The charging bridge is riveted on and added to fascilitate the use of clips to load the magazine and adds nothing in the way of structural strength to the action. I only added this to the thread to show that the SMLE can be trimmed back to have a more sporting appearance --but if I was to use it, a 35-303 might be in order. With the safety removed it would revert to the earliest MLM style and use the half cock and user awareness although I haven't made a hard and fast decision to remove it as yet.