Porter Baldridge Page 5
On NO.1 Enfields, beware of clipped wood on the top hand guards by
the rear sight. The wood should extend along the side of the sight.
This wood is usually clipped on rework, and I have a suspicion the
shortcuts for WWI may have deleted these fingers of wood. Also, on
NO.1 forearms, you will crack yours if you do not remove it before
removing the butt stock. On most NO.1s the stock bolt is square on
the threaded end, and keys into a piece of metal inletted into the back
of the forearm. If you force this bolt before you remove the forearm,
you will crack the forearm. This was done to prevent the unlikely
occurrence of the butt stock bolt backing out. The NO.1 MKIII* fore-
ends, the ones with the tie piece on the back end like NO.4s, are not
keyed, and you will not crack these if you remove the butt stock first.
Beware of cheap wood from Springfield Sporters, and others. This is
drill purpose wood off old drill rifles and is for the most part junk, as
well as being deeply marked DP. I ordered two sets, a NO.1 set, and
a NO.4 set. The NO.4 wood was trash, but the NO.1 wood set had
nice unclipped handguards, a great butt stock, and a full set of
hardward. This set was worth the money in spite of the fact that the
fore-end was trash, as unclipped handguards are hard to find, and
$10 to $15 each, and the butt plate, butt swivel, front swivel and band,
and nosecap with hardware list out at over $20, so the $30 price is in
a way a bargain. The NO.4 with much less hardware, and more
common handguards costing around $5 each make this at $40 no
bargain. In both cases, the DP markings can be sanded or filed out
if care is used. The main thing on this wood is do not expect to get
a useable forearm when you buy it.
There are four different rear sights for the NO.4. Stamped metal
(MKII), stamped metal (MKIII), L type flip sight, and the milled
adjustable sight. Beware on the milled sights that a Jungle Carbine
sight has not been put on a NO.4, or vice versa, as the Jungle Carbine
sight is only calibrated to 800 yards versus 1300 yards as on the NO.4
sight. The only rifles correct with the Flip Sight are the NO.4 MKI*
units made by Long Branch and Stevens.
The NO.4 MKI* differs from the MKI in the sights, may be stamped or
flip, and the bolt head release which is a notch instead of a spring and
plunger. There are some other minor differences in pins, and
stamped versus milled parts. Stevens and Long Branch made the
only MKI* rifles. On these models, and on NO.4s in general, you will
find stamped or milled trigger guards, bands, nose caps, and front
sight protectors. There does not seem to be too much rhyme or reason
as to which gets what, or if the rifle has been through rework it could
© Porter Baldridge 1996 All rights reserved.