Repro brackets, read and digest.. (by Peter Laidler)

[Badger]

I saw this over on Jouster's forums and I thought some of you Enfield collectors might find it interesting.

Repro brackets, read and digest..

Posted By: Peter Laidler
Date: Mon 3 Mar 2008 12:04 pm

I read with interest many forumers views about the good and bad of the many No32/No4T/L42 telescope brackets that are appearing on the market. Some talk about the fact that the two bracket cradles are correctly line bored, even showing two centres aligning! Quite what this proves in a single plane is beyond me….., while others go on about this and that while others sing the praises of ….., I could go on.

But of the many ideals, there is ONE that you should all note. Not just note mind you, but note WELL. In fact, you MUST download this little article and keep it if you own, ever WANT to own or even hope to own a bracket-less No4T or an L42 in the future. The bracket, whether at the factory or at Base workshops where they might be replaced or re-fitted, was fitted exactly to THAT rifle both vertically and horizontally and a collimator was inserted into the cradles and clamped down. This collimator was a x1 magnification optical sight with fine cross hairs that were exactly in the centre line of the telescope. Then, when the rifle was bench mounted in the Enfield rest and bore sighted, the collimator would fall EXACTLY on the datum mark of the ‘spotting board’. This was EXACTLY vertical and, if my memory serves me right, 1.75” above the bore.

There was a slight relaxation left and right and a little more leeway for range.

Now you might not have a collimator, but you have a very good second best. It’s called a No32 telescope. If you are looking to buy a nefarious bracket, this is what I want you to do. Roll the front and rear of your telescope between a set of vee blocks or even two vee shaped bits of wood and watch the path of the point of the graticule against a distant aiming point (DAP) while you roll it. Then using the slightly loosened lead screws, bring the tip of the pointer left/right/up/down until it rotates through 360 degrees on the same point of the DAP. You have effectively centred the grat in the telescope. Yes, that’s right …., you’ve collimated it and you have yourself a collimator. I’ll let you into a little secret here. We didn’t use any of the highly tuned special kit ….., that stayed in the store because all we used was an old, simple to use, easily understood by all, No53 telescope, machined to diameter with the crosshairs centred!

Now YOU know that when you mount your centred telescope into the bracket you hope to buy, then mount the bracket onto the rifle, then boresight the bore to a given mark or DAP then if the bracket is any good, the point of the grat should sit (almost, but give or take a few clicks left/right/up/down) on the DAP too.

It’s as easy as that. And if it doesn’t………….., well … If it’s VERY close/within a few clicks, you can adjust it on the range and deflection lead screws. If its up to 10 clicks or so, then the fit of the bracket on the rifle will have to be adjusted. If it’s more than that, don’t bother.

I suppose if you had a ‘replica’ No4T/L42 then you could adjust/shim-up the pads for deflection but how you’d adjust the elevation/depression, heaven knows as this has never affected us armourers. Now, read that again and digest well. I’ll be asking the class questions afterwards……………………………

It's interesting feedback from a world renowned expert who writes books about Enfield No.32 scopes, yet as I commented in a separate thread on this subject CLICK HERE, we've not experienced any problems zeroing or shooting with them on ~Angel~'s No.4(T) collection. I guess we've been very lucky.

Regards,
Badger

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