Everybody remember my Lithgow that loved super x? I traded it to another member for a nice m-27. After a few days without an enfield in the safe I felt kind of.. well, incomplete. I also had a few boxes of 303 kicking around taunting me. I saw a smle at epps that looked fresh from the front & had a decent bore. I hoped it would be one of those sleeper rifles that look like crap but shoot like a house on fire. Imagine my surprise when it shotgun patterned both super x & rmc but grouped around 4" with diz milsurp! With the commercial I am talking groups measured in feet. It also shoots 8" low with the diz ammo. Ain't that wierd? Rifle is a 39 BSA with cartridge cut off & has never been cleaned of cosmo.
New smle hates super x!
- Thread starter desporterizer
- Start date
- Location
- Smithers, B.C.
Oh wow so you were the guy who picked that up. Mmm. Sorry to hear about your rifle's Wild Bill tendencies. Hows the M-27?
M-27 is a solid shooter. I think the enfield has potential & if nothing else its one of the last ones made. Has the Bsa stacked rifles on the barrel. Just weird that it shoots low & hates super x. Every other enfield I have had loved the stuff.
; M-27? 
- Location
- Smithers, B.C.
The Finnish M-27, predecessor to the Finnish M-39. They are Finnish Mosin-Nagant re-works of old Russian recievers with new barrels. Made by SAKO, Tikkakoski etc. Glad it's a good shooter!
BSA was only building a very few rifles in the late 1930s. Tell us, does your rifle have a triangle on the Knox-form with a backwards "S" in it? If so, the rifle is part of the 22,000 rifle contract for the IRAQI Army. Quite rare.
As to its "Wild Bill Hiccup" tendencies, I can only give you the same advice a Bisley shooter gave me when my brand-new 1918 Lithgow was turning in 14-inch groupd with match ammo: fix The Damned Crack!
It's right there, at the back of your forestock, right where the trigger somes up to meet the sear lever. The rifles were built in a fairly damp climate and, when they get into DRY places, the wood dries out.... and cracks, right there. Treatment is very easy: flush with Brake-Kleen, spread carefully, insert a little blob of Acra-Glas, clamp it carefully (not too much pressure, now!), wipe of the excess. Tomorrow, take off the clamp, put the rifle back together and it will NOT break again. And it should start shooting, too.
If your groups are still a bit bigger than you would like, cut back the pressurepoint at the forward reinforce from 2 inches to 1 inch. Vertical zero is adjusted with the Magpie Screw (Inner Band Screw); it is supposed to have a special lock-washer and a special flat washer which work together to keep it from 'creeping'.
Hope this helps.
As to its "Wild Bill Hiccup" tendencies, I can only give you the same advice a Bisley shooter gave me when my brand-new 1918 Lithgow was turning in 14-inch groupd with match ammo: fix The Damned Crack!
It's right there, at the back of your forestock, right where the trigger somes up to meet the sear lever. The rifles were built in a fairly damp climate and, when they get into DRY places, the wood dries out.... and cracks, right there. Treatment is very easy: flush with Brake-Kleen, spread carefully, insert a little blob of Acra-Glas, clamp it carefully (not too much pressure, now!), wipe of the excess. Tomorrow, take off the clamp, put the rifle back together and it will NOT break again. And it should start shooting, too.
If your groups are still a bit bigger than you would like, cut back the pressurepoint at the forward reinforce from 2 inches to 1 inch. Vertical zero is adjusted with the Magpie Screw (Inner Band Screw); it is supposed to have a special lock-washer and a special flat washer which work together to keep it from 'creeping'.
Hope this helps.
While you're at it with the Acra-Glas, you might as well bed the rest of it, too. Action and chamber should be solid, barrel should FLOAT except at the Inner Band Reinforce and at the Muzzle Reinforce.
Everything else should let a dollar bill pas between the wood and the barrel.
Hope this helps. (Worked for me!)
Everything else should let a dollar bill pas between the wood and the barrel.
Hope this helps. (Worked for me!)
Thanks for the good advice smellie. I've got a 41 Lithgow that I no longer shoot because the coachwood has split behind the trigger. Hopefully I can get her shooting again.
desporterizer, got any pics of the M27? Wish I'd never sold mine!
desporterizer, got any pics of the M27? Wish I'd never sold mine!
Not yet but drachenblut might have some. Smellie called it the rear bearing surfaces where shattered. Epoxy drying as we speak.
Hope your luck is as good as mine was!
My rifle went from 14 inch groups, down to half an inch (called 2-round groiups from a cold, fouled barrel). Bisley Bill Brown knew what he was talking about. He was at Bisley 6 times, captained the Canadian team at least once and shot a 'possible' at 1,000 (with a SMLE) at the Pan-Am Games in Jamaica. Had to know something.
BTW, that half-inch would be impossible if using the whole sight blade. We test rifles around here with a black aiming square about 4 inches on a side, aim with the top right-hand corner of the front sight at the bottom left-hand corner of the aiming square. This way, your critical aim is at an almost-infinitesimal point. You can get really tight groups like this.
We test for what the RIFLE is CAPABLE of doing. Once we know that, when we go into a shoot, either here or at Shilo, we know that there's only one guy to blame for a poor showing: us. And I do make my share of poor showings: there is a huge difference between calm testing on a rifle range, with sandbags, and a Shilo-type shoot at an unknown number of targets at various unknown ranges.... with the damned clock ticking the whole time. Ten minutes can seem like a WEEK, believe me! Best shoots I've ever been in!
My rifle went from 14 inch groups, down to half an inch (called 2-round groiups from a cold, fouled barrel). Bisley Bill Brown knew what he was talking about. He was at Bisley 6 times, captained the Canadian team at least once and shot a 'possible' at 1,000 (with a SMLE) at the Pan-Am Games in Jamaica. Had to know something.
BTW, that half-inch would be impossible if using the whole sight blade. We test rifles around here with a black aiming square about 4 inches on a side, aim with the top right-hand corner of the front sight at the bottom left-hand corner of the aiming square. This way, your critical aim is at an almost-infinitesimal point. You can get really tight groups like this.
We test for what the RIFLE is CAPABLE of doing. Once we know that, when we go into a shoot, either here or at Shilo, we know that there's only one guy to blame for a poor showing: us. And I do make my share of poor showings: there is a huge difference between calm testing on a rifle range, with sandbags, and a Shilo-type shoot at an unknown number of targets at various unknown ranges.... with the damned clock ticking the whole time. Ten minutes can seem like a WEEK, believe me! Best shoots I've ever been in!
