angled charger bridge experiments?

were there ever any experiments done with modified charger bridges to allow stripper clips to be used under scopes?

thanks.

Probably not but the amount of effort to push rounds to get into the mag would have outweighed the engineering problems that's why early WWI MkIII's had the side mounted angled scopes for such a reason to facilitate open sight and charger loading this arrangement had its own problems in sighting let alone having a good cheek weld on the stock when shooting!

If a sniper (or anyone else who needed a telescoped rifle) really needed a charger loading rifle then it'd already be too late for him to worry about it.

An excellent question, Henry. I believe that there was some suggestion by others that some sniper rifles may have been issued with 2 mags to address this matter but I believe this has been hotly contested. The No4 rifle and SMLE were never intended to have the mag changed as you would a modern weapon.

J.P. Sauer & Sohn in 1943 made a prototype K98k sniper with Short Side Rail mounted scope and angled stripper clip. But no idea on the Enfield.

the Finnish had an angled stripper clip for the m/28-30.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ipperJPG-1.jpg

peter, i don't know much about how a sniper is used in heavy combat, aka ww2 europe. would a sniper ever take multiple shots if well hidden and confronted with a large number of exposed enemy?

Not aware of anything official in either World War (in the UK), but you do see CLLE's with a front to back groove machined along the centre of the top of the charger bridge.

Don't forget the Swiss who made the ZFK-55 Sniper and literally redesigned the action at a 15 degree angle (I believe it was 15 degrees) so they could mount a scope inline, still use the chargers, and eject brass to the side.

Snipers being just highly trained Infantrymen might use snap, rapid or just plain old well aimed shots. But I never saw any snap or rapid theory or practice on the courses.

Snipers a force multiplier given the opportunity can overcome vastly superior odds as was borne out in Elephant Valley by Hathcock and Burke pining down a company sized force in a valley for an extended period (24+ hours I think) inflicting substantial losses with no injury to themselves.

Besides what PL said if they needed a charger clip they may as well club the enemy with the empty rifle........