Accurizing a Mauser M-48 and a LE No4 Mk2 ?'s

[triage]

I would like to accurize a Lee Enfield No4 Mk2 and a Yugo M-48 Mauser. What would be the best bet on the non-gunsmithing route to get the most of these 50 year old gems and what would be the best bet to accurize these two by drilling and tapping. I would prefer iron sights so as to keep them as mil-spec as possible. Also with your suggestions can I get price ranges on parts and where these parts can be found.
TIA
triage

[700PSS Shooter]

For the Lee Enfield No.4Mk2, shoot it first. You may be surprised. Make sure the butt is tight in the butt cup of the receiver.

These are the most accurate of the No.4 family as they have the trigger mount brazed to the receiver. The issue battle sight is respectable, too. My old No.4Mk1 was a 3 inch group shooter with irons at 100 yards and it was bone stock FTR (factory thorough rework) original. A Mk2 should do better as they were made after the war and not as hastily made under wartime conditions.

[George Stringer]

700pss, for the Mauser most of the accurizing work requires a lathe. The reason for that is simply that most of the work will change the headspace and some of it you can't do without a lathe in the first place. What you can do is to install a Dayton-Traister or other aftermarket trigger, re-crown, and glass bed. If you drill & tap for a scope then you have to think about bending the bolt handle and maybe a low scope safety. Lapping the locking lugs, truing the bolt face and receiver, and setting the barrel back to minimum headspace play an important part in any accurizing project but without a lathe you just can't do them. Even lapping the lugs will change the headspace. Not always enough to be excess but it can change it enough to wipe out anything else you do. For the Enfield you can make the trigger smoother and recrown but that's really about all non-gunsmithing accuracy work you can do on it. George

[Herodotus]

If by a Non-Gunsmithing route, you mean things you can do (or more reliably have done for you) that will not detract from the historical character of the arm but make it more accurate, I would suggest the following:
1. Get one that is decent condition: a good looking bore and crown on one that is all original with all numbered parts matching. This alone will not insure that it will shoot accurately, but why not start out with something that at least seems to be promising. This is best done by buying locally, where you can inspect the arm before you buy. Mail order is a lottery, perhaps worth it if the price is tuely good.
2. Bad bedding may be the No. 1 reason that a lot of these rifles do not shoot very well. In order for the rifle to shoot accurately, the 50-100 year old bedding must be perfect. Mausers and Springfields are well known to be very sensitive to this and it was a problem even when the arms were new. In order to be properly bedded, these rifles need to rest with near perfection on the the contact surface where their recoil lug meets the stock. This is not so easy as it might first seem, because this contact must be maintained as the two big magazine screws are tightened down and they are in their own little metal sleeves and don't have a lot of room for play. The other places that need very good contact is where these two screws pull the receiver down onto the wood, and the larger the perfect contact in this area the better. The rest of the receiver can be very snug up to the wood, but must not put any persure on it when the rifle is fired or it will probably crack the stock. You can check these surfaces with blacking to see if they are really good. If you can feel any movement just by hand, you know it is no good.
Some times the wood is oil soaked and rotten in these critical areas as well.
When you think about it, it is amazing that this can and was routinely done simply by the fineness of the metal to wood contact in an age that knew nothing of glass bedding. Glass beding these rifles would no doubt be a good and simple way of solving a lot of the probems, but is not an option if you are really determined to be keep the rifle all original.
This all feeds back into point No. 1, gettting a matching rifle. I just think it is better to get the stock that was made for your particular rifle and have less hope for one that was replaced outside of a real arsenal.
In addition, these rifles have a hand guard and a front barrel band that often causes trouble as well. The barrel is in effect "pointed" at the front band (bares there). Sometimes putting on some more pressure at this point by putting in a bussiness card shim helps. The barrel could be free from near the receiver to this point or alternately "full bedded", that is, evenly bearing on the wood its full length. This is often not the case due to the stock warping over time. The hand guard usually clips on to the top of the barrel as well. Sometimes, taking it off improves accuracy. This hand guard is an akward thing from the point of view of bedding and I don't know what to do about it if it seems to be the problem.
You can check all this out yourself, but it is easy for someone inexperienced to get this messed up worse in trying to fix it.
3. The trigger should be smooth. If it is rough, a good gunsmith can smooth it out. A rifle with a gritty, inconsistant or too heavy trigger cannot be shot well. You get this without doing anything if you can inspect the arm before you buy it. This all goes back to point No. 1 as well.
4. Shoot good ammo. Since match grade 8mm Mauser ammo is not found on the market, it is really nice to be able to handload good ammo yourself. I would recommend Sierra Match Kings, starting at whatever the Sierra Handbook recommends as the "Accuracy Load" for that bullet weight.
5. Test accuracy from either a good bench rest or sandbags.
6. Targets make a difference. I find I can shoot better with Mauser type sights if there is a strong horizontal element to help keep the rear sight consistant and a stong vertical element to keep the front sight consistant. Big round targets at 100 yards just do not work for me with this type of sight.
All these thing help get the most out a military Mauser. The bedding and the trigger job are best done by someone with a good deal of experience with this type of rifle.
In reality, I think it is far more certain to just "luck into" a rifle of this type that shoots well. Trying to figure out what makes an old rifle a poor shooter and doing something positive about it is a difficult thing to do. One is more likely to fail than to suceed.

[Herodotus]

Since I went on so long about bedding, I guess it is fair to note that some stocks are just plain no good from the beginning.
Richard Law, in his book "Backbone of the Wehrmacht" (1993) notes a German Army regulation that stipulates that rifles that are inaccurate due to stock warping are to be rebedded two times, and on the third instance, the stock is to be destroyed and the rifle restocked.
I guess that's the only way in some cases.

[triage]

Thank you gentlemen for your knowledgable posts. I believe some of your suggestions will greatly improve the accuracy of these rifles but probably not my shooting LOL :^)
triage