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    Legacy Member Pablo's Avatar
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    SMLE Rear sight question

    Hey guys,

    Bit of a novice question here............

    I recently bought a '41 Lithgowicon that has had a heavy barrel installed on it. (shame cause its all matching stock and all apart fromt the barrel.) Its has no standard rear sight on the barrel and has had a Central no 4 range sight added on the receiver . I bought it cause it was cheap and needed someone who'd love it to take it home (mistreated by previous owner) not for the H barrel or the range sight.

    So, what are my options as far as getting a standard rear sight back on this thing?
    And if it is possible...whats the process?
    I'd love to get her looking original.

    I'm very inexperienced when it comes to stripping down the no 1. My other 2 are pristine so ive never wanted to pull them apart. I just shoot and clean them. This is the first one i've stripped down to bare bits and peices so i'm still learning how all the works.

    Paul
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    A Collector's View - The SMLE Short Magazine Lee Enfield 1903-1989. It is 300 8.5x11 inch pages with 1,000+ photo’s, most in color, and each book is serial-numbered.  Covering the SMLE from 1903 to the end of production in India in 1989 it looks at how each model differs and manufacturer differences from a collecting point of view along with the major accessories that could be attached to the rifle. For the record this is not a moneymaker, I hope just to break even, eventually, at $80/book plus shipping.  In the USA shipping is $5.00 for media mail.  I will accept PayPal, Zelle, MO and good old checks (and cash if you want to stop by for a tour!).  CLICK BANNER to send me a PM for International pricing and shipping. Manufacturer of various vintage rifle scopes for the 1903 such as our M73G4 (reproduction of the Weaver 330C) and Malcolm 8X Gen II (Unertl reproduction). Several of our scopes are used in the CMP Vintage Sniper competition on top of 1903 rifles. Brian Dick ... BDL Ltd. - Specializing in British and Commonwealth weapons Specializing in premium ammunition and reloading components. Your source for the finest in High Power Competition Gear. Here at T-bones Shipwrighting we specialise in vintage service rifle: re-barrelling, bedding, repairs, modifications and accurizing. We also provide importation services for firearms, parts and weapons, for both private or commercial businesses.
     

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    Advisory Panel Thunderbox's Avatar
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    A standard rearsight bed can be made to fit, but it does require some metalwork and precision fitting: briefly, you have to cut/split the rearsight base and enlarge it to fit the wider-diameter H barrel. You then have to make a pin hole or braze the base onto the barrel - taking care to ensure it is correctly located.

    An alternative might be to find a gunsmith to take off the H barrel and fit a standard one. You'd then have to pack out the barrel channel in the places where it was relieved for the H barrel.

    Simplest solution of all would be to buy another (standard) rifle for military shooting, and save your H rifle for target shooting...

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    I watched my old boss, W)2 'Jock' Annandale at Ngaruawahi fit up a standard backsight to a heavy barrelled No1 rifle and he did pretty well as suggested by Thunderbox but he (Jock.....) split the base at the bottom and dollied it open using the H barrel as a sort of former (In fact, I think he used a bit of bar turned to the H barrel taper on the lathe next to my workbench because I watched him doing it while I was scrapping some useless L2A1's......). When the backsight bed was sort of roughly to shape he tacked the gap with a bit of plate and reamed it the final few .000"s to the exact taper and fit. Then the tacked on plate was unpicked and the bed which didn't quite encircle the barrel was soft soldered in place.

    Being 'Jock' and the boss, I wouldn't imagine that it ever came loose. Mind you, he was a MasterM, a master craftsman andwe had a good workshop and Ray Hurley had a good tool store so it did make life easy

  6. Thank You to Peter Laidler For This Useful Post:


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    Contributing Member muffett.2008's Avatar
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    It would be a lot simpler to obtain one that has been reamed out for the heavy barrel, they are out ther and available.
    Or you could have your local armourer do it for you.

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    Legacy Member Pablo's Avatar
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    Thread Starter
    Thanks fellas.

    Looks like she'll stay a range rifle.

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    Legacy Member Bindi2's Avatar
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    Go with muffet on this one. But then what is wrong with a range rifle even if it dose not have the full wood if it dose then leave it as is

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    Legacy Member Rowdy's Avatar
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    Get a standard rear sight assembly and find a competant gunsmith to ream/turn the base out - Lithgowicon must have produced them for their H barreled rifles.

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    Can we assume from that Rowdy that there is sufficient internal meat within the standard backsight bed to alllow it to be reamed oversize to H barrel size?

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    Not so easy to machine out without the correct reamer and if you pick one up already reamed it may not necessarily fit your barrel well. Nothing worse than wasting your money on an item that may not fit.

    Thunderbox's method is easy and cheap.

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    Ditto on using a stock sight base, I reamed one out with a dremel no problems, there's plenty of metal. Another choice could be to cut the tube part away and just using the base, plenty of earlier Enfields show up this way as well as the ocassional H barrel. The sight base is held to the barrel with short screws.
    How about a picture of your rifles, always appreciated here? Range rifles are increasingly collected and holding their value, you made a good find.

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