Sighting Instructions For The Enfield Rifle - Page 2
Zeroing
The concept of this page is to provide the necessary information to allow the owner of a Lee Enfield to sight in his/her own rifle. Dispensing with the sighting doctrine adhered to during the Enfield's service days, this page is an attempt to instruct the modern day individual on the basics of getting the sights correctly set on an enfield.
The Basics
It is essential for zeroing, that the same ammunition be used (manufacturer, weight grain, lot number), for both commercial and hand loaded ammo. For military surplus shooters, try and use the same batch/year/headstamp for zeroing .Tools needed for windage adjustments will be a brass punch, hammer or sight cramp, flat-tip screwdriver and possibly an inverted flat-tip screwdriver for loosening the front sight on some No4 models of rifles. The rifle should be cleaned and the barrel pulled through dry of oil, prior to this range practice. Two warming shots should be put through the barrel before commencing the zeroing application. This will ensure that everything is settled into place and any remaining oil in the barrel has been burnt off.
So, before accurate zeroing can be accomplished, the shooter must make several decisions:
- 1) What type of ammunition will normally be used when firing the rifle,
- 2) What sight (Battle or Flip-up Micrometer) will be used. Noting that the battle sight was calibrated for 300 yards, so if zeroed for 100 yards the micrometer scale will be rendered most useless. Just to elaborate, the rifle was designed to be zeroed using the micrometer sight, set at 200 yards. The front blade sight was then exchanged until the correct blade height was found that gave the proper elevation.
- 3) What range to zero from, 25 or 100 yards.
Note: The adjustment details provided below are based on using the military MkVII Ball round (174-gr FMJ bullet, muzzle velocity of 2440 fps). Commercial ammunition should provide similar results, but because of the infinite combinations with regards to handloads. It would be impossible to say for certain, how specific changes would react.
SIGHT ADJUSTMENT CORRECTIONS (Rifle, No1 & No4, all marks) Elevation Zeroing begins with elevation, the correct height of front sight blade must be found prior to adjusting for windage. To correct up or down the front sight may have to be replaced with a different height. It makes no sense to get your windage on, only to have to replace the front sight to correct for elevation. Zeroing at 25 yards, using the micrometer sight set for 200 yards, the Mean Point of Impact (MPI) should be 3/4 of an inch (plus or minus 1/2 inch) above the Point Of Aim (POA). Zeroing at 100 yards the MPIshould be 3 inches above the POA. Remember there are nine sizes of foresight available, each being .015 of an inch different in height. Note: this height difference was achieved by altering the front sight’s base not its blade height, so each sight has the same blade dimensions. The sights will have its height stamped onto the top of its base. Each change of foresight to the next size, up or down, will change the MPI, up or down, 1/2 inch at 25 yards and 2 inches at 100 yards. To aid in determining the correct height of front sight an alternate method can be used for Calculating Correct Front Sight Height for Zero. To correct high impact, replace front sight with a taller one, to correct low impact use shorter blade. Once you know which size of sight is required for a proper zero, they can be purchased from most gun part retailer’s such as Numrich.
Examples: If your rifle is fitted with a .0 front sight and firing from 100 yards, it produces a five round group 4 inches above the center of the bullseye. Then replacing the sight with a .030 blade will drop the MPI 4 inches, or Using a rifle fitted with a .075 front sight and firing from 25 yards, it produces a five round group 1 inch below the center of the bullseye, then replacing the front sight with a .045 blade sight will raise the MPI 1 inch.
Windage Now that the rifle has been correctly adjusted for elevation, windage may now be addressed. Windage adjustments are made by moving the front sight left or right as required to move the MPI to dead center of the vertical plane of the target. Moving the front sight .050 of an inch (one blade's width) will move the MPI6 inches at 100 yards or 1-1/2 inches at 25 yards. To correct left of center, the front sight must be moved left and right of center is moved right.
Examples: After firing at 100 yards, a five round group produces a MPI6 inches left of center. The front sight must be drifted or slid over to the left .050 of an inch, this will move theMPI 6 inches to the right. Firing at 25 yards, a five round group results in a MPI 3 inches right of center. The correction would be to drift the front sight 0.1 of an inch to the right, to bring the group to dead center.
The No5 Rifle (Jungle Carbine) Zeroing at 25 yards the Mean Point of Impact (MPI) should be 1/2 an inch above the point of aim (POA). Zeroing at 100 yards the MPI should be 3-1/2 inches above the POA. The method and sequence for correcting elevation and windage on the No5 remain the same. However, the following differences apply: Elevation:each blade height (.015) alters theMPIby 2-1/4 inches at 100 yards and 1/2 inch at 25 yards. Windage:each blade width (.050) alters the MPI by 7-1/2 inches at 100 yards and 1-3/4 of an inch at 25 yards.
