Nothing looks too terrible from my viewpoint although the bearing looks a bit uneven. Tedious repairs but nothing impossible. I'll defer to others experiences for coaching. Start by losing the packing in the front until after the receiver area is addressed first.
Need to ask because it is so crucial. Is the "king screw bushing" present? Without that (or it being improperly fitted) you'll have problems which only lead to future problems.

 

By bearing looking uneven you do mean that it looks to be bearing more on the right hand draw? (right in relation to my photograph) And yes the king screw bushing is present, it came out of the stock upon disassembly. What does it mean to start by "losing the packing"?

 

The packing is the card at the muzzle.
If you remove it & the barrel has 5~7Lbs of down force (test by pulling up with a trigger gauge) its fine as long as the barrels normal "rest position" is bottom dead center of the fore-stock.
The left side recoil shoulder looks pretty beat up (as viewed). I've seen much worse repaired by chiseling out that area then custom making a hardwood block to insert then gluing & pinning in place.
There used to be bundles of "threaded brass repair stud" sold, but they're always in giant, "serves a regiment for all eternity" volumes.
Maybe some kind of group buy where several buy a bundle then its shared out between the group? You can make some by threading brazing rod too.

 

The packing is the card at the muzzle.
If you remove it & the barrel has 5~7Lbs of down force (test by pulling up with a trigger gauge) its fine as long as the barrels normal "rest position" is bottom dead center of the fore-stock.

To state it in a slightly different way:

When fully assembled,
You should not be able to push the barrel down.
Up, left & right yes, with equal parts L&R.
From your photos, it wouldn't surprise me if the barrel can't really flex to the Left....
But that is pure speculation.

It also wouldn't surprise me if the opposite were true.

Or that I was just wrong altogether.

 

8mm: There's different ways for a forend to be loose. With the triggerguard, etc removed, is there any evidence of clamping at the draws when you hold the forend in place (or does it slide forward and backward real easily)? A forend can also be loose at the front triggerguard screw (as mentioned by JB, above). This can be seen with the rifle assembled by holding the forend in one hand and pulling up on the muzzle. If the action body shows any sign of free movement back in the vicinity of the front triggreguard screw then the bushing is too long and the barreled action isn't being clamped to the wood. Very easily corrected. If the problem is the draws it's also not a difficult repair (the third or fourth time). If you give it a try be sure to check out a lot of threads showing how it is done. The ultimate repair is a largish patch glued in (after chiseling out the area) and doweled horizontally. The armourers repairs I've seen all had very small vertical dowels. I've also used threaded rod (as mentioned above) but lately have had some good results with a pair of small, simple walnut pieces carefully fit and glued in.

Ruprecht

 

I’m afraid that is not quite right with regard to the front trigger guard screw. The foreend should be tight and have absolutely zero movement in any direction without any hardware fitted. The idea that the trigger guard, through the front trigger guard screw, does any more than just bear lightly onto the foreend is false. The front trigger guard bush is set to a very small measurement shorter than the thickness of the foreend so the trigger guard has only minuscule crush on the foreend. Any more than that and it will damage the foreend and the bush would need to be shortened every time you take the foreend off. This also messes with the set up of the two stage trigger.

It looks to me like the best thing to do would be to build up the compressed areas of the draws so that the foreend can be sat on at the muzzle and need a gentle tap to go into place at the back. Remember always to pull foreends away from the rear first, pulling down under the muzzle will instantly do what has happened to your foreend or worse!

 

Thing to know about repairs to the draws no matter which approach is taken. The angle of the draw area needs to match the mating surfaces on the receiver. The word need should also read as must.
When the forend goes on it will be squeezed into the draws as the wood meets metal on the perches.
Any forend that can fall away upon disassembly needs work to snug things up for a proper fit. Draws, perches, bushing, bedding... All need to work in harmony. Not as critical as a bench rest rifle, but should be within spec.
If ill-fitted wood gets trashed from recoil, its not a as though we have a storeroom full of Enfield timber to turn to.

 

Wow! there's a lot of responses here. Thanks guys! I'm going to respond to all in one post by first listing your username.

Plonker:
Thank you I figured the packing was that card thing near the muzzle but I wanted to clarify. It's actually a piece of steel or aluminium set of directions looks like. Unfortunately I do not have a trigger pull gauge but I do know what you mean about the barrel resting position. And I've never seen the brass repair studs in person but I have seen photos of them that were in a Lithgow rifle.


