Printable View
This is for all you lucky enough to have one or two of these.
Straight from the EMEI's.
If you feel the need Doug, please feel free to make them a sticky or something.
cheers
NEDAttachment 28308Attachment 28309Attachment 28310Attachment 28311Attachment 28312Attachment 28313Attachment 28314Attachment 28315Attachment 28316
Sept '76........., that's a late EMER for a No1 rifle. I have to say that in all my time in Australia, most with Infantry battalions, I never saw a SMLE sniper but did see a few SMLE's in the armouries that belonged to individuals, that I shot a few times - and a No4 that belonged to George Lendich. Where are you now George?
Well there you go Peter,
never say never!!
We had the HT's up until late 70's early 80's when we took up the M84 parker Hale or really just a TX1200 militarised!
Have to remember as well that there was not much emphasis on sniping at that stage. Only a few qualified guys on establishment and never really used. Similar to what it was like at the start of WW1, than the need arose and it was advanced.
The Australians where in a rebuild, recovery stage in the late 70's from Vietnam and things like the spooky art of sniping wasn't considered neccesary in any great strength.
My how times have changed now!
I just hope someone gets some use out of the info!!
Cheers
NED
do you remember where you got them from, Ned?
yeah u wasn't it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Son
:move eek::bash::runaway::runaway:
cheers
NED
still trying to find the rest of a full copy... I do have a little more than that now..
The EMEI was re-introduced specifically for the HT's dragged out of storage to use for sniper training at Singleton, mid 1970's. They remained until the Parker Hale M82 was introduced.
Attachment 28393
================================================== ====================
Below is a short email conversation with... no, read it and you will know the significance....
Message starts with his post to me, triggered by my survey which he found on Gunboards sniper forum
=============================================
Hi Mate,
I did my Snipers course back in 1978 (this being the third course run, first course was in 1976). When we started the course we were each given a rifle, mine was a new one that was made in 1916, they were not fitted with the tele sights at the time. The sight were bought out later in the day in a box, and everyone just grabbed a scope for their rifle, I cannot remember if anyone ended up with matching #'s. I was lucky in picking a low mount type as my rifle had the scollop in the wood work for the scope to clear when mounting in on the rifle. I know that some had high mount scopes on low mount rifles etc. I remember grabbing half a dozen of the screw on check pieces and put one on my low mount.
Hi, XXXXXXXXXXX
I'd be assuming that training was here at Singleton (my home town). I've managed to speak with one or two people who were around at the time, and they'd told me about mainly using the rifles to learn how to care for them, particularly the scopes, and fieldcraft. One bloke told me how they camo painted the rifles two or three times during their course, stripping it off at the end. I'd be very interested in any snippets you can remember from that period. Things like the rifles and scopes being mixed up at that point helps explain why almost exactly half of the 100 or so rifles in my survey are miss-matched. Hey, you wouldn't happen to still have those cheekpieces? I found my lowmount almost impossible to shoot with a standard butt. I fitted a short butt and it's a perfect fit to me. Couldn't use a cheekpiece, though. I still have one on a spare butt... never know when you're gonna need one.
I see you haven't posted on any of the forums yet. The Lee Enfield forum is a pretty friendly mob, some are a little thin-skinned but most enjoy a good yarn.
Thanks for contacting me. Keen to hear more of your expiriences.
Cheers,
Brad (Son)
Hi Brad,
Correct, did the course in Singleton (April-May 1978). On my course we had 30 starters, but only 5 of us passed the course. The rifle that I was issued with on the course was sent back to my Bn (6RAR), that was the standard practice if you passed the course. When it got back to the Bn it came with the muzzle cover, breech cover (all WW1 dated and brand new), Pattern 1916 Scout Regiment Telescope, sling. I remember that when one of the guys who did the first course in 1976 took his discharge (Wayne Brennen ?) we had a spare rifle to play with. We removed a lot of wood from the barrel knox to the muzzle to make the barrel free floating, drilled out the end cap and machined some of the foresight protector so it would not interfere with the barrel and bedded the front part of the action into the stock. Shot some beautiful groups with the inon sights, but only average with the telescopic. We did the conversion course for the Parker Hale Type 82's in Oct 79 and the were taken off us. I use to have some good photos of the 3 o's but they disappear somewhere over the years.
Cheers
XXXXXXXXXX
I hope you didn't mind me posting it. I had forgotten about until doing a clean up of the computer and thought it was relevant.
Would like to see the rest and glad you can put the story to it. Wasn't Bob peoples was it?
Another armourer guy who was on another forum was Euon Mcrorie, probably not correct spelling. He had some knowledge of the SMLE!!!.
Always great to heasr stories of what is now a forgotten era in singo. Last time I was there John lamb was curator of the museum which i thought had gone backwards. That is not a lot of weapons displays etc that used to be shown.
Anyway i digress, Thanks for not kicking my arse over posting something that is really your thunder mate.
cheers
NED
Funny that you mention the PH model 82, out of the few EMEI's that I bothered to keep a copy of was this old girl.
The info was incredibly useful. as I was heavily into Target Rifle with the Army Team and the accurizing and bedding were very much detailed.
Don't do much with mauser actions anymore though, but the principles are still there.
Just another snippet for the useless information file.
It's all good Ned. I've been meaning to get the rest of it (if I can) and make it available anyway... thanks for the kick along. John Land is still there, we have over 200 to innoc for the new museum... just hope I get a chance to help on some... been too bloody busy!
