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Missing charging bridge

Printed From: Enfield-Rifles.com
Category: Enfields
Forum Name: Enfield Gunsmithing
Forum Description: Submit any how-to's or other gunsmithing suggestions here.
URL: http://www.enfield-rifles.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8925
Printed Date: March 28 2024 at 9:42am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: Missing charging bridge
Posted By: Patrick R
Subject: Missing charging bridge
Date Posted: April 20 2018 at 3:55pm
Hi: this my first post to this forum I’m a lee enfield addict. I just purchased an mk3 no1 in beautiful shape, but when I got it home I noticed that the charging bridge was missing.
Is a charging bridge necessary to mount a scope? Is it easy to replace amounting scope? Any ideas should be appreciated!

Thank you Patrick R



Replies:
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 5:23am
Good luck finding one!
Censored
They're riveted to the receiver & as rare as rocking horse poo, as are the rivets..


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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: Honkytonk
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 5:49am
Patrick, welcome the site! There are way more knowledgeable people here than me, but I suspect one of the current "smithless" scope mounts would suit your needs.


Posted By: Macd
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 6:18am
Welcome to the site.  There are a number of options to mount a scope both smithless and those requiring drilling and tapping.


Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 6:44am
Is the charger bridge the only thing missing? I believe you will look a long time to find a new charging bridge..from what I understand, they are scarce (a "bridge" too far??)
sorry - couldn't resist
Anyway - I'm assuming then that your rifle has been sporterized.
Do you have any pics?

(Oh - btw, welcome)

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Loose wimmen tightened here


Posted By: Bear43
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 7:09am
The charger bridge isn't absolutely necessary so you can get by without it. Besides, they are not exactly easy to put on. As for being hard to find...... I have 2 in my parts bins that I have salvaged from trashed Mk III's. I gather some of the strangest parts


Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 8:56am
Geeze Bear..do you gather moss, as well?

I always thought that replacing a missing bridge was a "wish I could" type of thing. & you have 3??!!

Guess that proves what I thought, was wrong.

(Once before, I thought I was wrong...but I was mistaken)

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Loose wimmen tightened here


Posted By: Pukka Bundook
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 1:24pm
I put one on an Ishapore that had had it chopped off. Needed 3 hands to hold and rivet but I got it.
Bridge came of a fire killed rifle. Made rivets of No 9 soft fencing wire.
Fiddly but doable!


Posted By: SW28fan
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 6:48pm
There are scope mounts for Enfields that go on the side of the receiver.
If the rifle is sporter it really does not matter


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Have a Nice Day
If already having a nice day please disregard


Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 9:01pm
bear - im with hoadie here - you got parts most of us seldom see on the loose , 

as to the OP - welcome , we are always interested in what folks are doing with and to their enfields here , you will find this site helpful i think , im not the one tho....

if this is a sported hunting rifle you need to say so - you will get better answers , and i suspect this is if the bridge is missing , there are also safety concerns with such modifications to be aware of , 

it is a no1 mk III , for future reference and better results as the proper nomenclature is everything in these rifles , i suspect its actually a no1 mkIII* , you get different results depending on what you call it  as there are so many and its all about the nuances here 


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: April 21 2018 at 9:10pm
I happen to have a Parker Hale scope mount,rings and base for a No1 MkIII.


Posted By: Patrick R
Date Posted: April 22 2018 at 12:12am
Would you care to part with a charging bridge. IF not who sells the scoreless mounts.
The mk3 has a round receiver how would I get a scope mount positioned properly?


Posted By: Patrick R
Date Posted: April 22 2018 at 12:16am
Where would I find an optional scope mount. Most seem to rest level on the receiver and the charging bridge. The mk3 receiver Is round I think it would be difficult to install a side
Mount correctly.