Ruprecht:
Yes, with the trigger guard removed the forend does slide back and forth. I assume that is what you mean by clamping? When the rifle was assembled it did have the slight action play you described when I moved the muzzle end around. At this point I assume it could be any of these things? Are my draws wrecked and therefore in need of the amourers' fix?


JBWhite:
Thank you and I understand. Upon disassembly the wood didn't fall off but obviously wasn't snug. Being as Enfield timber isn't plentiful I'm more than happy to spend the time and effort to fix it and I would like to keep this forend with this rifle being as it left British service (FTR) with this forend.


DisasterDog:
I'd like to start out by asking how you came up with your username? It's creative! I understand what your telling me, I am an amateur collector especially of Lee-Enfields and I'll be completely honest that the only reason I know exactly what you're saying is because I watched the Bloke on the Range video about No.4 stocking up.


So, should I perhaps carefully reassemble the rifle properly tight without the card thing and see how everything moves?
I'd also like to note that the middle band spring was very well stuck on there and made a very loud popping of sound.


Also, any opinions about the sling?

 

Let me do something similar.

the middle band spring

There shouldn't be one!
There was a spring loaded gizmo on the earlier No1 MkIII, but I have no idea what that would b in a No4? Can you give some more details?

I do not have a trigger pull gauge

Do you have a fisherman's scale or know a fisherman who might? They're both perfectly usable for this.

with the trigger guard removed the forend does slide back and forth

OK That's not good.
Basically the Lee-Enfield bedding is a Tetter-totter, hinged at the main bolt just in front of the magazine. Behind the pivot are a pair of "inclined planes", forming an offset "V".
As the main bolt is tightened the front set pushes the action rearwards in the stock. Once the rear wedge has engaged it starts to tighten up. Once its tight the unit stops any fore & aft movement, because it is "wedged" by the ever narrowing geometry. now we start to look at the front end, but not before. THIS is the absolute crux, you MUST fix this before anything else.
We can tilt the action by adjusting the rear of the receiver, or the barrel bedding at the Knox form, but not before the action is solid in the stock. Recoil shoulders are last as they absorb recoil but don't really play a lot (directly) into bedding the action as such.
More detailed info here:
https://riflechair.blogspot.com/2011/06/diagnosing-bedding-issues-with-no4-lee.html

 

I will slightly disagree with Plonker on this...

First, the trigger guard should not be acting as a spring. Sometimes people bent it so that it would give added pressure at the draws. And, based on your pics & description, it sounds like you might be dealing with that. Basically, with the front guard screw ("king screw") installed through the guard, the rear guard screw should slip right in.

If that is not happening, you need to straighten your trigger guard.

Then, with that taken care of & stock in place, you can see any "fulcrum action" taking place on that king screw by pushing down on the top rear sides of that forearm. If you can push the rear of the forearm up, or down, you should try removing the king screw bushing.

If it no longer teeter-totters on the king screw, you know the bushing itself is too long.

I feel like that's a lot as a starting point.

Test that out & we'll go from there.

 

Oh I agree 100% that the trigger guard should be flat & properly fitted. I just hadn't go that far.

 

Wow. there is a lot to consider here. Bushing has not been adjusted? I'll have to digest all of this information and figure out what the heck I'm going to do with this. Dry runs? how do I practice these dry runs, and why aren't they going to go too well? Like are we thinking I need to find perhaps a sported forend or something to practice on?


On an unrelated note, These No.1 rifles from Ethiopia being brought in by RTI. How exactly did these British guns end up in that country in the first place? Why were they there?

 

On an unrelated note, These No.1 rifles from Ethiopia being brought in by RTI. How exactly did these British guns end up in that country in the first place? Why were they there?

Hmmm..the romantic historical aspect would involve British arms left behind after expelling the Italians. Could possibly been an arms deal through India or Pakistan since they've both been known to sell arms in the third world. With plausible deniability of course.
If I were to guess, I might lean towards black market arms dealers involved in Southeast Asia/ China Sea area. I might lean that way.
. But today I'm guessing.......pirates!

 

If the black market sources were widely known, there wouldn't be a thriving black market. So, if we told you, you know we'd have to arrange a fatal accident for you sometime within the week.

Smiling as I think about government agencies reading our forums as their source of Intel

On second thought. The source of the Ethiopian rifles is SDigger. All failed Lithgow forgeries which he buried to age them out on his back forty. He makes them and DisasterDog is his distributor.
(Neither one of them sent me a birthday card last year)

 

If the black market sources were widely known, there wouldn't be a thriving black market. So, if we told you, you know we'd have to arrange a fatal accident for you sometime within the week.

