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| Article by Jamie Mangrum |
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I was at a friend's Gun Store
recently and asked to use the rest room in the back
of the store. When I came out
I saw what I thought was the muzzle end of an Enfield
No. 4 rifle sticking out of a box. I pulled it
out and gasped because someone had really
bubba-ized the
stock and tried to build it into a sporting
rifle (figure 1). The rifle's finish was poor and it needed a good
cleaning. I peered down the bore and saw that it was
bright and shiny. I asked how much and was told
$60. |
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| I laid down the money and wondered what I was
going to do with my new find. A couple of months before I had
been perusing around Numrich's
e-gunparts.com
web site and came upon an advertisement for a kit to
convert an Enfield No. 4 Mk 1 to an Enfield No. 5 Mk 1
(Jungle Carbine). I have always wanted an original No.
5 but the carbine was plagued by claims
of painful recoil and a wandering zero. This had me
concerned as I actually like to have rifles that hold
their zero and I hate big bruises on my shoulder. Some
believe the wandering zero problem was likely caused by the "lightening" cuts made in the
receiver. When I say "lightening" I don't mean the
type of lightening that precedes thunder, but rather
chunks or slabs of metal that were sliced out of the
receiver to reduce weight.
The one
reservation I had with this type of project idea was
modifying a perfect and beautiful rifle - the
Enfield
No. 4 Mk 1. With my project rifle someone had already done
the damage. I figured I was going to have to replace the
hacked-up stock to bring it back into a military
configuration anyways, so I decided to move ahead with
building my own No. 5 Jungle carbine.
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Project
Component Description |
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Item No. 527230 No. 4 MKI To No. 5 MKI Jungle Carbine
Conversion Kit - $99.95 |
| Blurb from e-gunparts.com web
site: This replacement kit
will convert a No. 4 rifle into a shortened No. 5 Jungle
Carbine configuration. Kit includes a walnut finished
hardwood butt stock, fore stock and hand guard, which are
custom-converted from original No. 4's, a blued-steel
butt plate frame with sling bar, rubber pad and wood
screws, a blued-steel flash hider and an original front
sight blade. Purchase the complete kit or the individual
components. Note: Technical work is required to shorten
the No. 4 barrel and install the flash hider.
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| I ordered online and my kit arrived a week later. I
also had to order a few missing parts such as the upper
band, swivel, and screw as well as the rear stock band
to hold the hand guard in place. The
original parts were no longer on the rifle.
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I scoured different books and articles on the No. 5
Mk 1 to find what length the barrel should be shortened
to. I found a wide range of answers stating that
the overall length of the barrel was 18.5
inches, 18.75 inches, 20.25 inches, and 20.5
inches. None stated whether this measurement
included or excluded the conical flash hider. I finally came to the conclusion that the barrel
should be shortened to 18.75 inches (Source: old
American Rifleman article).
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The flash hider adds an
additional 1.5 inches to the overall
length making the barrel and flash hider 20.25 inches
long. I wish I had a better way to
cut then using a rotary tool, but you use what
you have. I found some oversized fiber reinforced
cutting discs that last longer and do not break
as easily as the discs I have used predominantly
in the past with my Dremel tool.
Once I cut off the desired amount, I
ground down the end of the barrel to the best
crown I could fashion. |
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| The barrel is tapered and
becomes larger in diameter the further back you
move. Because of this fact, the flash hider would not fit
over the end of the barrel. I ended up having to
grind off a hair of the barrel's surface on an
area not to exceed 2 inches back from the muzzle
and evenly around the barrel. I ground only
enough so the flash hider fit. Once I did this I
could snuggly tap the flash hider into place.
Before installing the flash hider I reblued the
section of the barrel that I had removed material from.
Figure 4 shows
the flash hider/front sight assembly as it is
being slid onto the barrel. I spent some
time with the carbine in a vise while aligning the front
sight with the rear sight the best I could. |
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Making
windage adjustments on the front sight blade
would then compensate for any variance. Below
the front sight there are two holes and the kit
comes with two retaining pins. Once I had the
flash hider in place I wrapped some packing tape
and taped it firmly to the barrel so it would
stay put while I drilled the two holes for the
retaining pins.
You only need to drill a very small amount of
material from the top of the barrel |
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This allows the pins to be
driven through and hold the flash hider
securely onto the barrels end. I have
several large drill bit sets and I matched bits
against the pins and holes and came to the
conclusion to use the .0860 inch size bit. A
drill press is not mandatory but it sure makes
the job go easier. I used the flash hider
as my drilling pattern and left it in place while I drilled.
