First Time Posting Here - I've Bought A .303 But What Scope Is This?

[AussieGirl]

Hello all, thanks for adding me to the group.
I've recently fallen completely in love with .303's after a friend showed me his Mk4.
I felt an instant bond with the rifle and sat cradling it for a good length of time before reluctantly handing it back. I have since been drawn to every .303 I have seen when travelling to gun shops and shows with him.
Needless to say, most I've seen are far out of my budget, so when I did find one cheap at a local gun store I instantly put it on payment plan. I'm still paying it off but wanted to know if anyone can help identify the scope as this doesn't look like anything I've seen on other .303's I've seen elsewhere?
So far by searching on line I've identified it as a Central (Australia) No 4 scope but I have no idea about the additional piece with the optical lens?
I'm very curious about it.
Thanks

Information

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[Daan Kemp]

Looks like a sight for target shooting. Others will be along to explain better.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The sight proper looks a lot like a "Central". My WAG is that the extra bit of glass is probably a "corrective" lense placed to that the shooter can achieve correct sight focus without having their normal spectacles sliding down their sweating nose.

As the human eye ages, it gets bigger by adding extra layers like an onion. This especially happens to the lense. This is why, as you age, it is harder to rapidly "pull focus" from near to far and vice-versa. The catch is that the "larger", more rigid eye-ball and lense assembly tends to favour "distance" vision and the little annular muscles that contract and "bulge" the lense for "close" vision have to struggle harder with each passing year. Having to hold the newspaper at arms length is a bit of a giveaway.

One of the basic rules of (iron-sighted) marksmanship is to focus on the front-sight, thus, older shooters may require some assistance. Looking through a small aperture certainly helps to some extent, but a corrective lense will tidy things up a bit more.

[mrclark303]

Hello all, thanks for adding me to the group.
I've recently fallen completely in love with .303's after a friend showed me his Mk4.
I felt an instant bond with the rifle and sat cradling it for a good length of time before reluctantly handing it back. I have since been drawn to every .303 I have seen when travelling to gun shops and shows with him.
Needless to say, most I've seen are far out of my budget, so when I did find one cheap at a local gun store I instantly put it on payment plan. I'm still paying it off but wanted to know if anyone can help identify the scope as this doesn't look like anything I've seen on other .303's I've seen elsewhere?
So far by searching on line I've identified it as a Central (Australia) No 4 scope but I have no idea about the additional piece with the optical lens?
I'm very curious about it.
Thanks

Welcome aboard mate, in all it's variants, its the rifle of the commonwealth and our fathers and forefathers ...

You had your free hit, with your friends rifle, unfortunately you are now hooked and there is no known cure!

Prepare to spend money and really enjoy yourself....

[tiriaq]

The rifle is fitted with a Central mounting plate and target rear sight. The Central sight could be used on a variety of rifles, by installing the appropriate mounting plate.
These are vintage sights, but work very, very well.
The little lens will be to sharpen the sight picture. Some shooters have lens holder eyeglass frames to accomplish the same thing.
A more sophisticated system involves an adjustable unit mounted in front of the aperture. As shooters age, these devices can make a real difference.
A lens can be used in the front sight to sharpen the its image.
A lens could be used with either the front sight or the rear sight, but not both. If there are front and rear lenses, a Gallilean telescope is created which produces magnification. Such arrangements have not been allowed for competitive target shooting for a long time.

[Doc Martini]

Here's a page from Jim Sweet's "Competitive Rifle Shooting" 5th edition 1961.
There's lots of info on the web about Central sights also.
Could you include some more photos of the rifle, in particular the date stamps on the right hand side?
Attachment 100553