Sorry for the delay in replying.
Thank you for your replies.
The scope is an Aldis 4 and is marked "Aldis Brothers Birmingham No 154799"
The range drum is marked 1 to 6 and it has the standard post and crosswire reticule.
There do not appear to be any other marks on the scope or mount.
The scope is detachable in the same way as described earlier by Peter.
I'm no engineer but the actual mount on the rifle looks a lot harder to manufacture
than the scope rings. The mount is soldered and screwed to the charger bridge at the
rear and soldered and screwed to the receiver ring at the front. It actually shoots very well.
I will take some more pictures if anyone is interested.
Hello again Eric. I suspect your scope is one of the post WW1 products from Aldis, although is clearly of the military pattern. The serial number is outside the range found on the military contract instruments. I would also expect a broad arrow &/or a rifle serial number on it, if it was a Great War issue scope. Further, a WW1 sniping provenance to the rifle would be more plausible if the mount system was found on other known examples of WW1 British & Dominion rifles & scopes. It is possible that they are about, but I am unfamiliar with this system other than on the highly sporterised P'14's produced by BSA & shown to us in Nigel's post. This suggests they appeared in the 1920's.
Not withstanding the above, your rifle looks a beauty, & if she shoots well, even better. Enjoy her - she is certainly in the style of a Great War SMLE sniping rifle.
Last edited by Roger Payne; 02-08-2025 at 08:07 PM.
Thank you Roger.
I never thought it could be WW1. I actually got the rifle for the scope to put
in a set of overbore late war mounts. I eventually found a more correct Aldis
and used that instead.
I always wondered on its history so thanks again everyone for an interesting post.
Actually the turned down flat bolt handle ("spoon like") is very typical for Mannlicher Schönauer rifles.
I used the term "knob" only because there is no alternative which can describe all the possible permutations of a bolt handle's end, but in this case it appears the bolt handle is a plain rod with a round end; that was what I had never seen before.
From the shading in the photo it may be that there is a slight relief on forward face of the lever or arm near the lower end, but otherwise it looks like a plain rod with a half-round end.
There may be a very slight outward taper to the end of the handle, but the shadow on the muzzle side of the handle gives a false impression I suggest.
Presumably a special order like the sling loop on the guard.
Last edited by Surpmil; 02-09-2025 at 10:44 AM.
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PM
Originally Posted by Promo
