Enfield experimental stocks

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  • mawkie

    C&R Whisperer
    Sep 28, 2007
    4,337
    Catonsville
    -The long thread by toolness1 about his trials in repairing and then replacing a SMLE forestock had me thinking about how the Canadians and British tried to improve upon the original furniture.
    -In-between the wars the British had a go at using Bakelite for stocks. According to Ian Skennerton 20 prototypes were made and testing in 1934. But they were an immediate failure due to warping and fracturing (see first photo).
    -The British also tried a white, translucent plastic but it never got beyond being fitted. The lone example, from the late Bob Faris collection, was reported to have warped also.
    -Laminated wood was tested by the British and Canadians but never adopted. The Canadians built a series of experimental rifles and carbines designated with an XP serial number prefix. Again, built for trials but never adopted.
    -Finally the Canadians built and tested a lightweight No4 with a one-piece stock. Ian over at Forgotten Weapons has a nice video of this rare rifle.
    Photos from milsurps.com, probably the best forum for Enfield knowledge.
     

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    Jul 1, 2012
    5,711
    Interesting stuff. You'd think it would be hard to improve on just plain old wood,
    with the state-of-the-art at the time in plastics and whatnot being less than stellar.
    The laminate seems like a decent way to go and looks pretty slick.

    Bakelite seems like such a terrible idea ... the guy that came up with it should be sacked :)
     

    mawkie

    C&R Whisperer
    Sep 28, 2007
    4,337
    Catonsville
    Interesting stuff. You'd think it would be hard to improve on just plain old wood,
    with the state-of-the-art at the time in plastics and whatnot being less than stellar.
    The laminate seems like a decent way to go and looks pretty slick.

    Bakelite seems like such a terrible idea ... the guy that came up with it should be sacked :)

    Yeah, the bakelite test was a dismal failure. Must have been desperate to even consider it. On the face of it I could tell you it would never survive the recoil, let alone field conditions.
     

    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Weight was probably a concern with the No4 as well as the environments the system would be subjected to. Wartime manufacturing pressure and the fact that the trials committee couldn't agree may not have helped either.
    The English were manufacturing very successful aircraft from wood products at the same time though. The Mosquito, Wellington and Hurricane come to mind although the former was entirely wooden construction.
    You would think the scraps from that manufacturing process and the technology already involved would have been an important part of the decision making process and only natural.
    That is also a very appealing set of timber as far as appearance is concerned though, I could just imagine a stubborn examiner discounting the measure because of its appearance and its radical departure from the standard English "norm".
     

    mawkie

    C&R Whisperer
    Sep 28, 2007
    4,337
    Catonsville
    Agree that weight would work against laminates as the No 4 was already at 9 lbs. But when supplies of slow growing hardwoods disappear you're left to work with what's available. The Australians quickly used up supplies of local Queensland maple in WWI and substituted much softer coachwood. That made installing copper blocks in the fore stock draws necessary to deal with recoil. At times the Indians used rubber blocks in the draws of their soft wood fore stocks in place of copper (easier to install I'd bet and would last long enough though not as long as copper).
    Years later the Australian International Arms Co built Enfields in 7.62 x 39 and 7.62 x 51. They used teak for their furniture. I know that there's at least one MDS member with an AIA Enfield. Would be interested to hear how his is holding up.
     

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