Thank you


Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: April 22 2018 at 5:27am
These guys come highly recommended by many.
http://addleyprecision.com/" rel="nofollow - http://addleyprecision.com/



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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: April 22 2018 at 5:54am
Originally posted by Patrick R Patrick R wrote:

Would you care to part with a charging bridge. IF not who sells the scoreless mounts.
The mk3 has a round receiver how would I get a scope mount positioned properly?

Patrick R.
If you could post some pictures of the rifle,that would be very helpful to us that could offer you more insight as to what your dealing with. As far as correctly positioning a scope mount such as the one I posted here. Any competent gunsmith can put this on your rifle. The mount is designed with the round contour of the No1 in mind.


Posted By: Honkytonk
Date Posted: April 22 2018 at 6:21am
Shamu. I can tell you from recent experience Addley products are top notch. Patrick. I checked their site and they do have a mount for your tifle. It looks like it's side mounted with three screws, utilizing the ejector screw as one, requiring drill and tapping of two holes. As Goosic says, any competent gunsmith or tool and die guy could do. If it is an original butt stock, I strongly recommend a cheek piece, wether a permanent wood mount or removable, to adjust for "line of site". Might save a bit of blood from getting ringed!!!


Posted By: Patrick R
Date Posted: April 22 2018 at 2:18pm
Thank You: Addley precision is alive and well. I may have to break my piggy bank.

Patrick R


Posted By: Patrick R
Date Posted: April 22 2018 at 2:26pm
The pictured Parker Hale mount would do the job. Would you part with it?

Thank you: Patrick R


Posted By: Bear43
Date Posted: April 23 2018 at 2:20am
Patrick, I would be willing to part with a charger bridge but it will be a bit before I can. I am in the middle of moving into the house I just bought so everything is packed away right now.


Posted By: englishman_ca
Date Posted: April 23 2018 at 1:34pm
Springfield Sporters used to sell brand new old stock 'in the white' charger bridges. i dont see tham listed on line anymore. I bought two over the years and riveted them back onto receivers. The bridges were made by Ishapore and are a little different in form to those of British origin.

Not hard to do and as mentioned you need three or four hands to hold everything in place.  Eventually, I got smart and I used temporary screws to hold things together while I worked on one rivet. 

The rivet blank is slightly tapered, so I annealed a steel nail then spun it in an electric drill so that I could form the taper with a hand file down to required size.

Often the bridges were removed to allow one to get a lower sight line when using a rear peep sight originally designed for a long lee. Or sometimes to create the clearance to attach a side mount scope bracket. 
Are there any holes drilled and tapped in your left receiver wall?


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Look to your front, mark your target when it comes!


Posted By: Patrick R
Date Posted: April 23 2018 at 2:22pm
Would you part with the Parker hale scope base? It would solve my missing bridge problem.

Thank you: Patrick R


Posted By: Patrick R
Date Posted: April 23 2018 at 2:25pm
THANK YOU! TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED NO RUSH!

Thanx: Patrick R


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: April 23 2018 at 5:01pm
Hey, so sorry for not getting back to you in a reasonable time frame. I had to go to the hospital this afternoon to visit the surgeon that had to remove the tip of my finger a few weeks ago to have the remaining stitches removed. I didn't see that you've asked a question twice so far concerning my scope mount until a few minutes ago.
I'm going to assume that you using all caps on that reply is an indicator that you are a little upset do to the fact that I did not respond in accordance to your time frame.


Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: April 23 2018 at 9:09pm
goosic - think he was responding to bear with glee but i could be wrong here , we do love our lively discussions here but hopefully no one gets too upset , im more the passive reader on this one and will admit i often dont follow as well on this type of thread , hope everyone gets what they needs learns something new and has a good time doing it , 

hope that finger is healing , why on earth did they have to remove it ? i get the stitches not the tip ? 


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: April 23 2018 at 10:56pm
The x-rays showed the bone was crushed. The surgeon said he could fix it but I would have pins and all kinds of other goodies sticking out of me for a few months. I asked if he could just cut the smashed bone out and sew up the hole. He says,"Yeah, Yes,I can do that!" Woke up two hours later with a pinky finger shorter then the other one...


