A few years back I bought what turned out to be the last registered non-restricted rifle I bought: a 1917 Lithgow sporter, but the barrel hadn't been touched. Bolt matched receiver, it also had the mag cutoff slot, and the original coachwood rear handguard. That's the good news.
Here's the bad news, and some of it I knew right then, and some of it later, but such is life.
- bore was one long .303 sized dust bunny.
- butt had been sanded, and then all the wood was given a thick, clear glossy finish.
- no magazine.
- under the rear handguard, where I hadn't looked, was a large R on the knox form: a largish (1" to 1.5") rust patch halfway down the bore.
- badly worn muzzle, with the last bit of rifling just petering out gently over the final quarter inch. No crown to speak of. Pitted.
- the Damned Crack, and three of his friends.
I paid $70 for this, and you might be wondering why. I just wanted something I could tinker with, something I could learn on, a sort of "test bed" that I might be able to return to it's former appearance. And if I screwed it up, well, it didn't cost me much... Oh hell, I just didn't want to leave the gunshow without buying something.
I won't call it a restoration though. This will always be a "bitser". It's not a pretty rifle, but I like it anyway; it's been the best $70 bucks I've spent in my life, in terms of sheer enjoyment. Hours and hours of fun, of reading up on Lithgows and other SMLE's, endless tinkering with it, tearing it down, refinishing the wood, scrounging parts, bits and pieces for the last 3 years... And now it's done.
I'm reluctant to actually total the purchases I've made for this, but I'll put it this way: I spent more on the piloted reamer than I did on the rifle. I'm into this for at least $400 over and above the original cost. There's no financial sense to this, but that was never the point anyway.
First time I took it to the range, it was printing like a shotgun at 100 yards. A 2 foot "group". How much of that was the muzzle, and how much the damned crack, and how much it being a sporter? I don't know, but I knew I had to fix the muzzle first.
I thought about counter-boring it, but that meant taking it to someone else because I just don't have the tools for that. A bit of research turned up a piloted reamer in .303, but it came in a 45 degree angle only.
I can't remember where I read it, but a few years back I came across a discussion about the ideal angle for a target crown, and a suggestion was made that the current 11 degree angle was an arbitrary choice, and as long as the job was properly done, the angle wasn't that important. Anyway, that was more along my lines, so I bought the reamer. I'll also add this: I was quite surprised at how effortlessly that reamer cut through that steel. I barely put any pressure on the reamer, and it was like grating really hard cheese. Sorry, no pics of "before", but here's after:
and later:
A forumfull of people helped out with bits and parts and advice, and I thank you all. I ended up ordering a forend from Numrich in case anyone was wondering. Elsewhere I've called them reproductions, but I'm really not absolutely sure they are. They just seemed in too good nick, and they needed quite a bit of fitting. I also tried and failed to give it the finish I wanted, but I've since come to appreciate the matte finish it arrived with anyway.
No, it's not your eye- the wood doesn't match. I've come to like that, too.
I'm not unhappy with the results, but:
- the forend isn't firmly up against the butt socket, I think it's the stock bolt keeper that's doing that job.
- I had to remove a fair bit of wood from the draws area, and may -may- have removed a tad too much. The forend is not any struggle to remove or refit. Not worried- I still have the recoil blocks from the Lithgow if I've removed too much.
- the hole for for the inner band screw seems to be too deep: I used two inner band screw springs to space it out far enough that it would just slightly draw down the inner band.
A first attempt to see how it shot in the new configuration wasn't encouraging, but I came across a longer collar, screw, front trigger guard, and finally found a front nosecap screw too.
I finally got it out last week and first I tried smellie's "with your rifle BENCHED, and the forend resting on a sandbag just forward of the magazine, place the upper right corner of your front sight on the lower right corner of a one foot black square centered on a two foot white square", and here's the result:
You can see the first, cold shot up to the left, then where I pulled the third shot, and then I settled down a bit. After those ten, I put up the next target. If I was a betting man, I'd bet that two of the missing shots went left of target, and one went low.
And this is where I shoot:
I had a ball, made a lot of mistakes, spent way too much money, and wouldn't have missed it for the world. I learned a lot, some of it about myself.
