New Project Enfield Mk4#1

[W.R.Buchanan]

I have been interested in an Enfield Rifle for along time and thru this forum finally figured out what one It was that I wanted. A Mk4 #1 or later. Correction: #4 Mk1 !
The reason for this choice is that they were the latest versions of the rifle made and therefore the possibility of getting a good serviceable gun were much higher than with earlier models. I also wanted the Aperture Receiver sight.

The gun I got was a MK4#1 made in England in 1943. The gun has been sporterized by cutting the stock off and removing the hand guards and the Front Sight shroud. All the numbers on the metal match and the bore is perfect. it should shoot well.

Cosmetically it sucks. The wood is horrid, the metal is all good with decent bluing but still the gun maybe a good candidate for the Cerakote treatment.

The gun only has the Small L Rear Sight, and I will add one of the ladder type Rear Sights and the Front Sight Guard as well.

I also want to add a Rear Hand Guard and Barrel Band with Front Sling Swivel as it has neither. I want the end result to look like an L42 without scope or cheek piece. There appears from my research, to be two basic methods of Sporterizing these guns. One is to cut the stocks off at the Front Barrel Band and leave the Front Sight alone, or completely remove all of the Hand Guards and chop the stock and remove the Front Sight shroud. Mine is the latter and I want the former.

I watched a video on YouTube last night about sighting these guns in and the guy who was a Canadian Ranger had a gun that was a classic Canadian Sporter as in type #1 above except someone had cut the barrel to remove the bayonet lugs. I want the same gun with the lugs left alone, as I said my barrel is perfect. very informative vid!

This will give me and Dick (Love Life) something to work up together and his project is already under way.

I've got dies to load ammo and a 314299 mould so all I need to be able to shoot is some brass. Someone has to have some .303 brass here? Right?

Any way the project begins and it will be updated as changes occur.

here's the before pics, and I might add that I got this one cheap!!!

Randy

[Outpost75]

I did something quite similar with this result:
Attachment 114582Attachment 114583Attachment 114584

[BruceB]

Randy, ol' man.... puh-leeeze....

It's right there in your own photograph! The rifle is a NUMBER FOUR, MARK1.

For some obscure reason, legions of American shooters persist in calling this rifle a "Mark Four", and it is not.

In the horribly-complicated British system of rifle identification, every single stamping on the rifle- and there are many- means something.

So anyway, you have a neat project underway, and I hope we'll see photos of the result of your work on that "NUMBER FOUR".

[Love Life]

The best place to get good brass is tor PRVI ammo.

Mine is a work in progress, but I have a rear sight now (Thank you BruceB!!). I plan to get the front trigger guard screw bushing fitted this week.

Hopefully I'll be shooting it within the next two weeks. Mine has a 6 groove barrel and will remain in military dress. I plan to get a couple more Enfields on the cheap at Larry's Pistol and Pawn this weekend so I can sporterize one.

[txsnowman2k2]

Have #4 mkll Enfield pig sticker with scabard...trade for molds or die set .357.../mold 2 or 4 cav between 158gr and 200gr. Playing with .357 Maxie...tx.

[1johnlb]

outpost75, where did you get that rear peep fixture, what make, model, I have been looking for this very thing for my no4. It looks windage adjustable too.

[nekshot]

great project for sure! Just think of all the grimy hands from eating fish and chips that cradled that rig. I really want another one to and my dream is to make it original, I would like that canadian light weight model but out of my reach.

[W.R.Buchanan]

BruceB: I am totally ignorant on this subject and thank you for correcting me. #4 Mk1 Oh well.. I bought the thing to learn something about them and I guess the proper name is a good place to start.

OutPost: that rifle is pretty much what I'm going for.

I spent an hour stripping the 1/4" thick coat of varnish off the stocks today! The wood is walnut with some nice heavy grain. It will finish nice and dark and I may even leave some of the smaller deeper dings in it for character. They kind of look like knots in the wood.

The fore end is cracked at the back where the strap is and I will have to glue that back together, and also the fore end is inletted for a different trigger guard and has a lot of extra space to be filled with some black epoxy or Devcon. You simply use pigment from a Surf Board Shop to color the epoxy. That's how you get the scales on a knife to fit perfectly everytime. Same technique will work here as well.

I was able to get most all of the big giant gouges to sand out and fair in and the grain is pretty cool. It will come out nice. The Brits had no problem leaving extra material on these stocks. It's like they planned in several refinishes.

