Early No.4 Target Foresight Covers/Shields

[Strangely Brown]

It's slightly difficult to know exactly what to call these.

I obtained them from John Light, the man who made the Brindles sights. John referred to them as "Privateers" and told me he had taken them off target rifles when they had come in from deceased estates.
They're obviously an early attempt at keeping the sun/rain etc off the foresight in inclement weather.
The later P-H Matchmaker obviously did a much better job; I was reminded I had them after looking at the very professional job of inserting a Matchmaker in a No.4 foresight protector recently.
The Matchmaker/foresight protectors seen in recent years all appear to be of Canadian origin, unless of course somebody on here can tell me differently??

Information

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[krinko]

What's the second one, then? It appears to sit in the protector much higher than the first, so high in fact, that it seems unlikely this is merely a sunshade.
There's a sight element inside?
Excuse my ignorance, but there isn't much of the .303 range rifle thing going on around here.
You may recall I had to improvise mine.



-----krinko

[Bundook303]

Hello Strangely,

Here's one made by John Wilkes Precision, although I have no idea where or when. Can anyone shed any light?

Cheers!

[Strangely Brown]

What's the second one, then? It appears to sit in the protector much higher than the first, so high in fact, that it seems unlikely this is merely a sunshade.
There's a sight element inside?
-----krinko

No sight element in this one, it would appear to be (I think) experimental and done by an individual shooter. My best guess would be during the late 1960's and early 1970's which was very much a transitional period of target shooting.
IIRC and I need to research this, the NRA at one stage governed the length of foresight tubes?

[Strangely Brown]

Hello Strangely,

Here's one made by John Wilkes Precision, although I have no idea where or when. Can anyone shed any light?

Cheers!

Nearly all the Whitaker Specials I have seen sport a foresight tube by Wilkes. That would date them to the early 1970's.

[Mk VII]

It would be an unusual Wilkes, most I have seen are not canted like that to fit in the .303 canted block.