Wandering zero in the No. 5 Mk. 1

Page 112 in this month's American Rifleman has a rather nice piece on the "Jungle Carbine." In it, it is stated as fact that this rifle suffers from a "wandering zero" due to metal removed in the manufacturing process to lighten the piece. I would like input from the expert opinion on this board as to some idea of the accuracy I might expect from my No. 5 Mk. 1. The best I've ever seen is about 8" at 100 yards, whether I'm firing military surplus or reloads.

This is good to hear. I'm going to proceed on the basis that it's an urban myth, and try some things that have worked for me in the past. In particular, since this rifle has an aftermarket stock, I'm going to relieve the barrel channel in the stock back to where it widens out into the chamber so that the barrel will free-float. I've done glass bedding, but from the looks of the SMLE action, this will prove sketchy at best.

What I found was that its a 3 stage process to get the best from a No5.

Stage one: Fix what "Bubba did before you got it". In my case it was trying to not have the barrel bedded fore, aft & middle. & absolutely not glass bedding off center & canted!

I ended up having to replace the wood & start over with a sporter stock.

Stage two: find out where its not bedding "right". In my case there wasn't enough tension at the rear of the action to pull the metal up into the wood to lock it in place. That was a combination of adding a little depth to the rear upper part of the stock where it bears on the bottom of the action & adding a couple of fillets to the front bedding face of the area to push back into the butt socket.

This changed the angle of the front of the bedding so I added a shim to the lower area where the trigger guard mounts to the "King" screw & reworking so the sleeve applied a limited crush to the fit.

Step 3: The front of the receiver & the breech of the barrel. That took 3 shims to get "right" one for the lower front wood-to metal fit & 2 more to bed the first 1" of the barrel at the bottom center ONLY.

The sporter I have will shoot about 3in at 100yd but only if I let the barrel get completely cold between shots. That's with a 2x7 scope on it. That's the only way I can any consistency, even if I take 5 minutes between shots they will spread out to atleast a 6in pattern. Does that sound like the stock might need to be reworked. 

Its really a load of rubbish-i have been using my No. 5 with a scope for hunting here in New Zealand for more than 40 years and have never had any sign of a "wandering zero". Why a No. 5? Never felt the need to change and its always a good debating point on a rainy day in the hut. :)

Makes perfect sense to me.

he!!o.

It is not a myth. E.G.B Reynolds wrote about it in his book “The Lee Enfield Rifle” and he was involved in trials at Enfield that attempted to find a solution.  A reliable fix was not found, and not all No. 5 carbines exhibited the problem.