When the  discussion turns to stocking up a rifle, the impression is, to me, that the full fore stock is a necessity for accuracy.  What is it ... 4-7 pounds upward pressure for a #4 ... the little spring pad in the SMLE ....

Do they work well at all with virtually no fore stock?  Drop it in an ATI or such stock and what happens to accuracy?

To rectify this I took the fore end off and made a thick plastic washer to fit under the band so it applied an upwards pressure when the fore end was replaced and tightened up. The upwards pressure greatly improved the groupings with almost no horizontal spread but still some vertical spread. Shooting was at only 50 yards that day so I can't say whether it affected the compensation factor or not. The owner of that rifle later told me that his shots were always dead on as far as horizontal spread but still had some vertical spread, this using Winchester 180 gr commercial ammo.

I figure eliminating the band altogether would probably give better results, and owners of the Remington Model 30 rifles which had a similar barrel band also told of the band adversely affecting accuracy.

 

Australian hunters long used the Smle with both fore end and fore handguard cut about an inch in front of the stock band, and seemed to have no complaints.

I've been told that cutting fore ends in this manner was an occasional field expediant fix for rifles in the ICB theatre with badly warped or otherwise damaged fore ends when no replacements were available.

 

The various Civilian target rifle versions of the No.4 often have shortened fore ends, but the No.4 generally has a heavier barrel profile than that of the SMLE.

No.4 rifles apparently shoot best if the barrel is freefloated almost full length, with at most a small pad about seven or eight inches in front of the receiver ring.

 

I figure that a properly bedded SMLE in full trim should out shoot a SMLE with shortened fore end, but the full length fore end is more easily gotten out of order.

According to "Sniping in France" the wet conditions in the trenches quickly ruined fore end fit and made good shooting difficult.

Of course we aren't likely to face such conditions these days, but there are many good hunting spots where wet weather is the norm.

 

 

 

      AFD