Mods and Rockers

some kind of sad nonsense

When you hold your Lee Enfield up admiringly and wonder why the stock rattles about like a mob of ill disciplined youth, you focus sensibly on the King Screw. This is the pivotal point of the stock's bedding, holding the forestock to the action.

thanks, milsurp, for the diagram

But sometimes the Lee's wood shrinks and the King Screw no longer holds the forestock snugly in place. I had this problem. So what do you do to fix it?

You can soak the stock in Raw Linseed Oil and hope it expands.

You can re-bed the rifle.

I chose the latter option and there's several ways to go about it (see the helpful forums at milsurp). As a first step, you can file down the bushing that comes with King Screw. With a bit of luck that should bring the stock tight, but I didn't want to do that because I'll be restocking the rifle and don't want the hassle of ordering/duplicating a bushing to fit an unshrunken stock.

collar shim

So I shimmed the top of the trigger lugs by 1/32", taking the measurement as a touch over one turn of the King Screw, which was the gap between metal and wood. A piece of plastic clerical collar cut to size fit the bill and the stock tightened up to the receiver nicely. The metal now rests on the stock's bearing areas and the dangerous movement is gone.

bed time

A cheap fix, I know, but bear in mind that it's temporary. When the new stock is finished I'll center bed it to the action as per the excellent, clear and useful instructions in Riflechair's Lounge.

In the meanwhile I'll take the beast out for a shoot and see how it performs.

Shoot straight,

LSP

King Screw

Greatness

As a first step towards realizing my goal of turning an old WWII bring-back sporterized Lee Enfield into a new school of old school (thanks SBW) sporting rifle, I did the sensible thing; I took it apart. Not a difficult job.

First you unscrew the front sight protector. Then you look down the forestock and see a largish screw that attaches the trigger guard to the action. This is the King Screw, or "screw, front, trigger guard." You unscrew that and notice that a washer and a small metal cylinder, the bushing or "collar", come out with it. Don't throw these two seemingly insignificant items away in a fit of carelessness. Keep them. That done, you notice that there's a small screw attaching the rear of the trigger guard to the receiver socket. Unscrew that and gently ease the forestock off the action, starting from the receiver socket first. This last bit is important. Do not try and brute force the forestock off from the muzzle end; it will damage the bearing areas around the Draws and cause all kinds of trouble. After that you can remove the buttstock by unscrewing it from its socket.

Just take it all apart

Well done. You've taken the stock-set off your Lee.

When you put it back together again, the forestock should fit snugly into the action, held tightly in place by the King Screw, which is the pivotal point, or fulcrum, in the stock's bedding. If, through some inherent wickedness on the part of the rifle, the Screw, the stock, or the Lee enthusiast, the King Screw isn't clamping the forestock tightly to the receiver, you've got trouble. Why?

King Screw

Because the forestock will rock and rattle and when you shoot and the recoil force can act to drive the stock backwards, causing it to split and splinter into your face.

My stock rattled. The King Screw wasn't right.

So how do you fix it?

Stay tuned.

LSP