Old firearm headaches

Not big ones, just little ones. Like screws that don't go where you find them, pins the wrong diameter, things like that.

That Indian Enfield I stripped/plated the screw for the other day was going back together when noticed that the forend would not mate up to the barrel as it should. Instead of snuggling up tight, the damn thing was a good 1/2" away at the muzzle end; that's a LOT of flexing to make it do. Which puts a lot of stress on things, including the barrel, which is really bad for accuracy. So took it off and looked it over.

The #1 designs all have protective ears for the rear sight. They're mounted to the stock with a screw/nut assembly made for the purpose. The nut was fine, but the screw, instead of the flathead that would nestle into the countersink in the ears(out of the way of the barrel), was a panhead that touched the barrel, causing the stand-off problem.

The fix was easy enough. Get a suitable flathead machine screw(10x32, 3/4" long), strip and blue, then install. But I've been trying to figure out where this panhead came from. It could almost be the right screw for the rear of the stock nose, but it's a touch too long. And there's nowhere else that a screw like this would fit. Maybe the first owner over here took it down completely, lost that screw and stuck this one in, not minding that it messed up the fit. Only the screw looks to be of an age with the rifle itself, the way it's made and the thread looks like a gun screw; which makes me wonder of some junior armorer-in-training in India either picked up the wrong screw or just used what was handy at some point, not caring that it didn't fit correctly?

Things to wonder about...