No4(T) CES

[jmoore]

its crazy to think about the fact that 50 years ago they were being sold as new surplus for less than $32.00.

Yah, but regular No.4s were US$10 or a little less AND folk weren't all that interested in the mountains of "old guns". At least most folk. Cheap hunter types and a very few actual collectors.

[Surpmil]

Attachment 35504Attachment 35503Attachment 35502Attachment 35501Attachment 35500Attachment 35499Thanks for all of your comments.

I've attached a few more pics of a couple more items, and tried to recreate the image in the HMSO publications on Sniping dated 1946 and 1951.

I've also added a picture of the two hankerchiefs I have in my collection - I'm a bit dubious of the 1940 date on the one though - any thoughts?

I was very lucky with the watch GSTP. It came from 'that' auction site and was listed as not working, but visually it was in good condition - so it would be ok to display and I got it for a very good price. When it arrived I wound it up and it has been keeping perfect time ever since!

Peter - I have refilled the compass once with Isoproponal (is that how you spell it?), but it has a very tiny leak from that putty like compound between the inner glass and metal ring. the compass is in such gould condition (its still in its original issue carboard box named to a Major C.W.E Buchanan) that I don't want to risk trying to split the joint and try to re-seal it.

Very nice job indeed in collecting the bits and pieces that most of us never bother to gather, but should. Funny how the Canadian scope adjusting clamp and wrench got into the original photo.

Those damask table napkins/handkerchiefs would be utterly useless for cleaning lenses. Must have been a great chance for the suppliers to get rid of all their old, unwanted stocks and patterns though!

What do you think of "Sniping, Scouting and Patrolling" as compared to "Fieldcraft, Sniping and Intelligence"?

[Peter Laidler]

Was there ever anything official in the Canadian thumbscrew clamping thinggy?

[waco16]

I've been collecting WW2 British army uniforms and equipment for around 30 years or so, when you could pick up bits for next to nothing from the old fashioned army surplus stores.
I was a school boy then and my mates would poke fun when bought things like tin helmets, battledress and even old hankies!
Luckily a lot of those items translate to items a Sniper would have been issued with.

The No4(T) came a lot later and was funded largely by selling items I had collected over the years.

A lot more has been sold recently to fund the soon to arrive L42........

With regards the books - I prefer Fieldcraft, Sniping and Intelligence - probably only because it has more detailed info on the shooting element - it is also a better produced book with nice binding and glossy pages, the edition I have is 1941 dated.
Sniping, Scouting and Patrolling is a real wartime ecomony produced item and is very WW1 in its style even though it was only dated a year earlier.

[RobD]

Waco 16, what are the two objects in the B&W picture labelled 11 (spidery tweezers-like tool) and 12 (patch of gauze-like object)?

[waco16]

They are tools for adjusting the zero on the windage and elevation drums on Mk1 and Mk2 No32 scopes.


Number 11 in the photo is 'Tool adjusting No1, Mark 1' (quite rare now)
Number 12 in the photo is 'Tool adjusting No2, Mark 1

[Peter Laidler]

I used them frequently and they were both rubbish!