So, it’s been an awesome year, both personally, and for The Gun Rack. Having recently started importing Boyds gunstocks, it’s been great to bring Kiwis (and the occasional Aussie) a product they haven’t been able to have for a long time (certainly not at a decent price, anyway).
To celebrate the end of an awesome year, I’m giving away one free stock to one of you lucky buggers. If you buy a stock in our next order, you will have a 1 in 10 chance of having the full cost of your stock refunded to you, including the GST and shipping costs.
This is the last order for the year, and I already have 2 out of 10 spots filled (those 2 guys will qualify too). For the next 8 people who jump onto this order, simply:
Head on over to the Boyds website and find the stock and upgrade options you want
Place your order (this includes payment upfront, as usual)
Wait for your awesome stock to arrive, and hopefully for some cash to hit your bank account too!
If you want to read more about the ordering process, head over here, or email me. Unfortunately the stock won’t arrive before Christmas, as it takes a while to manufacture, ship, get through customs, courier, etc. However, if you are the lucky winner, you will get your money back as soon as the order is complete (which will hopefully be before Christmas!).
The winner will be chosen using a random draw method of some description. The decision will be random, and it will also be final (And no correspondence will be entered into, etc, etc,. Basically, I’m giving away something free, don’t be a douche if you don’t win).
Merry Christmas everyone, and thanks for being part of The Gun Rack community and our journey importing Boyds gunstocks into NZ (and AU). I’m hoping in the new year to be bringing in some other cool bits and pieces – will keep you updated on that.
Removing and disassembling the bolt of a Swedish Mauser is a pretty simple affair and may need to be undertaken for any number of reasons. Most commonly, you’ve picked up a rifle nearing a century in age, and there’s a lot of gunk and crap in there that needs to be cleaned out. The other scenario is that you could be modifying your bolt to cock on close, or reduce lock time with lighter materials and a stronger spring.
Hopefully if the latter is your reason for stripping a Mauser bolt, you’ve inherited or bought a sporter – there are fewer and fewer whole specimens left.
Below are a series of pictures showing how to disassemble a Mauser bolt (small ring, not a K98). If your bolt looks different, don’t fret. This is from a commercial rifle, not a military conversion. It has a blued finish and a bent bolt handle, which thankfully clears my Weaver 44/40 scope, thanks to an EGW 20 MOA rail. If you’re wondering how the extra height affects consistent cheek weld and sight lines, a Boyds stock with adjustable cheek rest helps out there.
Step 1 – Get the firing pin out of the bolt body
After checking the rifle is unloaded, close the bolt fully.Lift the safety lever into the upright position and remove the bolt without lowering the safety. You may need to remove your scope if the safety won’t clear it.The bolt shroud should easily unscrew from the bolt body now. Note the cocking piece is held under spring tension by the safety lever.The firing pin separated from the bolt body. Again, note the spring and firing pin are locked back – if you don’t do the next step carefully, the spring, cocking piece, and firing pin could separate with a fair amount of speed and force.
Step 2 – Separate the firing pin from the bolt shroud
Find a hard surface you don’t mind denting. Or, if you have an original stock with brass disc, you can use the indent for this step. With the firing pin against your hard surface, force the bolt shroud downward. The safety lever provides a good amount of purchase.Twist the cocking piece 90 degrees. At this point make sure you have a firm grip on the bolt shroud and firing pin, and slowly release the spring tension to avoid sending pieces flying.Fold the safety lever all the way over and pull it back to separate it from the shroud.Shroud, cocking piece, spring, safety lever, and firing pin.
Step 3 – Remove the extractor from the bolt body
Note the extractor sits in a groove just before the bolt face.Rotate the extractor about 90 degrees so that it exits the notch.Apply downward pressure with your thumb, as you slide the extractor forward. Remember this sweet spot, as you’ll need to apply pressure in the same spot to get the extractor back on.Getting this collar off is easy, but you will stretch it as you do so. A flat screwdriver can be used to pry it open if needed. Getting it back on once it has been taken off is harder, and a vice of some sort will be handy, as you’ll need both hands to get the extractor back on.When reassembling the bolt, getting the extractor onto the collar is probably the hardest bit. If you have locking pliers or a small vice, it shouldn’t be hard to slide the slot on the underside of the extractor onto the collar. Remember where you applied downward pressure to remove the extractor – this is the same spot you need to apply pressure to as you slide it back on.