The Mod82 just doesn't seem to interest me... rather the newer stuff even. Good info, my sgt is off overseas with the team in the new year... top 20 two years running, top 10 this year.
Thew UK MoD had a commercial variant of the M82 that we called the L81 for Cadet use. Not a howling success I have to say but it served a couple of purposes
With thanks to Son and trooper554877, we've updated the MKL entries ..
1916/1945 No.1 MkIII* H.T. Sniper Rifle (Medium Bracket)
1917/1945 No.1 MkIII* H.T. Sniper Rifle (Short Bracket)
Under the comments section of the above entries, we've added extracts of the EMEI re-introduced specifically for the HT's dragged out of storage to use for sniper training at Singleton, mid 1970's. They remained in use until the Parker Hale M82 was introduced.
Rifle No.1 Mk3 HT .303 EMEI's D113, D114-1, D114-2, D117-1, D117-2 (Sept 1976)
Zeroing & Accuracy, Stripping & Assembling, Repair Procedure, Trigger Mechanism (adjustment of pull-off), Sight Telescope (adjustment & zeroing - field repair), breech bolts (field & base repair), fitting of cheek rest (modification instruction), cutting of apertures in foresight protectors (modification instruction)
Regards,
Doug
Just got around to reading that old newspaper clip in Son's post. Bob Skelton and I are old mates, both shot on the same teams a few times, both left handers which worked out well in teams coached matches and funny enough, are both still active in target shooting.
Usually run into Bob and Kay a couple of times a year, and the accents are still as broad as ever. Bob hails from Aberdeen-Scotland, I shoot for Aberdeen-Australia.
Son, have a look through your files. You should also have a copy of D118/1 that I gave you yonks ago.
Interesting to see that from the Enfield rest they needed to be capable of a 1 1/2 inch group at 200 yards. That is pretty spectacular for rifles of this generation.
For everyone's pleasure. A bit of light reading:cheers:
Lithy the pics are a bit too small m8
I have 118 here... just gotta set it up in a suitable size and post it to be added to the above.
Sorry gents, they got reduced ( I think....my excuse and I'm sticking to it) in the conversion from bmp to jpeg files in order to upload.
If Brad can't resurrect his files I'll have another go.
Damn this technology crap. I'm too old for this.:banghead:
At least you can upload pictures young fellaQuote:
Originally Posted by Lithy
Badger, when you get a chance, wrt the pages already posted into the MKL, could you move the first page, about "zeroing and accuracy" along the line so it is the fourth page with only the trigger adjustment after it on the top line of pics. That puts the ones we have there in order. These can go as they are directly underneath.
Ok, here's the part you need...with thanks also to Lithy... Weapon D 118. I won't bore you all with a rendition of what every part of the designation means, other than all the books are written in the same format. Part 8 is the inspection procedure.
if you hover the mouse over the bottom of the pic after opening it, there will be a square box with an arrow leading away from the top corner... this will enlarge it
Attachment 28446Attachment 28447Attachment 28448Attachment 28449Attachment 28450Attachment 28451Attachment 28452Attachment 28453Attachment 28454
Reading through the last EMEI, on trooper554877 first page regarding the nose cap, would this have been done on a standard SMLE at some point? only ask as I noticed yesterday as I was searching for some bits and found the nose cap screws for my Lithgow 1926 ( FTR in 53,) as it was missing one, just wonder if the nose cap was exchanged at a later date and was on top of the box as Peter often describes as being closest to hand when at the repair bench.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...iper0009-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...DSCF4488-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...DSCF4486-1.jpg
Done ... :thup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Son
Regards,
Doug
If you mean cut the holes in the ears then no, it was never a UK Military modification. All of ours that remained at EY's and those in Cadet service retained solid foresight protector ears.
My impression was that it was an OZ modification, looking at the supposedly squared off hole I'm thinking maybe someone was trying their own improvement.
Thats what I thought at first, regarding the not so square hole, but reading further it stated about the left wing could be drilled etc, fits the bill and it is an Oz rifle.Quote:
Originally Posted by muffett.2008
If I remember from my time in Oz/Bandiana, that one hole is squared off to allow the actual blade to be changed for one of a different height. The other hole is just drilled and left round if I remember.
Thats what I am getting at, this hole is squared and lookout the armourer that didn't do it correctly as per the EMEI.
The ASM would chew your ears off. The example in the photo is the bodgiest I've seen and possibly not done in service.
The initial instruction for the mod, dated from memory mid 1944,,,, ah, found it LES P311... Quoting Ian...
Rectangular windows were cut into nosecap forsight protectors by field and base RAEME workshop unitsso as to permit foresight replacement or adjustment without removing the nosecap. This modification was introduced for production nosecaps in 1944 and was probably due to the favouragle experience with the foresight protector on the No4 rifle.
In the 1956 armourers instruction for this modification an alternative was advised for convenience in machining in which the rectangular aperture could be cut on the right side only, the aperture on the left side being replaced by a 3/8th " hole conforming with the centre of the rectangular aperture on the opposite foresight protector.
That pretty much settles that one. I personally don't think a great many got the mod toward the end of WW2, as i can't recall too many with both sides cut rectangular... However I have seen a few slightly inaccurate (to use the term loosely) rectangles done. These could well have been done with a drill press and a file, perhaps even by the hundreds as a "learning experience" for apprentices in the fifties.... I'd have had the little buggers doing it, for sure!