Making Up a Useable No.1 MkIII HT Sniper

[newbieDAN]

Guys, I'm going to try to put to paper my attempt to replicate for myself a Lithgow HT sniper. There is little to no information on the collimation processes, but I'm going to try and muddle through. Hopefully with assistance and patience and learned skillz I hope to be successful.

A little bit about me. Firstly I'm no gunsmith nor armorer. I'm what you'd call and enthusiastic novice. Having said that I'm not without experience or expertize. I'm a building designer, which means I'm a design draftsman, so precision, drawing documentation and problem solving is my daily.

The goal is to take my newly acquired, and serviced by me, short bracket sight telescopic pattern 1918 scope (Aust)/1 and fit it to my 1916 Lithgow H.

What I don't have is the mounting brackets that fit the rings to the rifle.

The attempt is to get some replica brackets made up from drawings I'll have to produce. Get those said brackets manufactured. Then go through the process of collimation and fitting the scope to the rifle.

It's a large undertaking, and the purpose of this 'blog' is to try to replicate a procedure that has been lost in time, hopefully unearthing documentation and getting advise and collective experience to assist me on my way.

What I have so far to create my drawings:
I have the brackets on my scope, these have been soldiered to the body of the scope.
So I have the measurements of my brackets.
I also have a copy the drawings for the high bracket rings.
I've been offered the opportunity to measure a HT to get dimensions of the bases.
I've got the ability to 3D model up my measurements to have a CNC machine spit them out.

So there you have it, open for criticism and advice, guidance and ridicule.

I'll be asking a lot of questions too.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[newbieDAN]

First question of many.

I've been looking over Peter's Making up a usable sniper, based on the 4T.
Milsurps - Making Up a Useable No.4 Sniper - Part 1 (by Peter Laidler)

I have a good friend Paul, who is getting sorted a No4, and as such has made up the plastic wedge block to center or collimate the No.32 scope. I was around there the other day and put my Pattern 1918 on it to center the graticule to the optical axis in the 1918 tube. This was accomplished quite easily using Peter's system.

Here's the thing.

I'd assumed that once the graticule was centered on the tubes optical axis, that would be the 'zero' position... But when I read off the indicated range of where my range drum pointed with the graticule centered it was more like 550 yards. Again it's hard to know if the range drum scale plate had been messed with. If I reset the range drum to the 100yard indicator (the lowest it goes to the stop) with the graticule centered, the range drum wouldn't turn all the way up to 1000yards, as there was not enough range in the adjustment, it stopped turning round 950.


So this is where the scope/rifle collimation data would be handy!

Peters article speaks of 250yards being the point where the DAP (distant aim point) where the trajectory of a .303 MkVII ball round crosses the optical axis of the scope at 1.7" above the bore. I suppose I need information about the trajectory crossing of a Mk7 at the optical centre of scopes fitted to both the low and high brackets?

[Old Lancer]

Well done mate fo having a go, I knocked up a "T" clone myself and am well pleased with the results.
Do you think you will have your beastie ready for this years Service rifle Queens at Capel? I heard on the grapevine there may be a sniper match this year.

[newbieDAN]

Pictures of the scope

Attachment 26355Attachment 26356Attachment 26354Attachment 26353

[newbieDAN]

Well done mate fo having a go, I knocked up a "T" clone myself and am well pleased with the results.
Do you think you will have your beastie ready for this years Service rifle Queens at Capel? I heard on the grapevine there may be a sniper match this year.

Paul will have his T up and running by then, but I doubt I'll be sorted...but it's something to work towards.

A sniper match would be great...I might go and talk to the grapevine.

[Peter Laidler]

Newbie.........., there is a way of getting the full range. The 'stop' is caused by the stop-pin coming up against its stop so to speak. You have to lift off the range drum and rotate it a further 1/4 of a turn anti or clock wise. The try again. If it went from 0 to 10 originally, then it will do so again. Difficult to explain without one handy as unlike the thousands of No32's, I've only done a few hundred P'18's and the like

[newbieDAN]

Peter I have got the full range now, basically the range drum was just a tad stiff coming up to the 1000yard mark.

The little stop pin on the 'ring, scale, range' is actually attached to it, and not hindering movement, just the graticule guide had a little stiffness to overcome towards the extent of it's range.

So basically all's well, and scope collimated, reset and zero'ed along it's optical center line.

I have some information to hand about the high brackets. Which doesn't exactly relate to my scope, but I'll put them here anyway.
*the optical center of the scope is 1.020" from the flat of the base of the ring
*the optical center of the rear base to inside edge of square tapered 'pin', is 0.740" & 0.739"
*the tapered pin on the rear is 0.400" to 0.399" square
*cross pin center line on tapered pin 0.260" with a radius of 0.106"
*front ring center to center line of cross pin 1.371"
*pin radius (with clearance) 0.114"

[newbieDAN]

Attachment 26365Attachment 26364Attachment 26363Attachment 26362Attachment 26361Attachment 26360Attachment 26359

[tbonesmith]

There was a bloke in Sydney I heard about who was seriously looking at reproducing a batch of 8 bases for HT's. The price he was looking at was high but nothing compared to the cost of a one off. The pair might have been something like $800.
I could ask around to see what came of the project if you like.
I have definitely seen the odd repro front base. The rear one looks like a PITA, as well as the mounting of it.

[Old Lancer]

Just an idea Newbie Dan, check out this item #370537011652 on E-Bay, these repro P14 scope mounts look remarkably similar to the HT mounts I've seen and may be a good starting point for a little modification, might be a crap idea but it could be worth a try

British Lee Enfield 303 P14 P-14 sniper scope mount | eBay