Smiling as I think about government agencies reading our forums as their source of Intel <img src="http://forums.gunboards.com/images/smilies/happy_small.gif" border="0" alt="" title="happy" class="inlineimg" />

On second thought. The source of the Ethiopian rifles is SDigger. All failed Lithgow forgeries which he buried to age them out on his back forty. He makes them and DisasterDog is his distributor.
(Neither one of them sent me a birthday card last year)

haha that is a good point about the black market😂 what intel do they need from us? I know you’re joking but what is a Lithgow forgery?

 

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

My guess as to the source is India.
There's just too many of their No.4 GFs coming out of this stash.
But it's probably a very mixed bag, I'm guessing many sources over several decades.
Was Ethiopia due any reparations after WW2?

 

<img src="http://forums.gunboards.com/images/smilies/laughter.gif" border="0" alt="" title="laugh" class="inlineimg" /><img src="http://forums.gunboards.com/images/smilies/laughter.gif" border="0" alt="" title="laugh" class="inlineimg" /><img src="http://forums.gunboards.com/images/smilies/laughter.gif" border="0" alt="" title="laugh" class="inlineimg" /><img src="http://forums.gunboards.com/images/smilies/laughter.gif" border="0" alt="" title="laugh" class="inlineimg" />

My guess as to the source is India.
There's just too many of their No.4 GFs coming out of this stash.
But it's probably a very mixed bag, I'm guessing many sources over several decades.
Was Ethiopia due any reparations after WW2?

I think that’s a good point. I don’t know if they were but if they were owed anything why would the Brits owe anything? What does GF stand for?

 

The Carcanos might be leftovers from WW2

 

I've heard a rumor if you bury them in cow poop they will re-blue in time.
Like this chandelier at the Taylor Winery in Upstate NY.

 

No bull sh!t?

 

That's a beautiful chandelier!

 

Some of us know one another. Contact off forum over the years. Buying selling and trading. Some of us meet up for lunch when traveling through forum members neck of the woods. Some of us meet up or used to meet up at shows, swap meets, shooting events etc. A couple of us have gone hunting together.
One forum member treated me to a Cardinals game in St Louis and didn't mind me wearing Cubs stuff at Busch stadium.
That's why facebook friend counts don't impress me at all.
A lot of the keepers I have in my core collection came from other forum members.

I should show off my apple core collection someday.

 

That is so cool!!!! I suppose I haven't been here long enough for all that yet. So ya'll swapped phone numbers too?! How do you all know when you're going through someones neck of the woods? My mind is being blown here

 

Careful what you say Dig. He might be a Fed seeking intel again. Or....
....thinking maybe a pirate trying to muscle in on your global milsurp forgery operation!
Sorry about ratting you out. I don't know what got into me for a second there.

 

Careful what you say Dig. He might be a Fed seeking intel again. Or....
....thinking maybe a pirate trying to muscle in on your global milsurp forgery operation! <img src="http://forums.gunboards.com/images/smilies/wink.jpg" border="0" alt="" title="wink" class="inlineimg" />
Sorry about ratting you out. I don't know what got into me for a second there.

dammit! Oh well, there goes my cover😂 you are forgiven. I was hoping to get in on the forgery’s to make a little extra spending money.

 

For Digger.

The Cowboy and Politician
A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban Sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?'

The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, 'Sure, why not?'

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, Connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA Page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation System to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany .

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel Spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'
'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says the Cowboy.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?' The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'

You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government', says the cowboy. 'Wow! That's correct,' says the yuppie, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing was required.' answered the cowboy. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep.

Now give me back my dog.

 

:laugh::laugh:

 

That's a good one mate!! I may have even seen it before

 

:clap::cheers::laugh::laugh::laugh:

 

Mr. Digger, are you in the U.S.?

 

Please educate the ignorant.

Is there some reason why these messed-up draw areas can't just be glass-bedded and be done with?

M

 

I'm sure somebody's tried it but I can't see how it would work well. The actual contact area between forend and sear lugs is pretty tiny plus the contact area needs to be formed at the correct angle and with slight excess thickness to allow each side to be carefully filed down to achieve the perfect fit on both sides. Walnut patches work perfectly and will last if done well.

Ruprecht

 

Thank you Ruprecht. Is there any source with perhaps a reliable video or series of photos to help as a visual aid in this?