I had a lot of extra material at the rear of the buttstock where I meets the Buttplate. That's how I was able to sand out the big gouges. The buttplate is Brass and it takes a screw driver to open the trap. It is really stiff but I already figured out how to fix it so no problem there.

I need several parts to complete this gun. A Rear Hand Guard, a Barrel Band with Sling Swivel. A flip up Rear Sight and the one to get is the one with the screw adjustment not the sliding one. And the Front Sight Shroud. All of these things are readily available.

And then there's the brass.

Randy

[Love Life]

My No4 Mk1 has a crack in the stock and a plug was fitted. Looks like an arsenal repair.

Nermich and BRP corps have a tone of parts.

You can literally rebuild an entire No4 Mk1 from those parts. I am keeping parts change out to a minimum on mine due the boxed S marking.

[leadman]

Last night I saw an original sight on E-Bay, possibly Gunbroker.
Numrich or Sarco had the sights similar to Outpost75's sight.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Leadman; the problem is not finding these sights, the problem is finding a nice one at a reasonable price. It is really a krap shoot. There is one guy on Ebay that has the best looking one I've seen supposedly NOS for $64.95 + shipping which is nearly twice what everyone else wants. also the front sight guard is readily available but the screw that holds it in place is not. The barrel band is another one and I haven't found anyone who has all three parts in stock. The same guy has all three parts $27.95 for the band, $10.95 for the swivel and $7.95 for the Screw! The whole mess is worth $10-15. So he's 3x going prices.

Also I haven't been able to locate him off Ebay his business name doesn't jive and shows up as a Shotgun Outfit in Phoenix. If he won't give me his phone # I won't buy his stuff no matter how good it is.

These Easter Egg Hunts always require a lot of effort to find what you need and sometimes you end up having to buy duplicates as the first one can be junk or you need to buy two to get a whole set. It's all part of the fun.

Outpost: I just noticed your rear sight has a windage adjustment on it. Would you please explain as ALL of the ones I have seen were elevation only.

What is the model designation for that particular sight?

Randy

[zuke]

I bought this one at an MNR auction when I was 18 with the full intent to modify it as it sit's.
It's a Savave that I cut the barrel to 19 inch's and filed the front sight open to slide onto the barrel again and used the original front sight retaining pin to hold it there. Bore is 305/320, so I'm not gonna use cast in it

[Love Life]

Leadman; the problem is not finding these sights, the problem is finding a nice one at a reasonable price. It is really a krap shoot. There is one guy on Ebay that has the best looking one I've seen supposedly NOS for $64.95 + shipping which is nearly twice what everyone else wants. also the front sight guard is readily available but the screw that holds it in place is not. The barrel band is another one and I haven't found anyone who has all three parts in stock. The same guy has all three parts $27.95 for the band, $10.95 for the swivel and $7.95 for the Screw! The whole mess is worth $10-15. So he's 3x going prices.

Also I haven't been able to locate him off Ebay his business name doesn't jive and shows up as a Shotgun Outfit in Phoenix. If he won't give me his phone # I won't buy his stuff no matter how good it is.

These Easter Egg Hunts always require a lot of effort to find what you need and sometimes you end up having to buy duplicates as the first one can be junk or you need to buy two to get a whole set. It's all part of the fun.

Outpost: I just noticed your rear sight has a windage adjustment on it. Would you please explain as ALL of the ones I have seen were elevation only.

What is the model designation for that particular sight?

Randy

I ran into the same issue. It came down to two things:
A) How much did I want the part
B) Gotta pay to play

When I ordered my bushing I got it from one place, and spare band and trigger guard screws another place. Doesn't Numerich have the sights in stock?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Dick, they do but they all look bad. the guy on Ebay that has the one for $64.95 has the best looking one, but I can probably get by with one of lesser condition since I have the ability to refinish metal and am better at it than I am with the wood.

I fully understand the pay to play concept, and by the time I'm done I will easily have $500 into this Rifle System including all the gun parts and loading supplies. I had the 314299 mould already but will have to get some Lino to make it work right.

I also have to make a vee block for measuring the boolits so I can slug the bore and actually know the result. Who does 5 groove LH twist Rifling anyway? Only people who drive on the wrong side of the road!

Here's a tid bit I picked up along time ago. The left hand twist rolls the rifle away form your cheek in recoil.

got most of my stuff ordered yesterday. Still looking for the barrel band assy band screw and swivel. It is the only thing that I absolutely have to have since I got the handguard and rear retainer. I can wait on the rear sight and piece parts.

