A Lee Enfield Sporting rifle

[Von Gruff]

I had wanted a Lee Speed for very long time but the relative scarcity, and hence the higher cost, had always been a enough to keep me from having one. I decided that I might have a crack at building a Lee Speed type sporting rifle from an appropriate sporterised ex military rifle as there are plenty of them for sale here at reasonable prices. The actual Lee Speed designation was only a short term engraving on the wrist of the early Lee Enfield sporting rifles and so the Sporting rifle designation is quite appropriate for this project.

I bought this as the basis to work from and this is the auction description and single photo.

1900 303 complete, rifleing still good this is a great wee bush gun after 114 years what could you say

[Von Gruff]

This is an upfront pic of what I was aiming to reproduce

[Von Gruff]

I bought this blank to work from

[Von Gruff]

When it arrived I was quite pleased with its condition. Barrel is very good with good sharp, well defined rifling, and a bullet will only fit into the muzzle to half its ogive. The chamber is a real beauty as I had a case that I had expanded and had to bump the shell holder on the FLS die to get it to chamber so it looks like a winner so far.
The stock has had some work done at some stage as the comb line is so low that I almost have my chin on it to see the sight on their 100 yd setting but would be usable in a use it now state as it will be when I take it for a shot or two later in the week.

[Von Gruff]

The lobbing sight is not there and I am not going to get one to replace it so will have to do something with where it was.

The wrist has the Royal cypher (crown with VR for Victoria Regina - Queen Victoria)
BSA&Co
1900
LE
1 with star symbol

The dust cover is missing but there is a bolt assembly on trademe with dustcover for that I got for $36 so that is another area sorted.

All in all a very good start and the good thing is that I can "see"" the sights (without blur) for a shot or two but for any more it is a bit of a blur so will have to go to an aperture to be able to shoot. Very pleasing indeed.

[Von Gruff]

I got this in from Track of the Wolf.
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/catego.../BP-SHOT-C-2-I

[Von Gruff]

I decided after firing a few shots the other day that the issue sights were just not going to be usable with my eyes so that was the first thing to be sorted out.
Five hours in the shed today working out a design and getting it roughed out first in aluminium and then into steel.
First off I needed a backing washer to build up from where the lobbing sight was located

Lots of fileing and trying for fit to get it done.

Then it was working out a pattern in al

[Von Gruff]

And transferring it to steel.



Next I will need to get the bends done and slot for the elevation adjustment. That will have to be another day as tomorrow will be bread baking so have to stay close to the kitchen for the day.

[Von Gruff]

I did cut out the pattern boards for the stock though before I shut the shed for the day.

[Von Gruff]

Another 2 hours on it this morning and had a few false starts as I tried various ways to get a windage adjustment slider. I had decided to use the knurled knob of a set of ruger rings and after preparing one dropped it "somewhere" in the shed and cant find it so had to do another one.
Tried a couple of different hinges but they proved unsatisfactory for a number of reasons

I found an old jack with an interesting piece on the top and with a bit of hacksawing came up with this.

And after quite a bit of time with files to shape it and then to thin down the holding 'curl' to the same OD as the aperture I was able to see this on the bench



Next step is to get the main arm bent and figure out heights and placement for the windage slot and hold down screw and guide peg.

[Von Gruff]

Well I think I have it beat now. I spent the day on it again and had to set it up and check it against the open sights and remove it and try again but eventually got it about right so it will work. The front sight is just an inverted V and is just a bit fine for my needs as I like something about a .9 flat topped blade so split a piece of bar and spread it to comforn to the front sight and will file it in the the lowest position of the aperture. The difficulty with the Lee Enfield in this aspect is that the bolt head has to be turned up to remove the bolt from the rifle and that adds quite a bit of height to clear under the aperture arm but I have decided I will leave the bolt in the rifle for most of the time and with a setting marked on it for a 150yd zero will be able to return it to its correct position if the bolt just has to come out.
This is what I ended up with and was able with changing things just a bit ( well quite a lot) with the aperture centre in line with the top of the arm where I had wanted it.

