Central peep sight

[tbonesmith]

Probably a Mauser.

[Son]

Been reading the thread with great interest. I don't think anyone who has tried them would ever say a bad word about the Central sights. I've used quite a lot of different sights over the past several years, but only for short periods, some only for a single match.
One I have found that I prefer over the Central is the Lane. They are very similar in operation except that instead of the windage arm going up and down the elevation slide, the arm and slide are one piece raising and lowering at the mount point. This allows the sight to sit much lower overall on the rifle unless shooting at extreme ranges- making it in my opinion a littler more robust and less exposed to accidental damage.
I currently have a PH5a on a vintage range rifle, a Central on my Lithgow SS Target rifle, and another loose Central. On my Omark is a Lane. 5 Lanes total with the one I'm waiting on...
The Lane SMLE side plate has a grubscrew at the base for squaring it on the action. This can also be used to square it after putting a packing washer under the side plate to take away the need to cut the woodwork. I had one on my Lithgow Slazenger Mod24 Hornet for a while but my daughter preferred open sights, so it came off again.

The Lane I have coming looks to have been made to fit the Central mounting plate. A few others over time have made both their own mount plates and set their sights up to fit Central plates as well. Rawson springs to mind here. This is a strong indicator as to how much of the market Central had!

I have seen a Clark sight before, but It's one I don't have a pic of on file.
It looks like a decent bit of gear, and I would be interested in hearing your opinion once you've used it.

Here's a couple of pics.

[Peter Laidler]

Complicated or what Son...................... Compared to a simple PH 5 type

[RJW NZ]

perhaps parker hale TX 1200, they mount on top like that.

[BushyFromOz]

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...t7QH_121-1.jpg

That looks to me like it has had an overhaul by the people who make the T'mac sights. I noted that most of the guys at the range have had their central sights rebuilt with new springs and a modified block, usually running gehmann eye pieces and shade tubes.

I had spoke to a couple of guys about using the adaptors to fit gehmann iris's to mine, but was told that the adaptors are often not quite concentric and you end up with a rear peep that is slightly ovular once you screw the gehmann iris into the Parker hale adaptor which is screwed into the central.

http://www.shootingindustriesaustralia.com/page003.html

Perhaps they have original eye piece mounting blocks from the conversions you could have it rebuilt to original spec?

---------- Post added at 07:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:31 PM ----------

Interested in your comment that they were the best target sight made Surp. Can you elaborate. Better than the PH and AGP twin zeroes? Surely they'd have to go some to beat those.

I havn't seen any parker hale sights hanging off any custom RPA or barnard rifles, seen plenty of centrals though

[Calfed]

Thanks for all the good information, guys.

These sights are fascinating...a whole new aspect to military surplus collecting

[Peter Laidler]

Got that Bushy. I expect that the real shooters are using the Central sights for the opening rounds of the competitions and then when the REAL competition starts, they switch and use their Pommy Parker Hale or AG Parker sights................. A bit like using your best car for Sundays!

Regards, Pete the Pom!

[Brian Dick]

I've got a good friend who's a retired Gov't Armorer and a former U.S. Palma team member who also swears by the Centrals. I've got a couple here someplace and a base plate. I'll have to give one a try.

[Peter Laidler]

But don't forget to change it for a P-H or AGParker when the real competition starts Brian. Us Poms have just got to keep these whippersnapper antipodeans in their place............. I think it's time to send a gunboat down there to sort them out!

[BushyFromOz]

I gunboat would be a change of pace i guess, not like you can ship prisoners here anymore