Sporterizing the Lee Enfield - Porch Project Pt. I

I had a choice. Buy a plastic stocked sporting rifle for around $400-500 or buy a sporterized Lee Enfield for $150, fix it up and have some decent wood and steel with Empire History. Your pal and mine, the Suburban Bushwacker, told me that I was "required by law" to go Empire and so I did. Several weeks later I had two sporters, a No. 4 and a Mk. III, both in the price range and crying out for further enhancement. For me, that means using the Lee Speed as a template; at least for the III, which is a Speed action.

Lee Speed

What next? I started work on the III. The objective being to practice finishing/refinishing the furniture (gun stock) before buying a new stock -- and preparing the metal prior to bluing. Why? Because I can't afford hundreds of dollars to send the thing off to Turnbulls for the blue and a thousand dollars for the custom stock. No. I have to save those $$ for a 4x4 pickup. So, I figured I'd do it myself and here it goes, first things first, by way of the porch.

Here's the III.

Mk. III

It's a BSA from 1917, factory refurbed in '31 and '53. Bore's bright, serials match and it's covered with thick black baked on paint. The stock's a mix of Walnut (butt) and something else at the forend.

what a filthy gopping mess

Cheaper than a handy set of double soled Veldtshoen (by far) and obviously ready for porch re-sporterization.

Say your prayers,

LSP

Don't Mess With Texas

Some people have this idea that Texas is sort of backward, because it's not like France, or Brussels, or Dalston, or something. That's ridiculous, we're an advanced country.

benchmarking to best practice

We have software.

workflow

We have hardware.

Sometimes the two go together for awesome effect. Apologies to The Fact Compiler.

God bless,

LSP

.22 Shoot Out

Ruger, Higgins, Browning

After a brisk hell for leather and devil take the hindmost ride across the Waco countryside I got back to the manse to find my philisophic friend and all 'round sportsman, GWB, on the proverbial doorstep. With guns. .22s, in fact. After pounding the mahogany over curry we decided to take the guns out for a shoot the next day. Which .22 was best?

There were three contenders. A Browning take-down, a Ruger 10/22 carbine, and a J.C. Higgins tube fed bolt action, all with iron sights. The winning rifle would be the most accurate, most reliable, give the best bang for the buck and be the most fun to shoot. Look, feel and finish were also important. Ranges to be at 100, 50 and 25 yards, against a variety of targets -- a steel plate turkey, coke cans, a piece of aluminium scrap metal, a silhouette and steel plate spinners of various sizes (serving plate down to silver dollar). Shooting positions standing, kneeling and prone, no bench resting.

fix that gun

A great plan but when we got out in the field the wind was so fierce that it was hard to stand up, not dissimilar to shooting into a wind tunnel; accuracy was going to suffer. Still, you live in Texas, you want to shoot, so deal with the wind.

All the rifles did well. The Ruger came out tops for accuracy at 100 yards, which surprised me. The Higgins did best at 50 yards, making swift work of assorted soda cans  and the Browning was... OK. Reliability went to the Browning, which performed flawlessly. The Ruger was good for the most part, but suffered the occasional stove pipe, and the Higgins went down at one point with a malfunctioning bolt (fixed with a quick bout of field surgery). Word to the wise -- don't waste your money on a 30 round Butler Creek magazine with plastic lips for the 10/22. They're rubbish. At least the one we tested simply didn't work.

Bang for the buck? That has to go to the Ruger, which is hard to beat at $197 from Academy Sports. The Higgins came in second, with plenty of bang for around 100 pawn shop bucks, but it's a 50/60 year old rifle. The Browning has to rank third. This .22 is beautiful and you pay for it, at around $700+++ per gun and, go figure, it works well. Well it should at that price but is it any more accurate than the Ruger or the Higgins? I don't think so, maybe less. Still, it's a beauty.

Plinker

Fun to shoot? I'd have to go for the Ruger because it's neat to blast off 30 semi auto rounds in no time at all. More exciting than the deliberation of the Higgins bolt and the stymied 10 round Browning magazine. As for look feel and finish, that depends on the shooter, but for me, the Higgins felt and shouldered best, followed by the Ruger. I didn't like the Ruger's cheap and nasty plastic butt plate and forearm band, and its inletting could've been better. But at $197? A deal. For overall appearance and total elegance, the Browning wins hands down. So it should, at its price.

The best gun, overall? The 10/22. It's America's favorite .22 for a reason. That said, don't scoff at second hand deals, like the Higgins. An accurate and well enough made rifle, but be prepared for the odd eccentricity. After all, it's an old gun. The Browning is great. If you have the $$$ get one. I shot my first rounds with one when I was 7 and enjoyed it then. I do now, even if the thing ejects hot brass into the sleeve of your coat.  

So. If you're a man of means, get a Browning. If you're on a miserable stipend get a 10/22, probably better value new and right out of the box than many slightly cheaper second hand bargains. Save up and get one.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Sandman - Fixing up a Lee

If you see a sportered Lee Enfield No. 1 Mk. III, with a decent bore, matching serials and good looking BSA stamp (1917), all for the price of a cheap pair of shoes... well, you buy it, of course. Then you stare at it for awhile and like a child fascinated by the workings of a watch, take it apart.

tools of the trade

The metal was covered with a thick coat of baked on black paint from a 1951 refurb and the wood was covered in some kind of badly applied finish; I'd guess gloopily applied linseed oil. After removing the paint  with a mixture of K3 Stripper, Aircraft Remover, a plastic scraper and fine grade steel wool, I turned my attention to the wood.

stripper

First you strip off the old finish. I used K3 and it's easy to use, in a noxious kind of way. Brush on the stripper and let it work its chemical magic for around 10 minutes. Then scrape off the finish with a flexible plastic scraper. Use gloves, work with the grain, don't gouge the wood. Repeat, then repeat again, this time using steel wool. After several goes the old finish is off. Clean the wood with mineral spirits and enjoy the look of the thing; you'll have a glimpse of how it'll appear when it's refinished. Then...

