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303 jungle carbine wandering zero

WLhunter,
don't waste your time messing with the forend or putting shims in....... these are things you do with one piece stocks.... a two piece stock is a totally different beast..... with a two piece stock the accuracy problems start with the butt stock, be it a smelly or a Winchester lever or marlin..... a solid fitted butt stock is key...... once you have it properly in place then you can fire it and mess with the forend... not so much for accuracy but to alter point of impact..... get the butt done then I'd fire it with no forend and make sure nothing touches the barrel..... this will give you a point of reference then put the forend on and fire again to see what changes happen.... then again with the hand guard....... this way you can see and understand what each part does and make corrections as you go.

yes the stocks were originally finished with linseed oil but not the way you might think...... all military stocks except japs basically threw the stocks into a huge tank of boiling linseed oil and left them in for varying lengths of time. then they just pulled them out and wiped them off.... they got tossed in a bin til they were needed. not much of a way of finishing a stock but it was fast and did the job for a tool that wasn't expected to last long. if you look at the areas that contact metal on most you will see black staining..... that's from gun oil and cleaning crap.... these materials are death to wood they kinda rot it away, rob it of all strength and nothing can fix it.... you can soak it out with various solvents best I've used is a vapor degreaser..... but these are mostly outlawed..... won't tell where mine is hidden lol!!!! all wood shrinks with age and it continues to shrink... I've done a lot of work with antiques restoration refinishing etc.... you can take a regular tape measure and actually measure the shrinkage on a round table.... it will be greater across the grain than with the grain..... (one way to tell a fake).... older the table the greater the difference in the measurements. fun to compare a new fake to say a hundred year old or two hundred and even a three hundred year old table..... not uncommon to see a inch or more difference. gun stock do the same thing.... ever look at an old LC Smith double... they all have cracks behind the lock plates.... if you see one that doesn't, be very suspect.... that's because they did the inletting all wrong... they did a beautiful job tight wood to metal fit but they didn't take into account shrinkage.... if they'd left a little gap on the top and bottom of the lock plates we wouldn't have the problems we do fixing or replacing cracked and broken stocks..... anyway putting more linseed oil won't correct shrinkage, it will kinda plump up the wood fibers temporarily but that will go away in a short time...... glass bed it and problem solved do it right and nothing will show...... I can assure you that two sides of that stock will show gaps from the years of shrinkage. and no one will fault you for re-bedding a stock, only if you f... it up. I've seen groups go from 12" to 1" just from redoing the butt stock. along with a little scraping of the front end of forend where it touch the barrel......... don't expect that accuracy, that's pure luck..... I don't remember what the brit's had to have but most military rifles were only required to shoot 3" at a hundred yards. please report back with what you do and results. myself and many of my gunsmith friends like to hear what works and if it's different than what we are doing... but my suggestions are the best that we've come up with in the last thirty five to forty years.
 
Whether it helps accuracy or not, BLO makes the stock much nicer, pretty! Also much easier to touch up scratches. Let's see some more pics when you get a chance.
 
On it! Thanks for all the great info. Yeah the brits went with MOM..Minute of Man! Long as you could hit a torso you were good. And it will do that!
 
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Bore is very clean no corrosion or pitting..that is from the flash hider. Got it broken down all but the butt! The butt stock is very tight no wiggle discernable at all.20170122_171206.jpg
 
very nice that everything looks good and matches...... but you can never wiggle the butt stock the way a .303 cartridge does LOL. I was kinda waiting for the reply of how tight that thru block is to get loose..... glued in with that linseed oil. that was one of the original "lock tight" materials going back over two hundred years. works excellent and even kinda stops rust. how to get it off.... first you got to get a screwdriver that really fits, wide thick blade. after years of not finding nor making what worked as good as I wanted..... I was on my snap-on dealers truck one day and saw this huge double handed monster of a screwdriver..... it's perfect!!!!!! blade fit the slot and the blade was wider than the bolt head.... enough so that it can't slip in between the bolt head and the wood.... that will bust your stock for sure...... remove the trigger and springs, then heat the inside of the socket with a propane torch, 10 to 15 seconds will get that old linseed oil loose and smoking a little. then you'll find the bolt comes loose easy. don't over do the heat but you do need to take it up til it starts smoking.
one of the problems with the smelly butt stocks is that everyone thinks that they can fix a loose stock by tightening the thru bolt down more...... wrong wrong wrong..... this will bust your stock for sure. when the stock stub shrinks and becomes loose tightening it down more just transfers the contact from the entire sides of the socket to the shoulder of the stock stub..... that visual area where the stock and socket meet..... on firing this chips a chunk out of the stock...... 9 times out of 10 it gets lost and you start looking for a new stock. anyway take your time, they are fun to work on and the results can be amazing...... suggest you take the trigger out and polish all contact points with a hard Arkansas stone, only takes a few small precise swipes. if not up to it... take them to a good gunsmith. that can reduce the trigger pull by a third. I always use brownells moly grease on triggers and sears...... I call it a trigger job in a jar..... reduces pull by half. i can't tolerate 10 pound triggers. I've been using it for about 30 years.... it's the best I've found.
 
Ok that was fun butt stock is off and once you get the bolt out you can feel a good amount of play in it. Waiting on the bedding glass. After bedding I will do the trigger job. Need to order the moly from brownells. I am going to use Murphys on the wood the after bedding redo with the BLO. The wood has the numbers and crown stamps as well so I won't do any sanding just back to original as close as I can.
 
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