PH5B sight ever considered military issue for the P14

Was the PH5B sight ever considered military issue for the P14 or was it a commercial after thought.

The PH5B was only introduced after WW2, when the P14s were long obsolete and were being sold off as surplus.

AFAIK, no target sight has ever been British "military issue". Where SRb No4s and L39s rifles were issued, the sights tended to be purchased or accounted separately out of unit funds.

Actually I think the 5B was first sold in 1935 , certainly no later than 1936. The AJ Parker 14/35, which was the Alfred J Parker eqivilwent was first sold in 1935. The design was revised in 1949 and the final version of this sight was the 3/53, introduced in 1953.

The NRA started allowing the use of the P14 in 1935 and from the start the 5B and 14/53 sights were quite popular.

None were military issue,but I seem to recall seeing in some book long ago pictures of Home Guard shooter(s), one of which had a 5B or 14/35 on it. Th shooter was firing from the prone, with some sort of rain/camo cover and I think the picture was captioned as a home guard "sniper". Most likely the shooter was a former "Bisley tiger",preparing put his skill to good use, had the Germans ever actually landed.

You touched on my reason for asking. My company has a small pistol rifle club that has a High Powered Rifle Match that is just for bragging rights. I thought about showing up with my P14+PH5B and my No. 1 just to show the semi's that the old timers can shoot.

well if you are looking for the picture to establish use, I seem to recall that it was in a series of handbooks on WWII weapons put out in the mid 1970s. One of the authors was Terry Ganger or something like that. The ohter authors name was Brig Peter Young. The picture was in the book on allied rifles. The black handbooks were put out by Areo publishing in England. All of the above is recollection.

How I can recall that much is because when i was first interested in rifles around 1980, my uncle who had been quite the gun guy was telling me stories about the Pattern 1914/M1917. So I looked it up and found that book. For some reason I still recall it.

Nice to see you back Frederick303.