M1903 / A1 Sniper Rifle Scope Mounts

[cplstevennorton]

Yeah as Herschel said, they are just O and E Unertl blocks. On the real rifles you see two different rear sight bases. Both appear to be made by Unertl as both are marked as such. But one has the WRA hole on both sides of the block for the thumb screw, like on the A5. It also has more square ends of the block. The other has more rounded ends and only has the WRA hole on the left side of the block. The more round with one hole is more common, but both are found on real rifles. I believe the more square might be earlier as it has holes on both sides, and that was an outdated style even in WWII. So I think the one hole was a revision, maybe wartime production. But I can't find any documentation on them. They are spaced 7.2 inches center to center of the blocks. Which yields 1/4 adjustments for each click on the 8X USMC Unertl 1 1/4 target scope.

But here are two side by side. So you can sort of get a look of them. These are the two variations the Marines used in Sniper Conversion. Both are NM rifles. But the top still maintains it's orignal Star Gauged barrel. The bottom is a NM that the barrel was replaced by the Marines with a standard barrel. The Marines did not buy star gauged barrels from SA to rebarrel the NM rifles. The Marines called these Rebarreled NM rifles, special targets. Both types of rifles were converted to snipers in WWII by the Marines.