I took my WWII #4 Mk.I Lee-Enfield rifle to the range today. I'm much more of a collector than I am a shooter and, frankly, these full-power rifles leave me with a sore shoulder, so I don't shoot them too often. This particular rifle is a good shooter though, somebody that knew what he was doing glass-bedded it. I was honestly disappointed when I first discovered it had been glass-bedded, the seller did not disclose that fact, but I have come to like this rifle. I have to shoot it with a pad on it because the brass butt plate has a cleaning kit compartment and the door really digs into my skin without a pad.
This particular example is a 1944 Maltby production rifle. It is an oddity in that the markings on it for some reason include a * which should indicate that it doesn't have the bolt release latch, but it actually does. Nobody seems to know why this happened, it's a known quirk with 1944 Maltby rifles.
Photos of the glass bedding. I found old documents online from the Canadian marksmanship team that indicate it is critical to only bed the barrel in these two locations in order to contact it at the correct spots for barrel harmonics. The barrel free-floats between these two spots. You can't tell in the photos, but it is also bedded at the "draws" which are the points where it contacts the underside of the receiver, the part of the receiver where the butt stock attaches, and also where the trigger housing attaches.
Finally, the results. 100 yards, iron-sights, 56 year old eyes, rifle fore-end on a rest. This is about as good as I can do. I suspect with a better shooter and match-grade ammo this rifle could do a lot better.
This particular example is a 1944 Maltby production rifle. It is an oddity in that the markings on it for some reason include a * which should indicate that it doesn't have the bolt release latch, but it actually does. Nobody seems to know why this happened, it's a known quirk with 1944 Maltby rifles.
Photos of the glass bedding. I found old documents online from the Canadian marksmanship team that indicate it is critical to only bed the barrel in these two locations in order to contact it at the correct spots for barrel harmonics. The barrel free-floats between these two spots. You can't tell in the photos, but it is also bedded at the "draws" which are the points where it contacts the underside of the receiver, the part of the receiver where the butt stock attaches, and also where the trigger housing attaches.
Finally, the results. 100 yards, iron-sights, 56 year old eyes, rifle fore-end on a rest. This is about as good as I can do. I suspect with a better shooter and match-grade ammo this rifle could do a lot better.
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