From here on, the rest of the reassembly is easy, and is simply the reverse of the above.
This particular rifle is a quiet bush monster. Monstrous in appearance, but suppressed and subsonic in its implementation. There’s a lot that’s gone into this particular rifle, so – fittingly – we’ll do an entire article covering the various bits and pieces, and the decisions that led to each of them.
One decision that was, unfortunately, made for us, is that I’m no longer going to have the rifle Cerakoted, as a dear and valued member of the NZ shooting community, Victor Alberts, passed away recently while on holiday overseas. Victor was the applicator and artist behind Cerakote NZ, so necessarily we’ll be looking to sort out some other means of protecting the metal on this bush gun.
The rifle that defended the free world – twice
The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) rifle was featured in both world wars and a host of conflicts all around the world. Its younger brother is only now being phased out of service with the Canadian Rangers, who will have a locally made, licensed version of a Sako product (T3 CTR). Other weapons have been trialled, but none compared to the reliability of the Rifle No 4 Mk 2 (since 1941 – not bad).
Even still, the old Lee-Enfield is a devastating tool in the hands of irregular forces around the world, who do not have access to more modern weaponry, or who perhaps have an abundance of old Commonwealth stock. With ballistics and firepower not too far off the .308 Win, it’s not hard to see why the rifle has kept pace.
Anyway, I digress. So, this stunning piece of history came to my possession in a sorry state. Which is okay, as I was keeping an eye out for an old beater that could be beautified without destroying a battlefield artifact.
My 1943 SMLE (above) was in a sad state when I bought it – compared to my 1942 (below) which will stay unchanged.
One of the problems with using a wartime rifle (1943), that was mass-produced with unique ‘improvements’ and variations across the world, is that you are bound to run into quality issues. In contrast, I do have a 1942 Lithgow rifle which is beautifully symmetrical and well-machined (even if it is left a bit rough in some areas). But this made-in-Britain wartime specimen is a product of its environment, and loose tolerances, rough surfaces, and poor bluing are to be expected.
In hindsight, I really wish I’d done this build off a Rifle No. 4 instead of an SMLE No.1 Mk iii, as the action lends itself to being rebarrelled to higher-power cartridges, but that may have taken this build in another direction altogether.
If you’re considering a build on a No. 4 or even No. 5 action, Boyds thankfully caters to those, too.
Taking apart the two-piece stock
The Lee-Enfield is everything a modern precision rifle is not. It’s not free floated, the stock is not a single piece and and the ergonomics are all wrong. However it was well-suited to winter clothing and putting a lot of lead downrange, so we can’t really judge the designers for that.
The two piece stock is easily taken apart with some screwdrivers, and potentially a socket driver if you don’t have a really long flat head screwdriver. Check out the easy tutorial here (with lots of pictures!).
Not many rifles will have the trigger come out with the floor metal.
Fitting the Boyds Field Stock Design
Final fitting will be needed.
One thing I love about Boyds stocks is seeing the precision lines in the inletting. Now. Take a look at your naked Lee-Enfield. There is not a single square section on that thing. Because the action has so much inconsistency in shape and finish, I spent a fair bit of time sanding and filing around the top of the action and inside and around the sear and trigger slot.
The area around the mag well also needed some relieving of material to get the floor plate sitting properly again, which allowed the barrel channel to move into the appropriate position.
I found it really useful to mark the action with engineer’s blue (a permanent marker will do), to find the high spots on your action that necessitate removing some more wood.
Please be careful removing material, as it’s a lot easier to take off than it is to put on! While I say I spent a lot of time on this, that doesn’t mean I shaved off a lot of the laminate. Rather, I spent a lot of time making sure I didn’t take off too much, so I could still have a snug fit.
When fitting the butt stock, shaving off a small bit of wood off the top of the donut-shaped insert allowed the laminate stock to snug up nicely when I tightened the bolt. However, on the forend side I found there was a bit of a gap between the wood and the characteristic steel band which forms the rear of the receiver and separates the forend and butt stock. I had a shooting buddy of mine machine up a shim to bridge the gap. He put in some counter sunk holes so that I could screw it into the stock once I had all of the metalwork (including the shim) coated, however it’s so far been held in place by friction and is doing just fine.
