Enfield Mk V Questions

[Enfield47]

I have a sporterized Mk V that I recently acquired and want to restore it back to how it should look. However, I have a few questions about what will and won't work.

1) Can I use a Mk III forestock? Will it require any special work so that it fits properly? I plan on finding a walnut forestock and not using the Ishapore ones.

2) The only hand guards I can find are from EFD in England and crazy expensive. For a short/moderate term solution, is there any reason I shouldn't use Mk III front and rear handguards? I know there will be a gap of exposed barrel where the rear sight would be on a Mk III. Is there a way to fit a piece of wood to fill this void without looking awful? I have also seen the hand guards without the ears, would they be any better or worse? Has anyone done this? Any tips or tricks?

3) Anyone have a MK V safety? I had to though that one out there - just in case. Mine is a Mk III safety, they function the same but look different.

4) Acquiring the front band that attaches to the nose cap, any advise on what to look for or avoid? I know it is different than the hinged barrel band, but are there any dealers to avoid or gravitate toward? EFD has a reproduction for about $155, a little rich for me right now, but I found another one for much less, however, I don't know if it's a repro or not, or what shape it's in.

5) Any other parts I might need? (I have purchased an unissued, unnumbered nose cap, the stacking swivel and screw, the hinged barrel band, swivel and screw. I have the buttstock with the original brass plate and the swivel is attached. I do need to pick up a brass disk to fill the hole where one used to be and the forend stud and spring.)

On the sporterized forestock I currently have, it is cracked vertically all the way through. The only thing holding it together seems to be the little metal plate. Is it worth trying to fix it with Acraglas? I would think so but there isn't a lot of wood to Dremel out, it seems pretty thin. I would like to fix and keep if I can.

[smle-man]

Original MkV parts are very scarce. Is your cutoff a MkV? If it was me I'd go the EFD route and be done with it. Don't waste time trying to adapt pieces that you'll end up replacing anyway.

Is this the MkV that was at Turner's recently? I was tempted.

[Father Ted]

My friend you have chosen an expensive and time consuming project. If I lived closer to that store I'd have bought it as well and turned it into one of those hunt for ages for parts... I agree with smleman.
Good luck.
Cheers

[Enfield47]

Original MkV parts are very scarce. Is your cutoff a MkV? If it was me I'd go the EFD route and be done with it. Don't waste time trying to adapt pieces that you'll end up replacing anyway.

Is this the MkV that was at Turner's recently? I was tempted.

My friend you have chosen an expensive and time consuming project. If I lived closer to that store I'd have bought it as well and turned it into one of those hunt for ages for parts... I agree with smleman.
Good luck.
Cheers

Ha, it wouldn't be any fun if it was cheap and easy.. I just wish someone in the US or Canada was making these parts, the dollar to pound exchange rate is killing me.

[Father Ted]

[smle-man]

I worked in a gun shop in a suburb of Pittsburgh back in the early to mid 70s. In the basement was a row of 10 or so MkV rifles, all with the rear handguard missing and many with the rear sight broken. The rifles with intact rear sights were prime sporter fodder. The complete MkV rifles had already been sold by the gunshop. The owner imported a large lot of surplus Brit arms in the 60s, lots of interesting stuff in that basement! It was my introduction to British military arms.

[Enfield47]

Thanks Father, sounds like the cutoff is probably original then, so that's a good thing. The fun I will have with his project will be seeing it converted back to an original looking military configuration. I know it won't ever have the collector value like an original would, but it will still be worth more than I have in it (I have no intentions of selling it though - this is a keeper).

I wonder why the Mk V's were so popular for sportrerizing. It seems a No. 4 or 5 would have been the better way to go. I don't recall seeing Mk V rifles on the surplus racks, just the standard No. 1's, 4's, and 5's. That would have been great to be exposed to all the British rifles like you got see. It amazing the amount of info you pick up just being around them long enough.

[5th Batt]

The MkV cutoff differs from the MkIII in not having a "spotting hole"

MkIII top, MkV bottom.

[Enfield47]

Mine is definitely a Mk V cutoff, it has no spotting hole.

Here is a pic of it before I began the cleanup process. You can see all of the gunk built up over the years that I had to get rid of. Most of it came off using just Hoppe's #9 or WD-40, a nylon cleaning brush and a rag.





Regarding the cracked forestock, is it ok to shoot it as is? The only thing I can figure out is to fill the crack with Acraglass. There is a brass pin that runs horizontally through the stock across the crack and the metal plate seems to be holding it together. I put a clamp on it and couldn't really get it to close up. Should I just leave it?

[Tonymin]

I tried to fix a crack like that on my mark 3. It didn't work. I bought a Indian forend and made it work.
Good luck in your search.

[DesertWalker]

Cracked forestock...

Maybe try the dental floss trick? Get into the crack with dental floss to clean it out, and then work in some carpenter's glue (wood glue with epoxy in it) into the crack with the dental floss, then clamp it overnight into a vice with some cushioning.

This worked for me with a MN91/30, maybe it won't work so well with different wood. I just don't know. Others swear by Acraglass, which I believe is an epoxy.

I may be wrong, and I bet you get more suggestions soon.

[Father Ted]

More important than the crack, how do the draws look? If they are ok then I'd remove the plate and take a glue syringe and flush out the crack a few times with denatured alcohol and compressed air to remove any oil snd debris that is keeping it from clamping shut. You can also CAREFULLY drill straight into the crack for a dowel. Don't drill through though. The dowel wil act like a syringe to infuse the glue into the rest if the crack, just make sure when you drill that the crack is clamped as tight as it will go other wise the dowel will prohibit the crack from clamping closed. I wish I had better pics of doweling the back of a forend from my repairs but if you look at this photo you can just make out the end grain of a dowel at the right of the tie plate. The pic was after major draw surgery snd all the repairs were stained so its hard to see but if you look close you can see the dowel and the glue line of the crack. Good luck.

[Enfield47]

I have the Acraglass leftover from my P14 project, and that stuff works great. It fills the crack and becomes stronger than the wood. On the P14 stock fixes I was able to dremmel across the cracks and used a stainless steel screw with the tip and head cut off creating a threaded rod so it couldn't come apart. This will be different and will take some figuring out.

The draws look good, in fact this is the only flaw I can see in the stock. I'm sure when it was its original length it was in great shape. How deep do the holes need to be? I'm thinking I can maybe go about 1/8 - 3/16" before hitting the brass stock pin or going through it completely. How do you pop out the metal plate? I didn't have much luck when I was messing around with it so I stopped before I broke the stock.

Nice work BTW, I can barely see the dowel.

[Father Ted]

That area is delicate and thickness veries the length of that crack. I wouldn't go more than a 1/3 of the entire thickness in each area you dowel or that center connecting piece coul break away... They sometimes do if you just look at it the wrong way. You can find 1/8 " hardwood dowels at some lumber stores. That would be safest bet and you could do a few. I've always removed the plate with a sharpened small chisel or pen knife by gently prying it from the area that the stock bolt goes. Sometimes they just fall out. I've epoxied them back in for extra strength , I've even removed the thread wire and glued it back in. If you can grab it with a drill chuck you can slowly back it out and back it with glue. Not that you will need to on that one but for future reference many things are possible with these delicate areas.
Good luck!

[Enfield47]

Sounds like this will be like surgery, I hope I'm up for the task. I read that bamboo skewers are perfect for these hidden type of repairs because they are the perfect size and I do have some of those around the house that I can use.

I'll try a small knife, my wood chisel is too wide to fit in there. I was tapping it with a hammer and screwdriver and tried prying it out with a steel dental pic (bent the tip, don't do what I did).