1941 Lithgow Range Rifle

[Bruce_in_Oz]

It is not exactly rocket science to fit a rear sight bed and leaf onto a heavy barrel.

In Oz, give Allan Hibbs at Kingaroy Firearms a call: he "has the technology" to machine standard ones out properly; not that there is a huge demand for it these days.

My very first SMLE, circa 1972, when I was still at high-school, was just like this one; a retired range rifle. It also had a "customised" nosecap: i.e., a previous owner had opened out the barrel hole with what was probably a rat-tailed file and belted a short piece of rubber hose in to form a "soft" bedding ring between the muzzle and the nosecap. The resulting "improvement" was not exactly round or concentric.

With a bit of machining assistance from my dad, I fitted a rear-sight assembly onto the heavy barrel, removed the dodgy old bit of hose from the muzzle and pumped in black silicone rubber to fill the gap after reassembling the rifle. It shot very nicely with the "white-label" FN Mk7 ball "pour Bren" that was abundant at the time. The "pink-label" FN stuff provided additional entertainment in low-light conditions.

B12629; where are you now?

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[Homer]

It is not exactly rocket science to fit a rear sight bed and leaf onto a heavy barrel.

In Oz, give Allan Hibbs at Kingaroy Firearms a call: he "has the technology" to machine standard ones out properly; not that there is a huge demand for it these days.

My very first SMLE, circa 1972, when I was still at high-school, was just like this one; a retired range rifle. It also had a "customised" nosecap: i.e., a previous owner had opened out the barrel hole with what was probably a rat-tailed file and belted a short piece of rubber hose in to form a "soft" bedding ring between the muzzle and the nosecap. The resulting "improvement" was not exactly round or concentric.

With a bit of machining assistance from my dad, I fitted a rear-sight assembly onto the heavy barrel, removed the dodgy old bit of hose from the muzzle and pumped in black silicone rubber to fill the gap after reassembling the rifle. It shot very nicely with the "white-label" FN Mk7 ball "pour Bren" that was abundant at the time. The "pink-label" FN stuff provided additional entertainment in low-light conditions.

B12629; where are you now?

B12629, 1924 action. Quite rare these days.