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I have just removed the hideous rubber pad on the butt of my No4 MkII Fulton Regulated Lee Enfield. Did Fultons fit these or has some muppet done this to the poor rifle?

I then was faced with what I quickly realised was a wood insert to fill the channel for the hinge mechanism on the butt plate. I found the edges of the insert with my trusty pen knife and after a little work the insert was gently eased out.

Now, here is my question, the stock is marginally larger than the plate, only by about a 1mm on all sides. This doesn't worry me too much but where it is a little wider, maybe 2mm is where the small semi circular section of the butt plate fits into the end of the comb. This area I feel would need to be filled with something, stained and then smoothed off. Can anybody suggest what I can use for this exercise?

Any chance of a picture of the offending area?

OK, pictures below.

You can see the wood protruding about 1mm past the butt plate on the first few. I'm not too concerned about this although it might leave the stock vulnerable to chipping I guess.

The last two you can see the butt plate pulled down to the heel of the stock so that the existing screw holes line between butt and stock. The very last picture has the butt plate flush with the comb of the stock with the 1-2mm channel around the semi circular piece.

Hmm.. were the originals made of brass? I would have expected steel to be standard fitment (could be very wrong!) Blending the butt back to the plate would be the wrong thing to do as would filling it. As an alternative you could fit a small spacer between in a contrasting wood and then blend it back but even that would look wrong...

All I can suggest is find a steel butt plate and see how it looks.

Looks like a No1 buttplate not a No4, any chance of a pic of the underside and any markings?

What size of butt is it?

They came in four sizes Bantam marked B, short marked S, normal unmarked or marked N or long marked L at the heel of the butt.

Camera battery is dead so no pics until tomorrow I'm afraid.

The butt plate has a "B" stamp on it. It also has a diamond shape on the oil bottle door with a double "E" in it it. The plate is also stamped "1953" and there is another single "E" stamped inside a diamond bekow the bottom screw hole.

The bottle door is held in place by a black piece of metal screwed to the plate at the very top underneath the semi circular piece.

Does that make sense? Pics to follow as soon as possible.

It is a No4 buttplate, I'd missed the lack of a lifting stub also the date confirms it.

What about the butt size?

I've had a look and can't see any marking to describe the size of the butt. There is still a lot of adhesive residue left on the butt and I will try and remove more of this tomorrow if I can. Did the brass butt plates come in different sizes to match the butts?

Presume its a UK No. 4? Mine's a Long Branch rifle and so has a blued metal butt plate which may have a different outline (I haven't compared).

It was normal for the butt wood to be slightly proud all around the edge of a No4 butt plate.

The 2mm gap around the tab at the top is deliberate, and was specifically designed to be unlike the tight-fitting tab on a No1 butt/buttplate. The reason is that when the rifles were used for drill in service, the shock of the buttplate hitting the ground was transmitted directly into the comb of the butt (on a No1 rifle). This shock frequently damaged the wood, which is why so many rifles have a patch at that location. On the No4, a gap was introduced, and thus the wood is separated from any shock in the buttplate.