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#4Mk1* Long Branch PH Sporter.

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W.R.Buchanan View Drop Down
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    Posted: January 10 2015 at 6:57pm
A few months ago I acquired a #4 Mk1* Long Branch.  It appears to be a Parker Hale conversion as the stocks are in the same configuration as many others I have seen.
 
The barrel has been cut to 22" and the nice Parker Hale Ramp Front sight is soldered on Crooked.  Also it has mismatched parts, so it is a Sporter and is never looking back.
 
This gun has one of the odd 2 groove barrels with the small grooves and large lands.  However it is going to be leaving for JES Reboring soon to be bored and rifled to .35-303.  I intend to cut the barrel back further to either 20" or 18".
 
I received my new wood for the gun the other day and it is Pepper Laminate (Gray/Black) and came from Boyd's. I have to say it is exactly what I wanted with a nice strait comb that will be well suited to either Iron sights or a small Red Dot.
 
I have some interesting ideas for this gun and you can follow along and watch it's transformation.
 
here's some before pics.
 
Randy
 
 
 
 
It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Canuck Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 11 2015 at 3:43am
I am sure we are looking forward to this project's development.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 11 2015 at 6:58am
Somehow I doubt its a factory P-H conversion. Crooked soldering of a front sight would seem odd for someone so highly thought of.

Possibly P-H parts on good ol' Bubba's pet project maybe?
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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W.R.Buchanan View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote W.R.Buchanan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 11 2015 at 10:35am
Shamu: I thought that as well as this is not even a Rookie Mistake, it is a Bubba mistake.  However the barrel has been welded on probably to fill some pits and there is some less than perfect grinding that I have to deal with.  Maybe it was re-barreled?, but since the thing can't talk we'll never know for sure.
 
Plus points are the Action is glass smooth. It is a #4 Mk1* Long Branch, and appears to have seen little use. It is much smoother than my #4 Mk1 BSA. The machining is much better and the surface finishes are a lot better as well. I guess the Canucks sharpened their milling cutters more frequently than the Brits did.
 
It has a Santa Fe magazine which may or may not be a good thing, but is easily fixable.
 
I have two options for the rear sight,, one is a Redfield Series 80 I picked up off Ebay mounted to one of my Rear Sight Adapter Plates,  and the other is a Bushnell TRS 25 that will sit atop a modified version of my Rear Sight Adapter Plate. It is actually a  real slick set up which brings this gun into the 21st Century.  Red Dots are definitely here to stay! 
 
I am leaning towards clipping the barrel all the way back to 18" (probably 18 1/4 just for the persnickety LE people out there), and as such a quick handling Brush Gun would be the objective. With the TRS 25 mounted it would be a pretty cool piece.
 
The Metal finish is going to be Grit Blast with Black Cerakote as there are too many surface anomalies that wouldn't cover up with bead blasting and bluing like Shamu's #5 did.(good looking rifle!) Surface prep on this gun will be extensive.
 
I also have to fabricate an oven long enough to cook the complete barreled action.  More on that later.
 
Detailing the piece parts shouldn't be too bad as I've already done one before, and I have already changed the Safety out to one that will work with my Sight Adapter Plate. I need to change the trigger out to one with grooves on it, as I like those better and it would probably work better with gloves.
 
Any way that's the plan as of now.  We'll see how it pans out.
 
Randy
It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 11 2015 at 2:10pm
The Japanese Santa Fe's were rumored to be good mags. I'd kind of like to get a 5-round mag but they're getting hard to find & expensive as well.
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mike16 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 16 2015 at 1:38pm
be very very carful about any welds on a rifle, especially on the receiver or the barrel. more so if any of the other work is of questionably quality.
 
may be nothing at all but please be sure.
 
I have seen too many DP rifles with holes drilled in them to make them unserviceable only to find them out on the range a few months later with the holes welded up and polished up and blued
 
. almost all were P14's but a few mk3's as well.
 
Just my opinion but do be carefull about any welds on recievers and or barrels
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tony Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 16 2015 at 2:30pm
There was a genuine parker hale sporter for sale on here posted on the 6th of march 2014. I purchased it from Frenchieboy who happens to live not far from me.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote W.R.Buchanan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 17 2015 at 11:57am
Not to worried about the welded spots.  They were done with Heliarc and are not big.  Looks like they filled a few pits on the barrel.
 
The cheaper versions of the PH Sporters seem to be everywhere. "Dazed and Cornfused" showed up with one that looked virtually identical to mine. (he's the guy with the really nice Jungle Carbine on the Bush Carbine thread)  It has the same PH Ramp Front Sight as mine including the stock Enfield blade.  I think they must have had several grades of those guns, and I think mine was the dirt poor grade.
 
Randy
It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Longbow14 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 18 2015 at 4:56pm
that laminate is smoking!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DrkVsns Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2015 at 5:56am
Nice job, I pretty much did the same thing. Picked on up for $109, step son gave me a syn. stock for Christmas... still haven't been out to the range since then... to cold.
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Made some progress on this project yesterday.  Fitted the Fore end and got it close.  Still needs a little more work the get it to suck up tight to the wrist of the action but it is close.
 
