The attached article may be of interest to those who have No.5 Rifles and find that they are shooting low!
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The attached article may be of interest to those who have No.5 Rifles and find that they are shooting low!
That's a VERY interesting observation Ensci. I have to admit that while I and other Armourers knew that there was a difference in No5 part numbers between the No4 and 5 foresight blades, to us, they were all one and the same and fully interchangeable and even though we'd spend whole days on the test range, zeroing and accuracy testing, it was all done using No4 blades. I say 'No4' blades but what I mean is just the zillions of blades in the trays in the range hut. Even then, an angled blade was never apparent
What is also interesting is that I've just looked at 4 No5's here and just a tad over 1,000 foresight blades (if a heavy handfull equates to 100 or so guess that is.......) and they are ALL round fronted. Two of these No5's are definately ex Malaya/Borneo
Does anyone out there in forumland have an angled blade split base blade fitted to their No5 or have a photo of one. I just think that being so obvious, even the sleepiest Armourer in Malaya would have noticed or one of the MOR (local Malay Army) Armourers would have explained it.
Does anyone have a more up to date EMER than my 1957 edition that I bought back with me, that might elaborate on the change? It could unravel the last mystery of the No5 parts
Peter: I did see an angled blade recently on a rifle at Detling. I suppose another possibility is that a significant quantity of foresights were produced before the 45 degree chamfer was introduced, and therefore had the radiused front. In that case they would only be distinguishable from No.4 rifle foresights by the reduced blade height. I have a vague recollection of seeing a tray of 'No.5 Rifle foresights' in one of the old shooting houses at Enfield, but that was about 40 years ago and I don't remember whether they were chamfered or not!
Peter, I have also seen the angled blade sight on a No. 5.
Yep, so have I now. Just one solitary one, on a No5 no less. The thing now is to find out when it was authorised to use standard No4 blades and/or when the angled blades were made obsolescent or obsolete. From a production engineering point of view, the angled blade would certainly be easier to produce.
Anyone care to show a pic of the original No5 angled foresight blade?
This one came off my ROF(F) 4/47 No.5 It measures over-all height: 0.340 in., the block is: 0.116in. It is marked 0.45 and F (Fazackerly?)Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
However I am suspicious of it. I suspect the blade has been shortened. I replaced it with a No.4 Mk.3 -.03
Had a look at my No5MkI ROF(F) 4/46 with all matching numbers even on the forend and here are two pics of the foresight. It is the angeled version and I think it was never changed on this rifle.
The intresting thing is that the rifle is parkerized and it seems that it was never painted with suncorite.
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