Incidentally,,, Sarco has new repop Slings in Khaki, OD Green and AF Blue for $6.95 and they also have a firing pin removal tool for $8.95 and a book on the gun for another $6.00, and a khaki gunsock for another $6.95.

Also after seeing Outpost's rear sight,,, (I found the name directly by clicking on the picture of all places) and Googled it,,, http://www.rifleman.org.uk/PH_Service_sights.htm ,,, to find it was a Parker Hale "add on" part to the existing ladder sight. Finding one may prove difficult, but it would be worth it to have windage adjustments on the sight instead of having to screw the Front Sight back and forth. I can make the tool to do that but after it is set I wouldn't need the tool again.

Looking around at gun shows may provide something.

All part of the fun and projects may go on for years before they are complete.

Randy

[Love Life]

If you have the ability to finish metal then I would roll the dice on a sight from one of the big parts suppliers. The front band, extra screws, and bushing I got were all in good enough condition to make me happy.

I have a six groove barrel so I should have no issues measuring the slug. I'm going to order some .314299 bollits to play with before I drop coin on the mould.

I believe I have mine ready to go with just the right amount of barrel movement allowed in the barrel channel. I'll fin out this weekend.

The wood on mine has swell in some places and shrunk in others (odd), but I don't want to remove any wood anywhere since it is the all the original wood. Wen installing my trigger guard, there is a bit of tension on the rear trigger guard screw, and from what I read, there shouldn't be. In other woods, the front and rear trigger guards when tightened shouldn't bow the trigger guard at all.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Dick: your gun is a Savage? That immediately makes it worth much more than my Mutt. As such keeping it original as possible is the best idea.

My wood looked atrocious. However a bout with the finish sander and 60 grit paper removed almost all the major dings and still had plenty of proud wood left.

The color of the fore end is almost Orange! The butt is dark walnut, and when the hand guard gets here I will do my best to match them all to the same general color .

My fore end was cut off just behind the barrel band, but what I am going to do is recut a barrel band relief in the fore end and shorten the hand guard to match. I doubt if anyone will be able to tell when done.

I also found a Bolt On Recoil Pad on Ebay, but it is Butt Ugly! I think I will probably make one instead as I don't want to alter the rear of the stock. I really don't like the Brass Buttplate at all and it just looks like it would be painful to shoot with 180gr hunting loads. I might buy a steel one and alter it so it has a flat on the back that a 1/2 Pachmayer pad can be fitted to. That way I get best of both worlds and can keep the brass to sell with the gun down the road.

Are we having fun yet?

Randy

[Love Life]

No fun yet! I think I'd rather have your gun so I can do more to it!!

I'll look for the reference material I have been reading and PM it your way. There was a man who posted many helpful tips concerning these old war horses.

Of most interest to me was the amount of "wiggle" the barrel is supposed to have in the barrel channel. The is supposed to be no side to side play, but you should be able to move the barrel up and down vertically a small amount when mounted.

However, I am new to all this as well and if I post anything in error then I apologize.

[BruceB]

There are four pieces of wood on a #4 rifle; two handguards, the fore-end, and the butt.

I saw many hundreds of #4s in Canadian service, and it was obvious that no attention was ever paid to "matching" the colors of the various pieces. From blonde to orange to PURPLE to almost-black to decently-grained walnut.... whatever came to the assembler's hands was put on a rifle.

Contrast this with the care taken, for instance, with the peacetime Fazakerley rifles made in the Fifties..... not only does the wood match on any given rifle, but the wood also is quite uniform across all the rifles in the complete production run.

Looks nicer on parade, don'tcha know?

My (1955) Fazakerley rifle has nice, well matched light-tan furniture.... just like every other rifle of that age from that arsenal. I don't recognize the wood species.

My (1943) Long Branch is in new condition, so it may also be assumed to have left the factory in its current "clothes".... well-matched dark wood that sure looks like walnut.

Replacing poor-condition wood with new, non-color-matching parts is still perfectly authentic (if that matters).

[W.R.Buchanan]

Managed to find the barrel band, swivels and screws at BRP. Whopping $12 for all and I got two swivels and two screws.

The list grows shorter, with what I've got coming I can shoot.

I always seem to either smelt lead or cast boolits on Labor Day.. Must be something wrong with me as it is supposed to be 100F+ this weekend.

Randy

[Love Life]

Yeah, but it's a dry heat.