[Rhino_66]

Well, I called Centerfire on Friday morning and they said it was shipped on Thursday. My hopes of getting the rifle before the holiday were crushed. So, I stopped by Ohio Rapid Fire on my way to Piqua to see if maybe my Enfield had arrived. It had!

These things are monstrously caked in cosmoline! I appreciate the preservative effect, but damn it's nasty. A quick check with the bore light was done before I signed the paperwork. I figured if it was bad, I'd send it back. The bore looked fair so I signed the yellow form, paid Todd, and took the rifle to my mom and dad's place. As a great relief, the magazine, bolt and receiver numbers all match.

I sprayed some brake cleaner down the barrel to get the heavy stuff out and then popped the bolt out and ran a couple patches through. To my delight, the bore is absolutely spotless!!! The rifling is sharp too. There's a nick on the muzzle, but it's not near the bore. I think I'm going to buy one of the Brownells 11 degree crowning tools. The .30 caliber pilot should work with the AK's, FALs, .303s, and any future military caliber I purchase (maybe a Garand).

I should have taken some pictures, but I couldn't wait to get it degreased and start refinishing it. The only thing not disassembled now is the barrel/receiver unit and the micrometer flip sight. I made a quick tool to get the bolt apart, as I'm too cheap to pay $11.00 to Numrich for the bolt tool.

I am REALLY looking forward to getting this back together and shooting it! This makes up for the PMKMS kit, so I'm completely happy with Centerfire's customer service and products. Thanks again, Centerfire!

 

[Toten Kopf]

Rhino_66.......

Hey pardner which model did you get?

 

[Rhino_66]

I bought the #4 Mk1. I dry fired it a few times and the trigger is smooth and consistent. Centerfire really made up for the trashed parts kit with this baby.

It's in the degreasing stage in my kitchen right now. A horrid collection of chemicals ranging from citrus based degreaser, MEK, laquer thinner, and boiling hot water are currently doing their thing to various parts. I'm even going to remove the metal caps from the stock pieces for proper refinishing of the wood and metal.

This isn't a special, or unique rifle, but it looks to be in great mechanical shape. I am starting to get into a phase where appearance and function are important.

 

[Toten Kopf]

It's really cool that your taking your time to fix the old warhorse up. I believe that the No4, Mk1 is quite accurate. You will love the way you can shoot rapid fire with the Enfield, the bolt just jumps back asking for another round.

I found out that to load from the stripper you will need to stagger the rounds so that each case head is in front of the other.

Another cool thing, is to change the headspace you just change the bolt head to another size.

Have fun with your new prize.

 

[Rhino_66]

Some closer checking shows that mine is actually a Mark 4 #1/2. That was legible on the receiver after degreasing and some cleanup with an old toothbrush. According to a couple of Enfield sites, the #2, #1/2, and #1/3 have the trigger pivot moved to the receiver instead of the triggerguard. This is supposed to eliminate variability in trigger operation with weather changes that were noticeable on the earlier models.

I've soaked the buttstock in lacquer thinner several times and have gotten serious amounts of dirt and grease out of the endgrain. The wood is really cleaning up nicely. A good portion of the dents are starting to lift and I may only have to steam a few of the deep ones. The wood isn't a bad color, but is really light once it's cleaned. The whole stock set looks to be beech like the Romanian AK stock set I just refinished. If that's the case, the walnut stain will do fine and probably 4 coats of poly to even it all up.

The metal looks like it was poorly blued initially and painted at a later point. The machine work isn't really beautiful, so I think it is going to get blasted with the glass powder blasting media and then parkerized. After that I may just oil it and leave it, or I may get ambitious and airbrush some gunmetal blue gunkote onto it. There's a lot of little parts, and the paint will interfere with some of the tighter tolerance fits (like the micrometer sight slide). I don't know what I want to do yet.

 

[Toten Kopf]

Mine is a No4, Mk1* (Savage). I had to do the same thing on mine about the finish. I kept the stock but replaced it with a new one from Numrich Arms. Bugger really shoots for a 1942 model.

Your right about the trigger being updated on yours, I think it happened in the very late 40's or 50's. I don't have my Enfield book handy but I think those are the years. It greatly improved the reliability of the rifle (the trigger is attached to the receiver, not the trigger guard). When I fitted the new stock it wasn't a drop-in. Had to do some wood shaving to get everything to fit just right. Until I worked the wood it had a hair single stage trigger, real spooky. Now everthing is as it should be.

The rear sight that came with mine isn't issue for the rifle (must have been changed somewhere down the line). It's the click micrometer sight(Mk1 or something like that), and I took it apart to clean and phosphate. I phosphated all the parts and didn't have any problems with re-assembly, even that little spike for the rear sight. Just remember to remove any springs as phosphating will destroy their tension. Also, immeadiately after removing from the phosphate tank submerge in a tank of boiling water. This prevents "white-out" on the metal.

Oh, for best accuracy you need to have around 5lbs. of downward pressure on the barrel. At first I free floated mine thinking it would be good for accuracy but it wasn't. After shaving some wood to have the 5lbs. of downward pressure the accuracy became extemely good.

 

[Rhino_66]

Damn that's nice lookin'! And DAMN that's nice shootin'! I like the all black (or extremely dark) phosphate phinish :lol: If I just do something similar, it'll be a whole lot easier. Touch ups will be easier too.

I think I'll save the gunmetal blue gunkote for the .45ACP conversion. Now that June's over, I may have some time to finish some of these projects.

I read about downward pressure on the barrel on a couple of Enfield sites. It shouldn't be too tough to do.

 

[Thanatos]

I think I need another Enfield. Now to decide which one.

 

[yosuthnmasa]

Tk,

What a nice looking Enfield!