Need help identifying unusual Enfield rear sight

[RBruce]

I would appreciate the information behind the comments from the esteemed contributor. Obviously, he has a wealth of knowledge. But, rude opinions don't impart that knowledge to the rest of us who are on the dark.

BTW, I have been a casual collector of British weapons for about 20 years. Items I have owned include a Webley .38-200, a Webley .455 trimed for the .45 ACP in clips, a 1908 No.1, a 1916 No.1, No.4s by Savage, BSA, Longbranch, and Fazakerly, a No.5, various bayonets and web gear. I also have several reference books, but consider myself a novice in the subject of British firearms.

Cheers

[jmoore]

Mr Laidler has WRITTEN some of those reference books, AND was there for good long while.

[Peter Laidler]

To be fair RBruce, someone asked what the sight was for and being an Armourer of the era and knowing a little bit about the Army and its weapons, I told 'em. It's really as simple as that. I could have cleaned up the flowery language a bit but it wasn't foul or offensive or abusive in any way.

I'll be a bit more circumspect in the future but unless me or another real Armourer tell you this stuff now, soon it'll be too late. To go into the reasoning behind certain decisions and the administrative background would take another book and I ain't got that long...................

[RBruce]

Thank you for pointing me to the "ill fated" L81A1. After a bit of Internet searching, here's what I found.

[RBruce]

Too large.

[Strangely Brown]

Peter do we know the fate of the L81A1?
Will/have they been scrapped or sold overseas?

[Peter Laidler]

I think that some/most of them have been sold off. Certainly several are now in Australia and others in the US.

[Donzi]

Thanks for the warning, Peter :-)
Donzi

[Brian Dick]

The moral of the story is, please don't bugger your rear sight axis pin hole to install that sight which was never designed for the No.4 but unfortunately marketed as such by an unscrupulous company from New Jersey that most of us here in the USA all know and love. I've got one in the repair rack right now that someone did it to, (a nice No.4Mk.2), and I'm going to have to sleeve the holes in order to get a proper Mk.1 rear sight back on. He also drilled the little hole on the side of the body for the ball detent so I'll remove it, fill it with steel filled epoxy and touch it up with Suncorite to restore it to it's former original configuration.

[Surpmil]

Too large.

Notice how they put the Enfield pattern gas escape hole in though!

P14s would have been a better choice if they had to have a Mauser action.