Range Graduations for MkVI ammunition on British/Dominion WW1 scopes.....
This is just a little offshoot from one of the other current threads in which the subject was touched on of WW1 scopes cropping up occasionally with range drums graduated for MkVI ball ammunition. Forummer Madzi suggested that this phenomenon might be a 'theatre specific' finding - perhaps seen on scopes used in say, Gallipoli, where much ammunition in use was the 'old' round nosed MkVI ball. It sounded very plausible & to cut a long story short, as I was exchanging correspondence with Ian Skennerton over something else I asked him what he thought. He replied to me earlier today & is definitely convinced that this this is the only reasonable explanation, citing the widespread use of MkVI ammunition by ANZAC forces whilst on the peninsula, supported by the fact that the Colonial Ammunition Company were making MkVI for some years after the UK had ceased producing it in quantity for Imperial forces.
It's not irrefutable proof, but the feeling on the forum was that it sounded quite likely, & that belief has been supported by Ian. It might just be of interest if you have a scope with 'Mk VI' engraved on the range drum.
Telescopic sights in Gallipoli
As promised I did go up in the loft to sort through some files. I found an article "Sniping in Gallipoli" by Wes Olson published in the Australian Shooter (no date that I could find). A few interesting points:
1. There is a picture of 11th Battalion sniper Herbert Hitch with the captured Turkish rifle he used for sniping. His normal duties were of the Battalion's PostMaster.
2. The author refers to telescopic sighted rifles being issued to the filed engineer companies as trench stores which could be requested by units as required. The first use of PPCo. sighted rifles was by the 5th Batt. in June. In August, the 16th Batt. requested " trench periscopes, 12 periscope rifles, three telescopic sight rifles,20 steel loopholes".
3. Other interesting trench stores were Maxim silencers but these would only fit Long Lee Enfields. A Divisional report of October 16th, 1915 noted: the instrument is very effective... and also very effective as a "flame extinguisher" (I think that means flash suppressor) for use for night sniping.
4. On December 9th Corporal John Brown of the 10th Light Horse wrote in his diary "Went up to a good possie and had some sniping with a telescopic rifle".
All the above is not actually from the article I was looking for! I'm now going to have to rip the study apart to find it but hopefully the snippets above lend credence to the argument that telescopic sighted sniper rifles were used on Gallipoli - along with other interesting trench stores such as Maxim silencers.
Roger - Ithink we need to build a Long Lee sniper with Maxim silencer - that would raise a few eyebrows.