Posted By: Bear43
Date Posted: April 24 2018 at 3:35am
I am like A_Square, I think the all caps response was just Patrick being excited that I have a charger bridge packed away. I had told him it would take a while for me to get to it because of the move and all.

Good luck with the finger. Sounds like you made a much better shoice than the pins sticking out. How did you mangle it in the first place?


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: April 24 2018 at 4:51am
I think you're right and I wasn't going to assume anything. You just never know when someone uses all caps these days.No issue from me. I was changing a barrel out that someone had used a pipe wrench on. I was putting the new barrel on and and missed hitting the action wrench, hitting the exact center of the tip of my pinky finger blowing the nail clean off. Just a FYI to anyone. The white/silver looking strands you think might be metal stuck in you are actually your tendons.


Posted By: Pukka Bundook
Date Posted: April 24 2018 at 6:13am
OOOOH! that's would Hurt Goosic!
 
Finger shortening reminds me of Ranulph Fienns after he froze his fingers badly.
Had bone sticking out the ends, and surgeon didn't want to cut of the dead ends until they had dried properly. R said they caught on everything and caused a lot of Pain,...so he took an electric saw and chopped the ends off!
Surgeon went mad with him,....then told him he'd done a good job!
 
When I broke mine it healed with an overlap so was much shorter than the other pinkie, but in time it came back to exactly the same length!


Posted By: Patrick R
Date Posted: April 24 2018 at 1:51pm
Hi: I’m not upset just a poor typist. On the contrary I am grateful for your response and sorry to hear about your problems with your finger. As I am not familiar with this site are you the member that posted photos of the Parker Hale side mount? If so would you be willing to part with it?   My rifle is a sported BSA MKIII no 1. As soon as I’m able to attach
Photos I will. The rifle was apparently modified by professionals it has nice after market
Sights, a nice walnut stock. In short it’s pretty, with strong rifling. I just can’t deal with the
Short sight radius.

Thanx again: Patrick R


Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: April 24 2018 at 4:23pm
i crushed the tip of my right ring finger in my motorcycle accident years ago , no pins and such just an enlaged tip with the smashed bones intact , some nerve loss and a weird nail but i never thought to have it removed back then , 




Posted By: Canuck
Date Posted: April 24 2018 at 5:02pm
I had the tip of my left hand ring finger squished off at work. It got caught between a pallet with 1500 lbs. of finished paper product on it and the roll case roller it was travelling on during packaging. That hurt. Now that finger is 3/8" shorter than it should be. Worse pain I have ever experienced other than being married. I'll leave that as it is.

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Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually


Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: April 25 2018 at 6:35pm
oddly - i do not recall any related pain to the finger , probabl because of the other five broken bones in my right hand - broken wrist on the left and crushed right knee cap ....oh - and hitting the gas tank with the twig & berrys might have distracted me as well , 


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: April 25 2018 at 6:39pm
Originally posted by Patrick R Patrick R wrote:

Hi: I’m not upset just a poor typist. On the contrary I am grateful for your response and sorry to hear about your problems with your finger. As I am not familiar with this site are you the member that posted photos of the Parker Hale side mount? If so would you be willing to part with it?   My rifle is a sported BSA MKIII no 1. As soon as I’m able to attach
Photos I will. The rifle was apparently modified by professionals it has nice after market
Sights, a nice walnut stock. In short it’s pretty, with strong rifling. I just can’t deal with the
Short sight radius.

Thanx again: Patrick R

Patrick R
I sent you a private message. Check your inbox.


Posted By: Reckoning
Date Posted: July 06 2018 at 1:46pm
If you are still looking for a bridge I have some.  I am building some Delisle clones and I have been cutting the bridges off of the actions I have.



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