As the subject says - anyone know when they began milling windows in the nosecap sight ears?
I've got a very late 1944 Lithgow, not refurb marked, with early 1945 dated furniture - probably a december 44 receiver assembed in 45 at Orange since the the but cartouches are OA Orange, not MA Lithgow.
The nosecap has the windows mileld into it and for the life of me, I can;t remember when they started doing that - pre or post 1944?
There was a change dated 16 August 1944 from slot and hole to square and round hole
This was authorised in EMEI's (the Australian equivalent of EMER's) so that the Armourers could zero rifles through the windows, using a brass drift, as they'd done since time began instead of using the foresight cramp which meant removing the nose cap. If I remember correctly, the ROUND hole fouled the foresight blade if it had to be removed/replaced whereas the squared-off hole allowed it to be removed/replaced withoiut interfering with the nose cap.
All of these foresight cramp thinggies were issued to Armourers and looked good and expensive and were BRILLIANT in theory. But in practice, they were time consuming and the graduations (where they existed) didn't realy relate to anything. In practice, they were useless! They didn't do anything that a brass drift and a toffee hammer couldn't achieve!
Odd that only the Aussies thought to adopt that change then ;)