Oh: Hornady Interlock .312 174gr RN, 39.8gr Varget, CCI BR2 primers. OAL is 2.945.
Here's the bad news, and some of it I knew right then, and some of it later, but such is life.
- bore was one long .303 sized dust bunny.
- butt had been sanded, and then all the wood was given a thick, clear glossy finish.
- no magazine.
- under the rear handguard, where I hadn't looked, was a large R on the knox form: a largish (1" to 1.5") rust patch halfway down the bore.
- badly worn muzzle, with the last bit of rifling just petering out gently over the final quarter inch. No crown to speak of. Pitted.
- the Damned Crack, and three of his friends.
I paid $70 for this, and you might be wondering why. I just wanted something I could tinker with, something I could learn on, a sort of "test bed" that I might be able to return to it's former appearance. And if I screwed it up, well, it didn't cost me much... Oh hell, I just didn't want to leave the gunshow without buying something.
I won't call it a restoration though. This will always be a "bitser". It's not a pretty rifle, but I like it anyway; it's been the best $70 bucks I've spent in my life, in terms of sheer enjoyment. Hours and hours of fun, of reading up on Lithgows and other SMLE's, endless tinkering with it, tearing it down, refinishing the wood, scrounging parts, bits and pieces for the last 3 years... And now it's done.
I'm reluctant to actually total the purchases I've made for this, but I'll put it this way: I spent more on the piloted reamer than I did on the rifle. I'm into this for at least $400 over and above the original cost. There's no financial sense to this, but that was never the point anyway.
First time I took it to the range, it was printing like a shotgun at 100 yards. A 2 foot "group". How much of that was the muzzle, and how much the damned crack, and how much it being a sporter? I don't know, but I knew I had to fix the muzzle first.
I thought about counter-boring it, but that meant taking it to someone else because I just don't have the tools for that. A bit of research turned up a piloted reamer in .303, but it came in a 45 degree angle only.
I can't remember where I read it, but a few years back I came across a discussion about the ideal angle for a target crown, and a suggestion was made that the current 11 degree angle was an arbitrary choice, and as long as the job was properly done, the angle wasn't that important. Anyway, that was more along my lines, so I bought the reamer. I'll also add this: I was quite surprised at how effortlessly that reamer cut through that steel. I barely put any pressure on the reamer, and it was like grating really hard cheese. Sorry, no pics of "before", but here's after:
and later:
A forumfull of people helped out with bits and parts and advice, and I thank you all. I ended up ordering a forend from Numrich in case anyone was wondering. Elsewhere I've called them reproductions, but I'm really not absolutely sure they are. They just seemed in too good nick, and they needed quite a bit of fitting. I also tried and failed to give it the finish I wanted, but I've since come to appreciate the matte finish it arrived with anyway.
No, it's not your eye- the wood doesn't match. I've come to like that, too.
I'm not unhappy with the results, but:
- the forend isn't firmly up against the butt socket, I think it's the stock bolt keeper that's doing that job.
- I had to remove a fair bit of wood from the draws area, and may -may- have removed a tad too much. The forend is not any struggle to remove or refit. Not worried- I still have the recoil blocks from the Lithgow if I've removed too much.
- the hole for for the inner band screw seems to be too deep: I used two inner band screw springs to space it out far enough that it would just slightly draw down the inner band.
A first attempt to see how it shot in the new configuration wasn't encouraging, but I came across a longer collar, screw, front trigger guard, and finally found a front nosecap screw too.
I finally got it out last week and first I tried smellie's "with your rifle BENCHED, and the forend resting on a sandbag just forward of the magazine, place the upper right corner of your front sight on the lower right corner of a one foot black square centered on a two foot white square", and here's the result:
You can see the first, cold shot up to the left, then where I pulled the third shot, and then I settled down a bit. After those ten, I put up the next target. If I was a betting man, I'd bet that two of the missing shots went left of target, and one went low.
And this is where I shoot:
I had a ball, made a lot of mistakes, spent way too much money, and wouldn't have missed it for the world. I learned a lot, some of it about myself.
Oh: Hornady Interlock .312 174gr RN, 39.8gr Varget, CCI BR2 primers. OAL is 2.945.