[Von Gruff]

Have ordered a couple of these
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Catego.../2/SWIVEL-POST

One for the butt and on the Sporting Lee Enfield they go closer to the pistol grip than the usual 3 inches from the toe.
The forend ones are on the barrel and I saw how a chap did his by cutting a piece of a shotgun barrel and goinf from there and I just happen to have a suitable length in the "bits" drawer. Again this is a cost effective way to get a barrel mounted sling eye for $6.50 rather than the much higher factory made items.



I will do mine with a oval base rather than the parallel base shown here.

[Von Gruff]

I got out for a few shots to prove the sights and except for a bit of windage will be able to shootthem in for a 150yd zero later.
Got to the start of the stock with finalising the pattern placement on the blank and (gulp) cutting it in half.


Got the bolt hole drilled and the butt section cut to shape so tomorrow will see the fitting of the socket . Waiting on the bull plate from track of the wolf before I can really shape up the butt although Euan has a couple so may get him to send it down and will replace it with mine when it arrives.

[Von Gruff]

A little progress today with through bolt drilled and the butt fitted into the socket, a forend tip and grip cap in jarah made and glued on with 1/8" brass dowels. I have started the inletting for the barrelled action and being as I have not done one of these before makes it a slow process. Chisels and a very small mallet, a smoker and much repeat. May be a day or two to get it fitted into wood. (It makes Mausers, Remintons and the couple of Martini's seem quite simple in comparison with the angled wrist of the Enfield making a fit for the king screw lug and the trailing curve of the magazine cutoff needing very careful wortk) I had intended to dry fit the forend tip and the grip cap with the dowels only glued into one side and then shape up to about 95%, remove and stain with raven oil then glue together and finish so that the black raven oil would make it look like ebony but I have seen them done in buffalo horn, ebony and rosewood so the jarah will personalise it for me as the jarah was given to me by a friend.

[Von Gruff]

Another 5 hours on it today and while time is not a factor, getting it right is, so it will take as long as it takes.
This is my inletting tools so nothing anyone shouldn't have in their shed. Simple handwork

Smoking the barrelled action

At this stage there can be a bit of judicial prepertary opening up of the various spaces until it get a bit closer and then it slows down to smoke and test. You can see where the soot has left its mark on the wood. Scrape this away and smoke again. At the start of the job the chisels get more work as cutting agents than the do after it starts to gets some shape to it. The very small mallet I made is a safety measure as you have to tap rather than hit with it so the danger of taking more than is wanted is alleviated a bit.I have a couple of barrel off cuts that I have ground square so the sharp edge will scrape the channel and later will wrap them in sandpaper and take smaller amounts of wood off at a time

[Von Gruff]

So todays effort has left me most of the way into the wood.

[Von Gruff]

Not so long on it today so decided to finish the barrelled action and shape the magazine cutof aerea and inlet the but plate.

I wanted a 3/16 cast off so you can see with the outside lines where the plate is et on the rights hand side of the centre.
I found centre and marked 3/16 to the right as a centreline for the butt plate and went from there.

[Von Gruff]

First thing today was to reinforce the rear of the forestock which is often done with a brass pin through the stock but I wanted the strength without the visible rod end so made a series of holes with a undersize drill bit, cleaned it out and with sawdust to stain the epoxy a bit tapped the threaded stem into the cut out so that the threads actually bit into the wood.


Put that away into a warm place to mature for a day or two (our winter so the shed is to cold for glues/epoxies)

[Von Gruff]

The butt stock was planed on one side to even up the excess mandated by the cast in the stock

Then the carefull start and stop on the bench planer to taper in for the wrist to the grip cap and down to the butt cap outline

[Von Gruff]

Then it was patience with rasps then files to bring some shape to it


And the "tools"