically correct unless I could get someone to duplicate one of the 2 methods they made up aussie smle snipers, I'm not happy with the current rearsight, not adustable for windage, Numrich has the windage and elevation adjustable rearsight, next problem is the rear sight cross pin hole on bbl is MANGLED, there is a gap between the bbl shoulder and receiver ring, guess it needs a headspacing ring, bore is excellent, been thinking of getting someone to build the mangled hole on bbl up with weld and dress it back and go with a receiver sight of some kind. As to the receiver sight, what would be most historically accurate? I understand there is only one commercial peep sight for the SMLE, the Williams FP-SMLE, where does that mount on the gun, the clip guide or further to the rear? I would prefer a period peep sight anyway, if a period sight is available, where could you get one, and I am guessing that would require gunsmith installation? Thanks for any information you can provide. Also, does anyone have any experience with the Huber trigger? Are they worth the bother? I understand it adjusts down to 27 oz, but I don't see the trigger on the SMLE to be bad at all to begin with, except for the jiggle factor(would a good second purpose for the SMLE trigger be calling the chickens as Clyde Baker suggested?) Does the Huber trigger overcome this "jiggle?".
 
Get some steel or titanium putty to fill and clean upt the holes. Since this isn't going to be a "correct" piece anyway, it shouldn't really matter. The putty is quite strong and will take blueing or use black tint (dye) when mixing it up. bearhunter
 
Before you start worrying about a headspacing ring, is the barrel breeched up tight against the inner receiver ring collar? There are a variety of rear aperture sights that were used for target shooting, but in all likelihood any of these will cost at least as much as a sported SMLE. Don';t know of any other peeps that mount without drilling and tapping. If the crosspin hole is mangled, I would be inclined to set the rear sight base in place on the barrel with a Loctite beqaring and sleeve locker. That and the screw should be more than adequate.
 
Once you get your wood let us know hoe nice it is, I'm thinking about buying the same set from numrich, but I dont want something thats really dinged up or overly caked with grease.
 
Tiriaq, good suggestion, the barrel is indexed properly, I guess that's where my feeler gauges would come in handy. Skippy, I'll let you know, I tried getting some wood from Boyd's, I could not get any answers from Boyd's as to what their wood set was like, for example, they could not tell me what the buttstock length was or if the forend set included the forward handguard, this was from a Boyd's cc person. Damn, I hope it's not Ishapore wood, I specified to Numrich it was for a Lithgow. I also once ordered a safety assy from Numrich, specified it was for a No. 1 MkIII * and they sent me an Ishapore safety assembly. I originally tried getting a wood set from Marstar but they don't have any right now. I'd prefer a peep sight that required gunsmith installation anyway.
 
I ordered a wood set from numrich. They assured me I was getting a good used, british smle stock set. I opened the box & found a new ishy stock set( for the 2a I think) that took about 6hrs of fitting to get it to work. Seriously I think all the wood sets they have left is ishy. Hope you have better luck. I think the individual parts are non indian though, just the sets.
 
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