I Keep Doing The Grind, With MORE Wood Work and The Smoke Pole Updated

Greetings and Salutations!
It’s only Monday?
Seems like after this weekend it’d be at least Wednesday.

Or at least have the courtesy to pretend it’s a later day of the week. I passed out it seems in the middle of polishing/cleaning up the stock parts of the Canuck Rifle. Woke up at 0409 when my neck got a crick in in it, and I managed to drag my carcass off to bed.

Only to wake up 3 hours later for the Wash/Rinse/Repeat

Except I got a LOT of good work done on the rifle.

Thus being the case.
BEFORE sanding/washing:

Then, I applied a heavy scrub with Murphy’s Cleaner, and popped the whole thing into the dishwasher. I set it for Pots and Pans, High Heat, with Heated Dry. The various parts came out looking like this:

After which I did my 600/800/1000/2000/2500 grit sanding of every single part. A few areas I had to go as low as 320 grit, in the case of ‘splintered’ areas, but thankfully those were minimal. Once everything was ‘scraped down’ I hit it with two coats of Walnut Stain, just like I did with Rifle #1:

That was left overnight, being allowed to be completely dry today. Now, the one ‘bothersome’ piece, the top ridged handguard? I managed to fill it, and stain the filler (a bit too dark but hey, no one is perfect) and get it ready for today’s cleanup:

Once I started cleaning everything up, I hit the ridged guard first, as I wanted to see how it came out with that big-assed crack in it:

Oh that’s just fine.

In fact, after polishing ALL of the pieces-parts of the stock, I’d have to say I did a pretty damned good job overall if’n I do say so myself:

Here’s the butt:

Then the mid-area of the rifle

And lastly the front:

As you can see the original finish is still on the majority of the metal. The wood is also far lighter, almost a blonde-ish color as opposed to Brit Rifle #1. It is apparent that the wood on Rifle #2 is in better shape despite the edibility of the stocks to the local Ethernopian Bug Population.

So now, again, I wait.

In this case for a safety, the front sight guard screw, and a main firing pin spring which is pretty much all this thing needs. Once those come in, I’ll finish up the cleaning up/rust removal, and decide WTF to do next. Restore to Factory or not.

And while I was waiting, a bunch of pieces-parts and fiddly bits came in for the Smoke Pole, to include the ammunition. The finish on the parts that came in is exceptional, and overall this’s a really pretty rifle. It’s missing the rear sight, as $250.00 for it is WAAAAY out of my current league, unless I sell the Enfield for a good premium to break even.

I’m unsure if it’ll fire safely, but I can NOT not try.

What do you think?

I had to step waaaaay back to get the whole thing in.

It’s over 52 inches overall, with a 32 inch barrel.
The rear stock needed a lot of cleanup. It had hard impact white paint stains… my guess is ReadiFreddi’s FIL banged it around in the back of the closet it was stored in over the years. I cleaned it up, and thus:

…and like I said, the Lock and trigger assemblies?

Lord… I love weapons
And pretty ones like this?
OMG……. gorgeous.

So this weekend, fingers crossed, I’ll be testing ALL three.
2x Lee Enfields
1x Springfield Trapdoor.

And the ammo for this Smoke-Pole Gorilla Gun?

From Left to Right:

.45-70 500gn Cast Boolit
.303 British 180gn Jacketed Hollowpoint
7.62.x51mm 174gn Full Metal Jacket
5.56x45mm 62gn M855 Full Metal Jacket

If I keep it, I’ll need to look at investing in the reloading dies and spare brass for it. Reloading keeps it to less than $1.25 a round whereas the over the counter?

$5.38 a round.
OUCH!
That leaves a mark.

Lastly: I didn’t hear many voats one way or another for the rifle I’m going to dispose of? Raffle? Direct Sale (pending test fire of course) Silent Auction? Let me know!

More Later
Big Country


15 thoughts on “I Keep Doing The Grind, With MORE Wood Work and The Smoke Pole Updated”

  1. Wow, you are the gun guru.
    Savage (USA) and Long Branch (Canada) made No. 4’s came with GROOVED handguards.
    They also did not stain their stocks, that’s why you see very light colored walnut, birch and beech stocks. The wood turned dark from cosmoline and dirt.
    Buying those 2 Enfield books I suggested would have been an educational tool.

  3. go for a raffle. you might get more money for your time that way and cash to get another “weapon to restore” out of it. so, figure out you cost, rifle. parts and “stuff ” used to get it looking so good.
    time and electric too in the mix. a lot of people might not go for a 1000 dollar rifle, but will buy a 10 or 20 dollar chance on one. hell, they do gun raffles here all the time. 10 or 20 bucks a pop.
    the local gun store closed up a while back and I haven’t seen any new raffles of late as they where run out of his shop. don’t forget shipping costs as well in your math.
    used to know a guy who restored cars and he did the same thing, he put them up for sale auction after he was done. then he get another one to do. he was retired tool and die maker who did great work.
    or did up to about 3 years ago. word was he had a stroke and had to slow down.

  5. It is like R. Lee Ermey this weapons love.
    Pappy used to win prizes with the old timey rifle with a flintlock.
    A true one shot is all you’ll need gun.
    Who speaks ill of Lite Beer from Miller, MGD is a fave and they beat Coors by at least ten years in the light beer race.

  6. hey mate
    im in new zealand and grew op with thees things
    i have very fond memories
    if you overtighten the stock screw it will cause problems with acuracy
    that said
    its a battle rifle and very good at it
    4” group at 100 yards is good
    the p14 is a better platform for 303

  7. Man I love me some 45-70, hope that Trapdoor works! I have a few Henry lever guns in 45-70, my favorites.

  9. BCE I’m enjoying hearing about your restorations, but I don’t have the gunsmithing knowledge of so many on this board.
    One suggestion is that in any hobby, sell what you don’t want to keep and then use the money to pay for new guns and the pieces and parts you need. Maybe sell them through your friend the gun dealer and give her a cut for her trouble.

    Also I don’t know if you remember but back in the 1970s they had portable dish washers that were on wheels and would hook onto a sink. If you have a sink in your garage maybe you could pick up an old used one cheap and use that for your gun work and then Wifey won’t be bitching at you for using her dishwasher.

  12. If the trapdoor is black powder it’s likely to come from together with smokeless powder. Haven’t been keeping up on the projects so I might be just making more noise

  13. I think the refurbished rifles look fantastic. It’s definitely one of the best hobbies I’ve seen.

  14. $250 for a rear sight for the Springfield? Seems excessive. Does no one make a repro sight for less? Whichever way you go to unload the Mk4, make sure that buyer pays shipping and transfer fees. Otherwise it will eat a big chunk of what you make. I wouldn’t worry too much about ATF right now. They’re too busy trying not to get fired right now. Glorious isn’t it?

  15. I would go with a raffle, spread the “wealth” around so that everyone has a chance to participate and contribute, without putting a large ding in the wallet of any one person. And no one gets butt hurt if they don’t win the raffle.

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