You sand, and sand, and sand, and sand.

in between sanding -- use a tack cloth

I started with 180 grit and worked up through 600. Use a sanding block or your work will be uneven (some suggest a rectangular rubber eraser -- I used an old dish sponge I'd cut down to size). Be careful around stampings and sharp lines. Clean the wood between sandings with a tack cloth.

Some time later the wood will done. Clean it off with mineral spirits and congratulate yourself on the sheer patience of the thing; the stock is now ready for finishing.

Don't attempt this if you are an impatient, nervous, erratic person who doesn't like sanding. 

Also, don't lose sight of your Lenten rule, whatever that may be.

LSP

Rowan Resigns!

Rowan

It is over. 

Rowan Williams, successor to the Throne of Augustine, has announced his resignation. Courageous, incisive, strong and, above all, clear. These are just some of the words that sum up this fearless defender of the faith.

Druid

Druid, Islamic jurist, Arian, Rowan will vacate the See of Canterbury in November for his beloved Cambridge, where he will become Master of Magdalene College.

Electric Kool-Aid

We will miss you, Rowan. You helped to make the Church of England the greatness that we experience today.

Rowan with "Scally"

Bets are on that John "Scallywag" Sentamu will succeed Rowan Williams as Achbishop of Canterbury.

That will be awesome.

Kyrie Eleison.

LSP

Shot Dead

I was driving to the local Tom Thumb after early morning Mass in Dallas when I noticed flashing lights in the rear-view. The cops were out in force.

Seems that a gunman was waiting outside the local Western Union for a cash delivery. When the armored car pulled up everything got "stand and deliver" but the driver wasn't having any of that, so he got shot in the arm, returned fire and fatally wounded the robber, who died later in hospital. 

I use that Western Union from time to time. Maybe I'll reconsider.

Stations of the Cross tonight. 

Die to wickedness and sin.

LSP

Throwing the Cat

In the tumultuous days of the early nineteenth century, when Reform and Riot were in the air of England and the French Revolution loomed large across the Channel, Archbishop Howley sat on the throne of Augustine in Canterbury.

Howley was an old-fashioned High-Churchman and an opponent of Reform, which prompted an angry mob to attack his carriage on the rough streets of Canterbury. Howley's Chaplain exclaimed:

"Your Grace, they have thrown a dead cat at me!" To which the prelate replied, "You may thank God, sir, it was not a live one."

There's a moral in that, if you care to draw it, for today's Church.

LSP

Starchild Space Alien?

Ground-breaking scientific research has revealed that a mysterious skull, discovered in a Mexican tunnel, may not be human.

After extensive DNA testing, the outsize cranium, popularly known as "Starchild", was shown to have different mtDNA than normal humans, with a much larger number of nucleotides than a usual person.

This has lead some experts to speculate that the Starchild is a space alien, “foreign to normal human genetics within the framework of that subject as it is currently understood... definitely not from planet Earth."

ACoC Bishop

Others disagree. "The Starchild isn't a space alien, it's a hybrid," said one source, "It's probably just the swollen skull of an ACoC bishop. Part human, part something else."

Human, hybrid or alien, Starchild remains a mystery. ACoC continues its journey into the far reaches of the stellar void.

LSP

Children of the Sun

Sunday morning sunrise. Roosters.

If anyone had suggested that a couple of years ago I would've laughed. "Don't be ridiculous," I would've said. But you know, God can build up as well as cut you down.

Just sayin'.

Shoot straight.

LSP

Drive a Stake Through its Black Heart

Old news I know, but MERS is dead, thanks to Judge Grossman, which is a good result if you're looking down the barrel of foreclosure in Florida and elsewhere.

For some reason bankers are resigning by the bucketful. 116 of them as of today, apparently.

Now why would that be?

Stay on the horse,

LSP

Dog Gun Cash

Jeb

I enjoyed Sunday's shoot so much that I had to do it all over again on Monday. Slight change of firearms -- .45 ACP got into the mix and we spent a little time dialing in GWB's scope to x ring standard. I like that Featherweight. Jeb had fun too.

Get rid of the recoil pad - GWB.

But I couldn't help but notice that the Market has surged, perhaps due to the trillions of dollars liquidity pumped into the beast lately.

no-one gets out of here alive

ZeroHedge guest Tim Price had this to say:

"The modern, debt-based economy requires constant economic expansion if only to service all that debt. So what happens when the modern economy goes ex-growth and stops expanding? Iceland already found out. Greece is in the process of discovering. But we will all get a chance to participate in this lesson. Runaway fiscal and monetary stimulus throughout the western economies is in the process of destroying the concept of creditworthiness at the centre of the modern monetary system."

Cash your paychecks, chaps.

LSP

Just Get Out And Shoot Something

Seeing as 2012 is the Year of the Gun, I thought I'd better go out to a parishioner's range and shoot after Mass on Sunday. I like it there -- just you, the guns and, in this case, my linguistic philosopher friend GWB and his dog Jeb. he's training Jeb for a bird dog.

Jeb

I was pleased with the new Lee and shot moderately well with it, far easier to handle than my friend's Winchester Featherweight. Beautiful gun with a crisp and clear Burris scope but full of sound and fury, which took a little getting used to.

The AR performed like a right little heater; neat to see the muzzle flash in the twilight, though my "walk and shoot" performance against metal plates and a silhouette was fairly dismal. Practice, LSP! Practice.

Then it was back to HQ for curry.

Result.

Shoot straight,

LSP