H Burton Wilson made aperture sight mounting plate for SMLE

[Kiwi]

Never seen or heard of one of these mounting plates before, can anyone shed any light on the manufacturer or the quality of a H Burton Wilson aperture sight mounting plate? It is apparently made of brass.

Information

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[muffett.2008]

It's a newie on me, Any ideas Swede?

[Son]

Hmmm... looks awfully similar to the early BSA side plate. I wonder if Mr Burton Wilson made a mold and copied them out of brass?

[Lee Enfield]

I have a SMLE MkIII* target rifle marked with a stamping of:

H.
Burton-Wilson on both sides of the butt stock

I'll try to photo and attach a pic here in the next little while.

[Chris B.]

Gentlemen,

H. Burton Wilson was a armorer at camp bisley in the early 1900's. He would take military No1 MkIII's and accurize them. He was noted to use the BSA sights over the Parker Hale ones due to ease of fitting on the rifles.

[Lee Enfield]

Gentlemen,

H. Burton Wilson was a armorer at camp bisley in the early 1900's. He would take military No1 MkIII's and accurize them. He was noted to use the BSA sights over the Parker Hale ones due to ease of fitting on the rifles.

Hello Chris, would you have a closer date bracket than that?

Thanks D

[muffett.2008]

Yeah, that is a tad confusing, as McCubbins original patented sight, which became the BSA No.9, was not made until 1909 and was mounted directly to the rifle.
The first BSA mounting plate was patent 22,619 1909 and used from 1911.
Parker Hale was not a recognised trademark until 1930, so obviously we mean A.G Parker.
This is Alfred Gray Parker and Son A.G. Parker Jnr. and his son A.J. Parker.
A.T.C Hale although related and considered a partner, was only involved in the accountancy side of the business. The son, A.J Parker was considered to be the main designer, he left the company in 1928 after a falling out with the Hales, and commenced his own business.
As most of the early sights up until about the 1920's were still used directly attached, using various offset leg designs, the only early manufacturer providing mount brackets for his sights was Tippins.

[Chris B.]

If you need more info on H Burton Wilson, contact the UK NRA, they have a wealth of information on this stuff and are more than willing to help out!

[SMLEUK]

H Burton Wilson worked at Bisley from at least 1907 to 1930. I have copies of some of his personal correspondence spanning these dates. He advertised in the UK NRA magazine from 1922 to 1930 when ads were no longer allowed. As Chris mentioned the UK NRA is very helpful and I encourage anyone to contact them with questions.

[muffett.2008]

Thanks SMLEUK, thats more the clarification we were seeking, a definative time frame, as to the UK NRA being helpful, well......
I never seem to get a response to my emails.