ACCURIZING THE
Detail below and on the two Stock Bedding
pages are some of the high performance tips that have been developed over the
years, to "dial in" the Lee-Enfield. Included are some actual military
armourer's technical guidelines, competition-developed instructions and my own
experiments. These pages explore history at a tangent. The Lee was not
originally designed or built for competition, but for many years it was the
rifle of choice for serious marksmanship competition throughout the
These rifles can be very accurate, given the right "tuning", quite
capable of competing with any of the other .30 caliber class rifles. Follow
these pages and you will see that the rifle in your own gun rack can be made
into a tack driver.
TRIGGER PULL
The Lee being a typical military rifle, it
has the standard 2-stage trigger pull. This trigger pull was implemented mostly
for an added safety feature, in the rough and tumble atmosphere of the
battlefield one does not want a "hair-trigger". You dodn't want to
knock your rifle while "going-to-ground" and inadvertently shoot your
section mate, yet the tactical situation did not make applying the safety, a
smart idea either. Conversely, while in a defensive position, under strict
"open fire policy" you didn't want the thing going off when you threw
it up on the trench ledge. However when the time came to loose off a round,
adrenaline reduced both trigger pull and let-off to a mere caress, or so it
felt.
Because we do our shooting on the range under controlled conditions and the
most menacing thing that may occur is the odd hot spent casing rolling next to
our forearm, trigger pull is a little more noticeable. Here are the
instructions to adjust this to more accuracy friendly levels.
The standard Lee-Enfield has a very noticeable "first" and
"second" stage pull. These pulls cannot be completely eliminated but
they may be adjusted. It is up to the shooters own preference, which he/she
would prefer, a long first stage or a long second stage or reduce both in
length.
The length of these pulls are adjusted by altering (filing) the height of the
trigger ribs. See figure 1A & B. During alteration the shape of these ribs
should be maintained and for any testing of the trigger pulls, the rifle should
be fully assembled ensuring that the triggerguard is correctly installed and
tightened into place. NOTE: this procedure should only be attempted AFTER the
fore end has been correctly bedded to the receiver and barrel, because the
position of the triggerguard depends on the fit of the fore end. The only
exception to this is on the Mk2 rifle where the trigger is pinned to the
receiver proper.
By decreasing the height of Rib A the length of the first pull is
increased.
By decreasing the height of Rib B the length of the second pull is
increased.
I would strongly recommend that, if you wish to experiment with these pull
lengths, you purchase a second trigger for your Lee. Reason being, once the
ribs have been filed down, there is no putting it back. One should approach
this modification with patience and only reduce amounts slowly. Take the time
to re-assemble the fore end and triggerguard often to check your progress.
Once you have a trigger pull that suits your needs a final polishing of the
ribs using fine grade emery cloth and crocus cloth will smooth it out nicely.
Figure 1
TRIGGER PULL WEIGHT or LET-OFF
Perhaps the most important of the aspect of
fine tuning any rifle is the pull weight of it's trigger. The army technical
orders dictates that the Lee trigger be adjusted to provide a 3 to4 lb first
stage and a 5 to 7 lb pull on the second stage. Once again this is fine for a
stock infantrymans rifle, but lacks a little when it comes down to precision
placement of rounds. So following here is the instructions to lighten those
trigger pulls.
IMPORTANT: The act of adjusting this trigger involves removing metal, it
cannot be replaced, so go slow. Also, because the sear bent is being altered
(stoned down).f
Adjusting the let-off on the Lee is accomplished by altering the angle of the
cocking piece bent. See figure 2a. To decrease the amount of pull weight, the
angle of the sear bent is increased and conversely, to increase the weight the
angle is decreased. This job is best done with the bolt disassembled, but can
be accomplished while the bolt is intact if the individual is careful. It will
take a steady hand, patience and a honing stone.
If the job is done with the bolt assembled, rap the body of the bolt with some
duct tape (to prevent scratching when the stone is drawn across the sear bent)
and secure the bolt in a bench vise, use some hardwood pads for the jaws. Then
carefully draw the stone across the sear bent, angled slightly to alter the
bent angle. Stop often and assemble the bolt in the rifle and using a fish
scale check the pull-off weight. Patience is a virtue when tackling this job.
Once a let-off weight that suits the shooter has been achieved, draw the stone
in the direction of the sear travel to smooth the trigger operation and finish
with a light polish some crocus cloth.
Figure 2