The shim held in place by friction fills a small gap between action and stock. Once coated with the rest of the metal work it will blend in well.
The gap between the forend and steel band I’ll put down to variance between manufacturers of rifles over time. I measured this strip of metal on my two SMLE rifles (one year apart, but one from Australia and one from the UK), and found a 1 mm – 2 mm difference in broadness.
You will definitely need to take out some wood where the rear ring of the receiver interrupts the line of the stock, and also where the safety lever goes in the forward position.
A radius and a square cut will make room for the safety lever and the rear action ring.
Positives of the Boyds Field Stock Design
If you’re looking to improve your Lee-Enfield Rifle or SMLE, you have three options:
Restore the wood with new old stock or modern replicas (on a No 4 this is feasible, on a No 3, near impossible)
Put it in a plastic stock, which will reduce weight, but will deliver more recoil, and increase your noise in the bush with its hollow construction
Choose a hardwood/laminate solution
I’m assuming you landed on option 3, which is why you’re here. The hardwood solution is not only inline with the character of the gun, but also just feels right. I have a couple battle rifles in modern plastic stocks, and I’m too embarrassed to take them to the range, and too put off by the handling and feel to really enjoy them.
The Boyds Field Stock Design (and any of their stocks, really) is a re-imagining of the stock design based around the action and the shooter, not simply a replacement of the existing furniture. This means you can expect an increase in accuracy, stemming from various feature improvements, such as a better inletting, length of pull, cheek weld, positive grip characteristics and also added rigidity when compared to plastic aftermarket (or even original manufacture) stocks.
Line of sight
I found that the Boyds stock in particular raised the eye-line perfectly for the old rifle. With the original stock, if you try and get a positive cheek weld, you’ll be looking at the top of the action. You have to raise your head a bit and compromise your repeatable position on the rifle in order to see the iron sights.
Lining the two up by the rear of the bolt, the difference in drop is quite evident, as is the angle of the butt pad – both changing the handling characteristics of the gun.
With the Boyds stock, the decreased drop on the comb means you are looking straight at the iron sights. If you had a low mounted scope, you could use this quite easily with little compromise in cheek weld. I have a Vortex Razor HD red dot sight mounted on mine, which, unfortunately, means added height to the optic. However, this doesn’t bother me because, with its unlimited eye relief, I can have my head just about anywhere on the stock and still have an accurate sight picture.
Solid construction
The Boyds stock is not only solidly made with highly advanced resins, but it feels more substantial when you’re shouldering or handling the rifle. The forend fits an adult male hand well, unlike many skinny stocks, where your fingers will wrap around onto the barrel if you’re not careful. It’s also beefier at the butt end. This is in contrast to the original skinny grip that would have been perfect for gloved hands in the trenches, but not user friendly for acquiring a positive grip in the hot bush and forest we often hunt in.
The slight increases in length, width and girth, add up to a much better length of pull and trigger/bolt manipulation characteristics, without increasing the overall length by much at all.
Choice
If you’re pulling apart an old rifle like this to do something special, why not make it truly one-of-a-kind? From the standard colours offered by Boyds, the Pepper laminate is a sexy rendition. Black and charcoal – it modernises any firearm, while still retaining the warmth of wood. There is also a straight walnut stock if that’s your preference.
The ‘Scale’ laser engraved chequering adds aesthetic appeal, visual depth, and enhanced grip characteristics.
I chose a Zombie Hunter custom colour for an extra US$16.50, and my rifle stands out like no other. It’s an attention grabber at the range, and it just looks freaking cool. It’s one of those guns you want to take out and shoot, regardless of whether you’re actually working on a load or hunting or just plinking. I might burn through a lot more ammo just because she looks ‘cool’, but that’s okay. Not to mention, everyone else wants a go at it, too!
I also asked for some chequering on the stock, specifically the ‘Scale’ pattern. It’s laser engraved, and absolutely perfect. It adds some extra grip (of course), but also adds depth to the appearance of the rifle. There are a couple other options to choose from as well.
