SMLE Rear sight question

[Pablo]

Hey guys,

Bit of a novice question here............

I recently bought a '41 Lithgow that has had a heavy barrel installed on it. (shame cause its all matching stock and all apart fromt the barrel.) Its has no standard rear sight on the barrel and has had a Central no 4 range sight added on the receiver . I bought it cause it was cheap and needed someone who'd love it to take it home (mistreated by previous owner) not for the H barrel or the range sight.

So, what are my options as far as getting a standard rear sight back on this thing?
And if it is possible...whats the process?
I'd love to get her looking original.

I'm very inexperienced when it comes to stripping down the no 1. My other 2 are pristine so ive never wanted to pull them apart. I just shoot and clean them. This is the first one i've stripped down to bare bits and peices so i'm still learning how all the works.

Paul

Information

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[Thunderbox]

A standard rearsight bed can be made to fit, but it does require some metalwork and precision fitting: briefly, you have to cut/split the rearsight base and enlarge it to fit the wider-diameter H barrel. You then have to make a pin hole or braze the base onto the barrel - taking care to ensure it is correctly located.

An alternative might be to find a gunsmith to take off the H barrel and fit a standard one. You'd then have to pack out the barrel channel in the places where it was relieved for the H barrel.

Simplest solution of all would be to buy another (standard) rifle for military shooting, and save your H rifle for target shooting...

[Peter Laidler]

I watched my old boss, W)2 'Jock' Annandale at Ngaruawahi fit up a standard backsight to a heavy barrelled No1 rifle and he did pretty well as suggested by Thunderbox but he (Jock.....) split the base at the bottom and dollied it open using the H barrel as a sort of former (In fact, I think he used a bit of bar turned to the H barrel taper on the lathe next to my workbench because I watched him doing it while I was scrapping some useless L2A1's......). When the backsight bed was sort of roughly to shape he tacked the gap with a bit of plate and reamed it the final few .000"s to the exact taper and fit. Then the tacked on plate was unpicked and the bed which didn't quite encircle the barrel was soft soldered in place.

Being 'Jock' and the boss, I wouldn't imagine that it ever came loose. Mind you, he was a MasterM, a master craftsman andwe had a good workshop and Ray Hurley had a good tool store so it did make life easy

[muffett.2008]

It would be a lot simpler to obtain one that has been reamed out for the heavy barrel, they are out ther and available.
Or you could have your local armourer do it for you.

[Bindi2]

Go with muffet on this one. But then what is wrong with a range rifle even if it dose not have the full wood if it dose then leave it as is

[Pablo]

Thanks fellas.

Looks like she'll stay a range rifle.

[Rowdy]

Get a standard rear sight assembly and find a competant gunsmith to ream/turn the base out - Lithgow must have produced them for their H barreled rifles.

[Peter Laidler]

Can we assume from that Rowdy that there is sufficient internal meat within the standard backsight bed to alllow it to be reamed oversize to H barrel size?

[muffett.2008]

Can we assume from that Rowdy that there is sufficient internal meat within the standard backsight bed to alllow it to be reamed oversize to H barrel size?

Yes peter, they usually ream out nicely.

[Demo]

Not so easy to machine out without the correct reamer and if you pick one up already reamed it may not necessarily fit your barrel well. Nothing worse than wasting your money on an item that may not fit.

Thunderbox's method is easy and cheap.