I also need a little more work on the Buttstock as it isn't as tight as I want it either. Will mount a Recoil pad on the Buttstock and the Fore End is getting cut back about 4" and a 2" piece of Ebony attached as a upgrade. The fore end will be a  net of 2" shorter than it is now which will go better with the short barrel.
 
AS soon as all this is done the barrel gets cut off and the whole barreled action gets sent to JES for Reboring.
 
Here's some pics of the project so far and you can see where the fitting issues are.  The action inletting done by Boyd's is close but there is a bunch of minor fitting to be done to get it to look right.  Also the pic with the blue tape on the stock and barrel shows where the OAL of the gun will be after cutting the barrel and shortening the Fore end.
 
You can see that with the barrel at 22" the fore end would be the correct length however this one is getting cut down further as I want the shortness for quick handling.
 
I think these Boyd's stocks are pretty good value for your money at about $110 US for the pair and if you've got an Enfield with dead wood they are available in most any kind of laminate you can think of and any kind of walnut you can think of too.  They have pretty much all the bases covered and now, and they are doing custom work as well so you can get laser checkering in a variety of patterns, and personalized stuff done as well.. Also recoil pads, fore end tips, sling swivels, etc. all can be included at extra cost for those who don't have all the skills.
 
I think most will agree the gun will look cool?
 
Randy
 
 
It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote klr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 18 2015 at 10:38am
Originally posted by W.R.Buchanan W.R.Buchanan wrote:


 I think most will agree the gun will look cool?
 


Cool,
Awesome,
Amazing,
etc....

Clap

BTW, I'd rethink that 20" barrel. The 22" would give a little less muzzle blast and a little more velocity.

I have a 358 Winchester with a 20" barrel.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote W.R.Buchanan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2015 at 7:45pm
Made a little more head way on this project today. Brought the wood in closer to final fit which took a couple of hours, and I still have a little ways to go on that issue, as well as repainting it when done. I pretty much got all the gaps in the wood closed up but I need to fair in the lines of the wrist of the stock to get rid of sharp dropoffs. There are also some gaps on the metal side that I will have to fill with black colored Devcon. This will not show after Cerakote.

The beauty of using the Cerakote is that it works just like painting a car and you can hide pretty all of the flaws in the metal under it. This gives older guns that would normally be considered junk because of rust pits and the like, a new lease on life.

Grit blasted the whole barreled action. After looking closer at the barrel timing it appears that I can unscrew the barrel about 2-3 degrees and get the Front Sight back to Vertical. This would eliminate the need to cut the barrel off which would save time and money.

I have to talk to Jes tomorrow about reboring and the effects of some of the cosmetic welding that has been done on the barrel. I'm not worried at all about the integrity of the barrel, but he may be. So I guess we'll find out fosho.

My original intent for this gun's Fore End was to cut it back 4" and install a 2" piece of Ebony. This was so that the stocks would look right against the 18" bbl. As it sits the Fore End is just a little long for my tastes with the 22" bbl. so even if I don't cut the barrel off I will still need to shorten the Fore End some.

Going to finish mounting the Recoil Pad tomorrow as well and see what the gun looks like with that installed. It is a Big Pachmayer Trap Gun pad and is all black with solid sides not the common ventilated waffle pattern. It should provide some needed contrast on the rear end of the gun.

This gun will pretty much be Black and Gray, and too much of one color on the ends will not look right.

Randy
It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Canuck Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2015 at 4:42am
Nice pics and that wood grain knocks me out!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote W.R.Buchanan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2015 at 6:51pm

Made some more head way today, mounted the Recoil Pad which took about 2 hours, and still isn't right. A little more fine tuning to get it exactly right is in order and will be accomplished at final assembly. I have done a few of these and this one didn't want to cooperate as well as others have.

I was about to trace the line around the stock on the pad when I noticed something I hadn't noticed before.

The Toe End end of the stock was angled the wrong way! I had not noticed this but instead of having the Butt End angled at 84 degrees in relation to the bore,,, it was about 110 degrees so the toe of the stock would end up in your armpit!

I set up my angle plate on the Bridgeport and Milled the end of the stock off at a more correct angle. The laminate the stock is made from resembles a material called "Pakkawood" which is essentially Micarta made with wood veneers instead of paper or canvas. It is used on a lot of knife handles. It mills very nicely as long as you climb cut onto any edge and use masking tape on the edges to prevent chips.

I got lucky in that the comb of the stock was about 6 degrees lower than the bore so all I had to do was set up the stock using that edge at vertical by clamping it to the fence on the angle plate. The end result was a butt end that was at 84 degrees in relation to the bore.

This process actually went well and I got exactly what I wanted with no blow outs on the edges of the butt.

I did manage to grind thru all the rubber in one little spot on the pad which exposed some aluminum and totally pissed me off. Now I have to figure out a way to cover that little boo boo up.

Anyway still pretty happy with the way this one is moving forward. Got a call in to Jes with some questions and will probably get the thing shipped off later this week.

Here's where we are at right now.

Randy

     

            

   

                                                                                                                                      


 
It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote W.R.Buchanan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2015 at 7:38pm
Sent the barreled action to JES Reboring today to be re bored to 35-303. 
Barrel is also getting cut to 18 1/4".
Should be back in a couple of weeks and I can continue with the project.
 
Randy
It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,, It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do.
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