While you’re at it, you could also look at a custom finish, or a different butt pad option to tame your heavy-hitting wildcat magnums.
Negatives
Hey, nothing’s perfect, and there always have to be some negatives.
My only regret on this build (regarding the stock) is not having sling swivel studs, as a sling will be essential for crashing through some of our heavy NZ bush. However, I’m sure Boyds would have included some had I actually thought to ask. Not to worry, I do have some spare, but that’s definitely something I’ll think about next time. More a mistake on my part than a negative with the stock.
There is one negative, and again, it’s not actually a fault of the Boyds Field Design Stock: It’s the rifle. There is no way on God’s green earth that you will have a perfect fit. Unless you own the Boyds’ house action that they model their stocks off.
There is so much variation in fit, quality and manufacturing tolerances between these old war time rifles, that I can almost guarantee some work for you with sandpaper and a file or two, no matter what brand of gun stock you choose. However, if you’re restoring or upgrading any milsurp rifle, this should be something you expect along the way, so don’t let this put you off.
If hard work is not your cup of tea, there are plenty of modern actions that are very uniform and require little-to-no work to customise. Thankfully, Boyds makes stocks for those rifles, too!
Conclusion
At the end of the day, I’ve found (once again) that the Boyds product is a substantial improvement on the original stock that came on the gun. Not only this, but dollar for dollar, I can’t imagine another aftermarket stock coming close.
The customisation options offered by Boyds are a real bonus for anyone looking to increase the appeal of their old shooter, and the standard options are plenty for those who don’t like drawing too much attention to themselves or those who are watching their budget.
Would I buy it again? Yes. And I guess that’s the highest recommendation someone can give after thoroughly testing a product.
There are two types of Lee-Enfields out there. There are the pristine or refurbished, fully wooded, original-as-they-come investments. And then there are the sporters. These chopped and changed pieces of history make excellent first time hunter’s tools, or the basis of many a project.
We’re going to take a quick look at how to remove and replace (or upgrade) the furniture on your 303, and talk about some of the interesting things you’ll find along the way. Whether you’re building an awesome wildcat, such as a 25-303 or even a 40-303, or just beautifying grandad’s old hunter, I hope the steps in this article are helpful for your project.
Remove the floor metal
A large flat screwdriver is needed for the single action screw.Remove the screw from behind the trigger guard, which the floor metal hinges on.The floor metal should simply pull away. You may need to jiggle it a bit or get the right angle to slide the attached trigger out.Depending on how your rifle’s been treated over the years, you may need a bit of elbow grease to pull the fore wood off, but it should slide off easily.
Remove the butt plate or pad
If your rifle still has the brass butt plate, you can skip this next step by prying open the storage trap and removing anything that may be in there (oil bottle, pull through, etc).For rifles with recoil pads on, it’s time to unscrew these. More modern pads will likely require a No 2 Phillips head to remove the screws. Older pads like this are probably secured with a flat head screw.
Unscrew the butt stock
The stock is held in place by a retaining bolt similar to that found in common shotgun designs. This means you’ll either need an extra long screwdriver or extended socket driver.The bolt requires a large flat head driver. If your driver continues to turn after the screw should be out, but the wood won’t come off, give the stock a sharp tap. It’s probably held on by years of grease and tension.
Select a stock to replace or upgrade your current furniture
There’s a chance you’re doing a straight swap for reproduction or original SMLE furniture. This could be because you’re replacing a broken stock, or restoring the rifle to its as-issued condition. Firstly, good luck finding furniture for a No 1 Mk iii. I’ve tried. You may as well keep your sporter and buy a whole specimen, because that’s the kind of money you’re looking at shelling out.
On the other hand, you could be looking to upgrade your old beater to something more functional. You do get synthetic Monte Carlo stocks that will lighten your rifle and bring your eye better in-line with a scope, but plastic just doesn’t feel right for these fine old beasts.
I’ve decided my project 303 needs a hardwood solution, and the Boyds laminate Field Design stock got the nod. With the customisation options available, you can create a unique firearm that not only performs better, but is a joy to look at every time you take it out of the safe.
We’ll have a review of the stock itself coming soon, and a detailed write up of the stock upgrade and other improvements to this rifle. In the meantime, below are some steps to take when fitting your new stock.