Once I finished drilling I then drifted the two
pins into place and found they were very snug
and secure. |
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Once the flash hider was
installed, I temporarily installed the fore
stock to compare the look and dimensions with
photos I had of an original No. 5 I was pleased
with my "barrel length" decision as the carbine
looked pretty much identical when compared to
pics of the original carbine.
My front sight was still lined up with my
rear sights. The front sight blade does not come
attached and I could not find any discernable
way of attaching it. |
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Following the way the No. 4's
front sight is attached I drilled a small hole (using
a #31 drill bit) at an angle from the front
of where the sight sits and then tapped in
threads (6-48 tap)
and installed a small set screw (short
6-48 hex-type set screw or a 6-48 scope base
plug screw) that holds the front
sight blade in place and when loosened allows
for windage adjustments.
Now came the final assembly.
I removed the butt plate off of the kit's
butt stock. |
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Next I inserted the butt stock
into the rifle's butt socket. I found that I needed to fit
the end of the butt stock so it would fit into
the butt socket. It was obvious that it had
never been installed in any rifle as I had to
take a knife and remove a considerable amount of
wood from one side. Once I did this it fit perfectly
and tight. |
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Then I reinserted the stock
bolt into the rear of the butt stock. |
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I then inserted a large flat
blade screw driver into the butt stock trap.
Using a pair of pliers, I turned the large flat
blade screw driver clockwise until the stock
bolt was tight. |
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I then slid the fore-end stock
till it snuggly rested up against the butt
socket. |
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I installed the new hand guard. |
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Then I spread slightly the
lower band and replaced it onto the stock and hand
guard. |
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I inserted the sling swivel and
screw. |
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I tightened the sling swivel
screw. |
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I reinstalled the butt plate
and screws and hand tightened the screws. |
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I installed the trigger guard. |
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I installed the front screw and
tightened. |
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I then installed the rear guard screw
and tightened. |
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Then to finish the installation
I installed the bolt and magazine. |
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Figure 21 shows the almost completed project. The only other task I needed to
complete was to oil the
stock. It was dreadfully dry and had no finish what so
ever. I removed the stock furniture and over a period of
days I hand rubbed in several coats of boiled linseed
oil. |
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Next came the range. I
was a little nervous and anxious because the
last thing I wanted was a good looking carbine
that would not shoot well. As I stated before,
the No. 5 had a reputation for being a little
difficult to handle. Just to be safe I slipped
on an slip-on butt pad to save my shoulder. I
found the carbine to not be difficult at all when
fired and actually I found it to be
very controllable. I soon took off the slip-on
pad and just used the integral pad instead. |
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I fired commercial 174 grain
cartridges of several manufactures. The elevation
was low at first as shown in figure 23 but was
easily corrected by adjusting the rear sight
ladder. You've really got to love the Enfield
adjustable rear sights! Next I needed to adjust
the windage a it was shooting about 7 to 8 inches to
the right as shown in figure 23. I forgot
to bring any tools with me to the range that
would fit the small set screw I had installed. |
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As a result I will have to adjust the windage the next
visit to the range. Even so, my groups were great and I had a blast
shooting my little military re-creation. I
recently ordered a camper for my truck and they are
built to order so I have had a long time to mentally
assembly my camping gear for my many deep woods
adventures to come. Large ice chest - check!
Portable gas stove - check!
One of the things I really wanted was a handy camp
carbine in an readily available and powerful caliber - check!. |
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Note: Please do not take a perfectly good and
collectible Enfield No. 4 rifle to emulate this project.
Oddly enough this is how the original rifle was
manufactured.
There are plenty of lonely sporterized specimens just
waiting for you in gun stores for a fraction of what a
whole rifle would cost. Heck, since starting this
project I have already purchased another No. 4 for less
than what I paid for this rifle and it is in worse shape
(but has a good bore). It is the poster child of a
bubba-ized rifle. It is so ugly that I have dubbed it
Franken-Enfield. Someone shortened the fore stock so it
only extends about an inch in front of the trigger guard
and the entire length of the barrel is completely
exposed. I think they took the concept of "floating a
barrel" to extremes! They also installed the No.
5 flash hider. I felt it was my duty to take it
and return it to some semblance of respectability -
even if it is not in original configuration but just an
emulation of one. Yes, I am going to build another
No. 5. |
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Adobe PDF
Downloadable Version of Article |
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| Article by Jamie Mangrum |
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