My Enfield and its many issues.

[Potashminer]

Good on you that you had a good experience. At least one fairly easy thing to check, that is more about how parts are fitted, than where they came from - that barrel within the stock. If you can remove the hand guards, take a double or triple thickness of paper and slide it between the barrel and the wood - all the way from the receiver - all the way to the very front - should be nothing but "free air" for most of that - should expect it to be tight under the chamber and again to be tight at the very front end. If not, those are areas to address that will likely produce smaller "groups" - some "bearing" at the chamber, some "up pressure" at the very front end against the barrel, and "free air" in between. Further improvements can be done, but that is how it needs to start, and how it was originally issued. Then set the rear hand guard in place - that double or triple thickness of paper should slide in all around front to back - do this from the front using long strips of paper - the hand guard should be tight against the wood of the lower stock; then the same with the front hand guard - there should be nothing but free air between the barrel and the hand guards - they should fit tightly to the lower stock, but should not touch the barrel at any point. That is how a No. 4 rifle would have been "set-up" in WWII for service. Will be worth your while to know how your rifle is "set-up", even if you do not have skill or know-how to do anything about it. Some have described bedding a No. 4 as a "black magic art", and that may be involved, but it is mostly done in the action area, at the same time as the barrel area is sorted out.

 

[cantom]

I hope people were paying attention to this. This from a gent who learned from a barrel maker who had no problem getting the actions and barrels apart.

When I was hanging out with Bevan King before he passed away ,he never had any trouble removing lee enfield barrels or the 14/17 either
In some peoples eyes it was kind of barbaric how he loosened them ,but he always got them off with his method
He made an aluminum set adaptors that would go over the round part on the top of the receiver and a flat with a divot cut out on bottom and work with his action wrench
He would clamp the barrel into his barrel vise and attach the action wrench to the receiver and would be in the 9 o'clock position ,then go and get his axe from beside the shop stove and whack the end of the extension handle of the action wrench and they popped loose he seldom had to hit it twice

He said that the wrench on the action had to be tight but not too tight to the compress the action on the barrel threads .He used this method on the enfield 14and 17 too

I now have the vise and the action wrench and it shows many marks from his work
Cheers Peter

 

[bros]

When I was hanging out with Bevan King before he passed away ,he never had any trouble removing lee enfield barrels or the 14/17 either
In some peoples eyes it was kind of barbaric how he loosened them ,but he always got them off with his method
He made an aluminum set adaptors that would go over the round part on the top of the receiver and a flat with a divot cut out on bottom and work with his action wrench
He would clamp the barrel into his barrel vise and attach the action wrench to the receiver and would be in the 9 o'clock position ,then go and get his axe from beside the shop stove and whack the end of the extension handle of the action wrench and they popped loose he seldom had to hit it twice

He said that the wrench on the action had to be tight but not too tight to the compress the action on the barrel threads .He used this method on the enfield 14and 17 too

I now have the vise and the action wrench and it shows many marks from his work
Cheers Peter

Wonder if you're able to post pictures of the vise and action wrench.....being a machinist I might consider making my own!

Thanks either way!!

 

[Jesus.C]

Good on you that you had a good experience. At least one fairly easy thing to check, that is more about how parts are fitted, than where they came from - that barrel within the stock. If you can remove the hand guards, take a double or triple thickness of paper and slide it between the barrel and the wood - all the way from the receiver - all the way to the very front - should be nothing but "free air" for most of that - should expect it to be tight under the chamber and again to be tight at the very front end. If not, those are areas to address that will likely produce smaller "groups" - some "bearing" at the chamber, some "up pressure" at the very front end against the barrel, and "free air" in between. Further improvements can be done, but that is how it needs to start, and how it was originally issued. Then set the rear hand guard in place - that double or triple thickness of paper should slide in all around front to back - do this from the front using long strips of paper - the hand guard should be tight against the wood of the lower stock; then the same with the front hand guard - there should be nothing but free air between the barrel and the hand guards - they should fit tightly to the lower stock, but should not touch the barrel at any point. That is how a No. 4 rifle would have been "set-up" in WWII for service. Will be worth your while to know how your rifle is "set-up", even if you do not have skill or know-how to do anything about it. Some have described bedding a No. 4 as a "black magic art", and that may be involved, but it is mostly done in the action area, at the same time as the barrel area is sorted out.

Yea ive read about the stock, I know mine is not properly fitted, I know I could do a bedding but a rather keep this originality of the rifle.

 

[Potashminer]

I would be interested in pictures as well! After "home making" a few, I ended up with a Brownell's action wrench set - the handle is too fat for any snipes here, so I resorted to the sledge hammer to hit that handle - so far has worked admirably on M96 Swedes and P14 and M1917 "Enfield's" Have not tried a No. 4 yet. I am able to turn reasonably close fitting inserts to go into barrel vice to clamp the barrel close to the receiver, and then, just two layers of computer printer paper between the receiver and the action wrench - have not had a mark occur yet. As described - the action wrench tightened down snug, but not stupidly snug - the barrel vice, on other hand - way beyond "stupid" torqued tight.

 

[Jesus.C]

In the end I found a good thread online about my safety issue. It really was the safety bolt being dull. Basicly it supose to push the the cocking piece backward and disengage the sear only by a few thousand of an inch. Mine was just dull enought not to fully disengage it. so when I was pressing the trigger the sear were able to get pass the bolt notch and get stuck underneath it. That why when removing the safety my gun was going half ####. I could sand the sear but I rather order a safety bolt online. so yeah in the end. My sight is fix, my fore stock band thread are fix (and now it sit way tighter), ,my safety will get fix when i got the part. Even thought the bore is wornout it still group at 75m (might consider counterboring the barrel). I also had issue with the last round not being fed, but I figure that one quite easily and fix it by playing with the mag flange. Also at the range today I notice ejection issue with empty casing. Read about it and its most likely the ejector spring being worn. so I order that too. In the end this gun will have been a pain in the ass but I learn alot by working on it. It was my first thread on CGN and I must say this is a great community. Many many thanks to every single one of you who help me. Your experience was very valuable.

 

[cosmic]

Well - All the issues remaining are minor. The fact that the rifle is stabilizing bullets (ie no keyhole) is the major consideration. Given the range circumstances you describe, I dont think that you can make a conclusion regarding the accuracy potential. So you'll just have to to the the range again!
As far as the ejection issue is concerned, you may need to polish the chamber with very fine emery cloth or very fine steel wool. If the chamber is slightly rusty, it will grab the cartridges.