Not often seen

I happened on this the other day so had to acquire it is for the No I Mk III as far a can ascertain a standard barrel tried it on a No 4 but wont close.
I know the armourers in this forum would have seen squillions of them and all the other bits and bobs that go towards tending the old girls but for a civy in an island at the bottom of the planet these things are hard to procure and I am lucky, bit like the instructor sighting aid for the No.4 rear sight not often seen but managed to get one of those as well.

Thanks guys have a good day. :wave:

Was watching this too, I asked the seller how it was supposed to fit the SMLE,? "It goes over the Muzzle" WHAT muzzle? "You have to take the nose-cap off first" Seems a bit pointless to me.

Try it on a long lee:thup:

What is it?? And, what does it do?

Al

Looks like a muzzle guide for cleaning?

Could be but, that looks like an awful lot of engineering for a cleaning guide.

Al

That's what the seller said it was for to protect the crown of the muzzle for some reason or another maybe Peter Laidler could explain the reason why they would want to go from the muzzle unless it was to de-foul a barrel against the rifling just a supposition I guess, I agree it is well made but allot of British stuff is like that.

Thanks for the replies will post the pics of the rear sight aim corrector form the No.4 a bit later

I've had a couple of these over the years - and foolishly sold them.

I was always told it was used to clamp over the end of the barrel (having removed the nose-piece) and protected the crown from damage.
It was used for clearing serious blockages (like 4x2 stuck in barrel or 'squib load' resulting in bullet half way along barrel). Armourer could then uses a brass rod, slide it down the guide and hammer away to clear the blockage.

Peter Laidler may have another application - but thats what I was told it was used for.

Here is a pic of one of mine - you can see the diameter reduction to support the 'brass-rod'

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...f3858b26-1.jpg

Now that I come to think about it, I don't ever recall a lesson about removing a bullet in the bore. The only one I saw was a totally jammed and compressed pullthrough in an AR-15 belonging to 8 RAR. Fired it out with a blank which stretched the body to TMH axis pin hole! Rifle written off. We were warned about cordwear but unless it affected the accuracy pattern it was ignored. But what a palava to prevent cordwear!

As an armourer's item, makes more sense to me now.

I just couldn't see it as a general issue to troops.