Question for anyone with Lithgow H barrelled rifle

[smle addict]

The rear sight protector on my H appears to be unaltered, and sits just below the barrel

[Homer]

Yeah, the rear sight protector

I just felt that Fredericks post went off on a bit of a tangent there and needed to clarify.
Gents, on a factory H model conversion, there is no difference to the contact points between barrel and channel, and the nosecaps were not enlarged. Anything other than this is not conventional factory practice.

[Frederick303]

From the Wigg-Parker Hale Australian Edition score book, 1937 rules version, printed in 1939.

Under rules, Australian , approved 14 April 1937, put into operation 1 July 1937

Under rifle rules Part 7 it says:

Removal backsight or handguard from SMLE not permitted, nor interference or alteration sight protector portion of nose cap.

They cover the full range of converted MLE, SMLE and H SMLE rifles. P14 rifles were not allowed in 1937 through 1960, unlike the UK rules which allowed the P14 from 1935 on.

Interestingly they include elevation charts for the MK VI ammunition, with separate columns for the H SMLE and SMLE service weight barrel.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The whole business of opening out the nose-cap is part of the "voodoo" associated with target rifles.

There was some notion that if the nose-cap hole was "opened", that the "H" barrel was "free to do whatever "H" barrels are supposed to do.

However, the bedding for the standard barrel is SPECIFICALLY designed to tune the barre / fore-end combination TO THE AMMO.

Next thing, shooters were stuffing in a collar made from an off-cut of garden hose, to fill the gap between the muzzle and the nasty hole that had been hacked out with a rat-tailed file!

Note that early SMLEs built for MkVI ammo, have a different INTERNAL set-up.

All of those springs, plungers and collars on a standard, post say, 1916 Mk111 / 111* are there for a VERY good reason.

When the Australian rifle association(s) changed the rules on barrel length (circa 1930) it was because they were still (sort-of) taking seriously, the legal fact that they were, under the Defence Act, a part of the Defence System. Thus, somebody twigged that the ancient, "Long" Lee Enfields, were no longer "issue" rifles. Simple solution was to lop off the extra inches of barrel, do a bit of baisic carpentry and you had a rifle with the same barrel length as the "service" rifle, BUT it had a HEAVIER barrel profile, and thus, being "stiffer", could actually (appear) to "out-shoot" the Gucci SMLEs with their "skinny" barrels.

If you reckon the profile of the "H" barrel looks suspiciously like a L.E., it is because it DOES have the profile of a "bobbed" L. E. barrel with a SMLE Knox Form and with the muzzle end turned down to accommodate the far superior front-sight arrangement of the No1 Mk 111(*). There is good reason to believe that the "H" barrels were initially made to re-barrel those abbreviated older rifles that needed a new barrel. Note that Lithgow made "full-length" L.E. barrels up into the early 1930s.

The rules got more "bent out of shape" when the requirement that only "issue" sights were allowed in all matches, quietly went out the window. Suddenly, nose-caps were being "relieved" or trimmed to allow tunnel fore-sights to be fitted. BSA and others had been making very neat and quite clever "folding' rear-sight units for a LONG time. These bolt on to the receiver where the safety catch spring normally goes and most will fold down into the fore-end cut-out for the old "volley-sight" aperture.

Like an olde-time version of IPSC, the "game" quickly got away from its roots. Sadly, "proper" service matches, like Rapid and Snap, (let alone "Run-Down' events), were steadily done away with until it was all just deliberate / "slow-fire" shooting, (with government -supplied ammo). That was about the only rule that wasn't tweaked, it was Mk Vll ball, or nothing. Given the "price", nobody complained too much about that.

[BushyFromOz]

The whole business of opening out the nose-cap is part of the "voodoo" associated with target rifles.

There was some notion that if the nose-cap hole was "opened", that the "H" barrel was "free to do whatever "H" barrels are supposed to do.

Which makes me believe that this was set up as either fully floating or center bedded and floated from the mid point of the barrel, whihc is what i would put it back to. I was just curious to know if the rear sight guard needed relieving to do it.

I cant stand that look of those target rifles with no rear sight or sight guard on it