SMLE de-sporterization. Can't get upper handguard to sit properly.

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Hello everyone,

I've been working on this 1916 BSA SMLE for some time now, almost a year. It started off as a $100 bubba'd sporter. She is shooting much better now and I have all the parts for it put together. The final nagging thing is that while the colour of the wood is all fairly consistent (coming from three different sources, a dark chocolate reddish-brown) the upper handguard does not want to sit down properly. When I tighten the steel band closest to the rear sight, the upper hand guard comes up and the fingers stick up.

I tried tightening the steel band and wrapping the handguard tightly in electrical tape and left it for two months hoping it would adjust. But when I took the tape off it off it went back to the way it was. I tried putting some paper strips under the steel band too and that didn't work either.

I wanted to ask if anyone has done this before I do something irreversable with sand paper or knives?
 
Put a straight edge on all mating surfaces. The hard guard sounds like it may be warped. If the guard is warped, steam might soften it enough to gently bend it back to flat. As daft as it sounds, a regular steam iron should be enough. Not ironing the thing. Using the iron as a steam source. Plain tap water might do it too.
Tape or paper won't do anything. A picture would help a bit too.
 
the area behind the band (with the fingers), could likely be resting on the barrel band. if the enfields the wood came from are from different manufacturers across the world, you have to expect some deviation. the man to call on would be louthepou. he`s got a lot of knowledge is this area. I`m a relative newbie to this stuff.
 
X 2 on the problem being the underside of the handguard binding on the inner barrel band. if there any interference, cranking down on the outer lower band will make the the finger end of the handguard teeter-totter upwards.

Does the handguard sit down nice of the forearm without the lower band installed? It springs when you tighten the lower band, right?

Get it sitting right without any bands first, then go from there. Might just need a little more clearance by sanding or scraping out a little wood from the inside of the handguard.
 
I have had hand guards that I have had to remove wood from the middle band recess and a few that needed wood sanded from the bottom of the hand guard. The ones that needed sanding were fairly obvious as the front metal was about a 1/16 of a inch above the bottom of the hand guard.
 
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