No. 4 Mk. 1 T Rear Sight Modification

Gentlemen:

I have a No. 4 Mk. 1 T with an unmodified rear sight leaf and slide, which I like to shoot, and would prefer to be able to clean the barrel from the chamber end without dismounting the scope.

I am interested in other Enfield aficionado’s opinions about what to do.

Would you:

forget about it, and leave it alone?
try to buy a modified leaf and slide? If so, where?
have my leaf and slide modified & refinished? If so, where/who?

Thanks much for your thoughts!
Chuck, “T” # 9745 (mismatched scope)

If you plan to leave the bracket & scope attached, go ahead and modify the sight ladder. They weren't modified for expedient bolt removal at the factory anyway, but rather in service for those who wished to have it done.

Just radially grind away the underside of the up and down backsight slide or cursor so that when you pull the raised bolt head under the charger bridge, it clears the obsruction caused by the slide. Simple job and should take about 20 minutes. With a bit of care you can modify it without stripping the sight assembly but you'll have to remove it from the rifle.

As I remember doing it many times, allow the bolt head to scribe a witness line on the underside of the slide. It'll be biased to the left side slightly, then file away. The file to use is the one with the same radius as the bolt head

Peter,

In your book: "An Armorers Perspective:...", you show the modification of the sight ladder as well as the slide. Can I get by with just "relieving" the slide?

Did you put any kind of finish on the bare metal?

Thanks & Regards, Chuck

You're right. You will have to relieve the sight leaf axis area too. Yes, we'd ALWAYS protect bare metal. In reality we'd have a couple of modified, bead blasted and phosphated sights in the Armourers shop and simply exchange it should the sniper ask ......, or we'd do them all anyway! Personally, I used to leave the sight face grey phosphate on the sniper rifle sights. Anyway, a change of sights meant a morning on the range with the snipers! See front of the little sniper rifle book..............