My 1945 No.4(T) has been resting quietly in its transit chest for most of the past 40 years-- until last week when I decided to give it some serious exercise. The entire assemblage--rifle, telescope and mount-- are essentially new and unused, complete and matching, just as withdrawn from store in April 1963, according to the stenciling on the chest. It has been fired on two occasions during those years, each time just a few rounds only at relatively close range, mostly to test trigger pull and general functioning without any particular attention paid to accuracy. It was thereafter cleaned and put away. I have no reason to imagine that the elevation and deflection drums were disturbed.

Anyway, without thinking too much about it, I wiped out the bore, mounted the scope and proceeded to fire a few rounds to see how it would group at 175 yards. To my amazement I wasn't even on the paper. Only then did I look more closely and realized that the elevation setting was at "8". Feeling a bit silly, I thought: "Well, of course, you idiot", but then discovered that the drum would not rotate, at least not with my arthritic fingers. The deflection drum was correctly set at "0", so experimentally I tried moving that a click or two; it also would not budge.

At that point, being unfamiliar with the adjustment procedure, I stopped everything and consulted Peter Laidlericon's fine booklet on the No.32 scopes to study the exploded view and parts list. It appeared that whatever was wrong, it probably was not mechanically related to the lead screw and its locking nut (which I have not touched); moreover the drum and its knurled cover were separate parts held in unison only by friction. However, mine were locked solid, stubbornly resisting any movement individually or together.

Concluding that knowledge should be applied before force, I decided to ask. How should I proceed?

M
Information
Warning: This is a relatively older thread
This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.