Unknown windage adjustable SM41 No4 backsight

[Surpmil]

Posting for a friend known to some of us. He bought this sight in the UK. It was found with a large quantity of surplus No4 backsights.

Interesting points are that the elevation wheel is SM41 marked, as is the slide, but the sight body is not.

There was probably a leaf spring with pressed in projections to match the detents on the windage wheel. Presumably this spring would have been screwed to the side of the rifle body.

The windage wheel appears to be too far from the backsight ear for there to have been a hole drilled with a detent plunger or ball and spring.

The elevation wheel has been made smaller and a small area milled out of the top left side of the sight body to allow the sight to fold down while adjusted to the left or right of center.

Has anyone seen reference to a sight like this? Could it be related to the experiments with windage adjustable backsights for No4(T)s?

Information

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[Alan de Enfield]

It looks to me like the ones sold on ebay (on a weekly basis) which are allegedly "Parker Hale No4 windage Sniper sights". Normally make around GBP £50 / US$75

Maybe the one you (your friend has) has had the top corner ground down by "bubba"

However you do need to drill out the pivot pin hole and add another hole in your action to make them work - obviously you can then never fit an original sight again.

[RJW NZ]

I think sarco is the source, better than the auction site.

[Simon P]

Its been many years since I used the L81A1 Cadet Target Rifle, did this rifle have a similar sight?

[Mk VII]

Yes, that's what they come from. If there's a scale on the left side of the leaf, that clinches it.

[rgg_7]

The sight is a MK1 modified for windage. The windage adjustment screw and knob are from a CNo7 (Canadian 22 trainer). Nice job. Ron

[Surpmil]

Thanks for the replies, but this has been in my friend's hands for several decades and was purchased near Portsmouth in the UK. It was found in among hundreds of standard No4 backsights.

Notice that the elevation wheel or knob is higher/thicker than standard and is marked SM41. In other words, a factory job.

The hole for the threaded axis pin is smaller diameter than the standard axis pin. Was it sleeved? I doubt it. If not, it must have been made smaller from new, at the factory.

The first, smaller shoulder on the windage wheel/knob fits into the axis pin hole, but the next larger shoulder is too long and makes the wheel and the detents on its inside stand out too far from the backsight ear for any ball bearing or plunger arrangement, which is why I theorized about the leaf spring.

Probably something will show up in the UK records one day.

[Peter Laidler]

It's clearly a simple windage adjustable backsight. The narrower wheel and cut-out on the left side is to allow the sight to fold and clear the charger bridge when it is adjusted over to the left or right. But to be honest, from the pictures, the amount of windage available would make it a non starter. Ok for a few hundred yards range but at greater distances, insufficient windage. That's only my opinion

[Simon P]

This one is on an auction site at the moment & is described as a Parker Hale L81A1 sight

[Peter Laidler]

Yes......, these were for the Cadet Target rifle, the L81. The problem was that this was a rifle done on the cheap although PH insisted that it was a commercial derivative of their sniper rifle. It was accurate but not with that backsight! Unlike the L42, which was 7.62mm and used the same yards scale, the L42 slide was recalibrated so that when you zeroed at.......................... anyway! Using this sight it was a real hit and miss affair whether you even got close to the centre spot because the actual range scale bore absolutely no relation to, well....., anything. And when you did get into the screen, it was all down to remembering where the slide datum line was in relation to the range on the leaf. After that, it was all down to counting the clicks. Alas.........., the clicks on a No4 backsight don't equate to minutes of angle or anything now that I think about it! And when you're using a METRE calibrated range they could be .............., or do I mean a YARD calibrated range................... See what I mean?

I borrowed an L81 once during a competition when I was forced to use iron sights. I studied the book, boresighted, kicked the tyres and it still defeated me. It gets worse, because when you've learned all the theory for the big day, it turns out that some of the sights (the rifle I borrowed) had a 0 to 800 YARD sight (an ex No5 sight, left over and used on the cheap) And the longest range I was going to shoot at was 900 metres.

Later when I used an L81 in a competition against some iron sighted L39's and 42's, the PH twin zero backsights fouled the bolt.

Here's 3 bits of advice. Don't invade Russia, Don't buy one of these sights and don't EVER buy one of the L81 rifles