glass bedding a smle info

[nekshot]

This bloke at Terminal Balistics(balisticstudies.com) has a good tutural on bedding a smle and a section on the history of the gun from a NZ point of view. It is old hatstuff to our aussy friends but gives me a new appreciation for the gun and what it has done both in military and sporting situations. Stirred me up enough to want one in true original form and play with it!

[Multigunner]

The main thing to remember when bedding a Lee Enfield of any No. or Mark is to bed the action body only at front and rear leaving the body in between free of the wood. They found this out when experimenting on the No.4 (T) rifles post WW2.

The barrel should make no contact on either side even at the reinforce. A triangular strip on the bottom of the reinforce is all that should be bedded for contact. You can free float the No.4 barrel but I don't see how you could free float the slim No.1 barrel.
The No.4 may respond better if a small contact point 8-9" ahead of the receiver ring is created either by Glass Bedding or inlaying a piece of hardwood trimmed so that when fully tightened there's aprox 6lb upwards pressure. A contact point at the front end of the No.4 handguards was normal practice but was only useful in reducing the variation in point of impact when firing with or without the bayonet fixed. For match accuracy there should be no contact beyond the point I mentioned earlier.

While ideally full even contact at the butt socket is preferred they found that leaving an air gap was better that unequal pressure due to swelling of shrinkage in inhospitable climes.

Some rifles respond to better other bedding methods and some don't.

[PAT303]

I'd strongly suggest you buy some rubberised cork and try different barrel packing to find what your rifle likes,I'd strongly suggest you do that before doing permanent bedding. Pat

[leebuilder]

Nice artical and video. I do similar bedding, just not up the barrel that far. As Pat303 mentioned get some shim material to see what your rifle likes, some need stuffing some shoot better without. I use plastic from yogert/margerine containers for shims. If you root around you can find one the proper thickness. I have used rubberized bands for physio therapy and bands that hold lobster claws as well to great success. I try to get 0.020 thickness of tape around the barrel, this is my referance point for bedding the stock.
Any questions please ask
be safe

[castalott]

How much improvement are we talking about? Is the rifle still robust enough to knock around a bit or is it to be a baby in the safe?

Is this something the Indian 308 rifles can benefit from?

You can tell I don't know much about this....

Thanks, Dale

[PAT303]

How much improvement,my No.4 with floating barrel went from 1 meter groups at 100 to 8'' off hand standing unsupported groups at 200 with center bedding and rubberised cork at the muzzle set up as to need heavy thumb pressure to lift it off the packing. Pat

[leebuilder]

One time i had a parker hale sporter the stock was bearing on the right side of the barrel. It grouped about six inches at a hundred meters. I removed the stock cleaned it up and relieved the stock were it contacted the barrel, brought the grouping down to an inch and a half, thats one example, took all of ten minutes and did it on the firing line.
be well

[Shiloh]

The few military relics I have seen both the before and after results from, benefitted noticeably from bedding.
I have no idea just how it was done so your do your research. I saw a sporterised '03 that was pillar and action bedded and the trigger guard floor plate bedded as well.

Shiloh