Fit and finish
Different iterations of the SMLE will have varying parts that need to be accommodated. There is so much variance in tolerances from arsenal to arsenal, that you’ll be glad if your stock manufacturer has left this last step for you to do yourself.
Pictured here is a cutout I had machined by a friend for the rear ring of the action. On the other side of the rifle, the butt stock needs a slight radius to accommodate the safety lever.Engineers/machinists blue or a permanent marker will help you find high spots on your action. Sand down your new stock to suit. An engineer that helped me work on this rifle said “there’s not a single square section on this action”, and he’s absolutely right – war time quality isn’t the greatest.Et voila! There’s still some more work to be done on this rifle, but after reversing the disassembly steps, the stock upgrade will be complete.
First off, an apology to regular readers for the gap in new content recently. It’s been a crazy couple months with a new addition to the family and purchasing our first home too.
Unfortunately my first born needs at least a few more years before he’s of any use as a reloading assistant, but for now he’s definitely entertaining. The reloading bench is also unfortunately far away from being ready, as I’m replacing my entire workshop set up (finally!). So it will take a little while for things to get back to normal, but we do still have a backlog of articles to get through. Here’s what you can expect to see in the coming month and a bit.
25 metre rapid shoot – always catches you up with your holdover!
2016 NZDA Prize Shoot
This is a shoot I look forward to every year – and it seemed like I had no excuse going in, considering my rifle was successfully and repeatedly printing 6 mm groups… However, my placing was average, and as always I learned something new about being prepared for a competition. Look forward to telling you guys more about the day soon!
Venturing into F-Class
So I tried my hand at F-Class at the Franklin Rifle Club, shooting at 600 yards with some pretty good success. We’ll talk a bit more about F-Class in general, as well as give a little bit of info on the club and other long range destinations around the country.
Putting the finishing touches on a Boyds Field Design stock for my SMLE # 1 Mk iii.
How to replace the stock on an SMLE
The good ol’ .303 is a staple for NZ, Australian and Canadian shooters, and features strongly in militaria collections around the world. However, with the abundance of used and abused SMLEs out there, you’re bound to want to work on one at some point. This article will provide you with a quick look at how to remove and replace the wooden furniture on a sporterised No 1 Mk iii.
Product review: Boyd’s Field Stock for 303 SMLE
So, once you’ve removed the stock of your old .303 beater, you might want to spruce it up with a solid wood laminate stock from Boyds – which is exactly what I did. You can look forward to reading more about this stock – and the cool features available – soon.
Monster bush build
So, my project .303 didn’t only get brand new furniture from Boyds Gunstocks. It’s also wearing an MAE 6-30 ST suppressor, a Vortex Razor red dot site and is waiting for a fresh coat of Cerakote, when I can tee up a time with Victor from Cerakote NZ. This short-barreled bush build will be shooting subsonic lead and is begging to be taken out pig hunting. More on this monster in the near future.
DOCTER binocular reviews
What’s better than one pair of DOCTER binocs? Two! We’ll be taking a look at some more excellent optics from DOCTER, and talking about what to consider when purchasing new glass.
Hmm… which is gonna do the job?
Product review: MDT TAC-21 Chassis for Tikka T3
What could make my Tikka T3 sexier? The TAC-21 chassis from MDT! We’re waiting on some magazines which are on back order, but when those arrive we’ll be taking this chassis out for a proper test drive. It’s already assembled and I’ve had a good amount of time to get a feel for it. I think this is going to make a good mid-range F-Open rig!
Rifle stock bedding and finishing: Part 3
Hey, it’s only been a year since we did part 1 in this series on rifle stock bedding and finishing! Before the end of the year we’ll take a look at the final steps in the process and also some of the excellent stocks available to complete your project.
So, these are some of the bits and pieces to look forward over the coming month and a bit, hope that’s whetted your appetite! Look forward to catching up iwth you on our Facebook and Instagram pages, and of course, right back here with some fresh new articles!
In the first part of this blog series, I looked at the rifle stock I’ve chosen for this project – Boyds Prairie Hunter – as well as the bedding compound I’ll be using – Matchgrade Bedding Compound. In this piece, I’ll go over the initial fitting of the stock, and the bedding process.
