ENFIELD RECEIVED!!!

826 Views 8 Replies 4 Participants Last post by yosuthnmasa, Jul 6, 2004

Rhino_66

Discussion Starter · Jul 3, 2004

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!

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Rhino_66

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 4, 2004

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.

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Rhino_66

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 4, 2004

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.

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Rhino_66

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 4, 2004 (Edited)

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.

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