P.14 & M. 17 Historical Query

[DocLee]

One thing I know about the P14, and that is that it is one of the most acurate rifles I had the pleasure of shooting. My Eddy Stone P14 helped me to win several .303 compititions.
It is fitted with a Parker Hale target sight as was installed for sniping during WW2.
During the First WW three accurised No.3 (P14's) were issued per batallion, with side mounted scopes. During WW2 the same scope configuration, as well as center mounted scopes were used on the No.3 (P14) sniper rifles alongside the Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1 (T).
In a photograph on our website, (LERASA) a group of Royal Marine Snipers that finished a refresher cours are posing with two of these No.3 (P14) sniper rifles.
I also converted a P14 that had it's furniture severly mutilated when I got it into a very accurate modern day sniper rifle. This rifle is one of the best long range rifles I've ever owned. I often use it to hunt at fairly long distances.

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[Surpmil]

During the First WW three accurised No.3 (P14's) were issued per batallion, with side mounted scopes.

If I'm not mistaken, the P14 was only issued with the fine adjustment backsight for sniping in WWI as the No3 MkI*(F). Post-war this combination was the sniping rifle issue in Territorial battalions, while regular battalions got the No3 MkI*(T) with the Pattern 18 telescopic sight.

Thus the gospel according to Skennerton.

Apparently some authorities considered the P14 with F sight to be more accurate than the SMLE with telescopic sights. Accurate perhaps, but they left out target acquisition and speed of aiming... However, military orthodoxy returned with a vengeance post-WWI and sniping was lucky to survive at all I suppose. (The Machine Gun Corps for example was disbanded, despite having the King as Colonel in Chief!)

According to Skennerton it was intended in 1921 that the 3000+ Aldis scopes be retained for possible future use, but apparently only a few hundred were, if any, as when the impossible occured in 1939 the authorities were scrabbling for any scopes they could find. The odds & ends fitted up by Alex Martin to 421 of the Winchester P14s held in store for possible future sniper use, show I think that there were few if any scopes in store.

My personal guess is that they had none, and simply bought up whatever the gun trade and Aldis had lying around in 1940, as well as emptying out the Pattern Room's collection of 29 or so rifles.