Prepping the stock
A hacksaw blade gives nice, crisp edges.
Whether you choose to bed your stock or not (you should choose to 99% of the time), your stock may need some prep work. The Prairie Hunter is quite a classic shape, with a nice cheek swell and elegant lines forward of the action. Supplied with sling swivels and a nice butt pad already in place, there’s not much you need to do to get this stock looking great.
Because of my model of rifle, I had to remove material to provide the clearance for the bolt handle. For this reason, my stock was provided unfinished (uncoated). Fortunately, with the bent M38 handle, there wasn’t much to take out. I simply used a hacksaw blade to achieve the angle and depth of of relief needed, and removed the material between the two cuts with a small file, and then some sandpaper. By doing the two cuts on the outside, the relief is quite crisp and even.
Next I had to deal to the plastic nose cap. There are several options you can go for here, ranging from the synthetic (cheapest), through to rosewood and others. Of course, for a more simple appearance and cheaper project, you may choose to exclude this option.
A dremmel makes quick work of evening out the nosecap.
The nose cap and the pistol grip cap where both ground to fit, however, the barrel channel of the nose cap needed some relieving to ensure the barrel is free floating. These caps are obviously produced to allow for common barrel dimensions without having excess clearance, which would look terrible and accumulate dust and grime in the field. So, in this sense, having to clear this out for your particular barrel shape is actually a benefit, as you can ensure you have a free floating barrel, with a minimum of clearance to keep your barrel channel free of any foreign debris. Of course, you’ll want to make sure it matches up nicely with the lines of your stock.
Aside from that, my Boyds stock was good to go. However, as I’m bedding this rifle as well, I chose to leave the final coating of the stock for after the bedding process. This way, any spilled bedding compound or other marks can be easily removed when I do the final sanding before oiling the stock.
Glass bedding the action
The term ‘glass bedding’ comes from the fibreglass-like products that were used in the past to mate barrelled actions to their new homes. Material choice has improved in leaps and bounds, however there are a few prominent bedding systems that seem to have really got it right.
There are a couple that you can find on Brownell’s (if your in the states), or Gun City, Reloaders, Serious Shooters, etc., in New Zealand. However, far and away my most preferred bedding compound is Nathan Foster’s Matchgrade product. It’s easy to use and provides a solid and stable platform on which to achieve repeatable and accurate results with your rifle.
The first time I used this product it came with printed directions, which I have stashed in my drawer somewhere. The second time it came with a basic info sheet and instructions to find the directions online in a PDF. To be honest, I think this is great. It saves on paper and keeps the cost of the product from increasing, but also, it’s so much easier to use your phone to view instructions.
When using your phone or laptop you can use ‘Ctrl + F’ to find exactly what you’re looking for.
In the thick of it
I won’t waste my time repeating Nathan’s instructions, which you can find here, but there are certainly some points to note.
Bedding a rifle is pretty much a one-time job. Undoing a crappy bedding job is an immense amount of work, and the cured product will harden like steel to whatever surface it is on. For this reason, you need to have your barrelled action and the stock completely prepared beforehand.
The Prairie Hunter stock ready to receive a full-length bedding job. You may wish to wrap your stock in plastic to protect its finish.
The stock will need to be dammed up, so the compound doesn’t run through the action screw holes, the mag well or down the barrel channel. The action needs to be protected with masking tape and graphite to ensure it doesn’t end up permanently glued into the stock. You also need to ensure that the bead of bedding compound around the action doesn’t creep over the tang or into the ejection port – trapping the action.
Once you’ve started pouring, there’s pretty much no going back.
You also need to make sure your working space is completely ready for all stages. You need to be able to keep the compound at a reasonable temperature (no problem in this summer heat) for it to cure properly. However, in winter, this can mean heaters, hot water bottles or any number of weird contraptions. I tend to make a tent of sorts over my workplace once complete (it’s hard to shift the rifle to a different area once you have poured the compound), and use a small heater to warm it up.
Now’s the hard part – you need to be patient and wait for it to cure. In the next part of this series we’ll look at getting the rifle out of its mortice, and how to finish the stock up to a beautiful satin sheen.
