Mystery Item?

[Flying10uk]

Back in the mid 1970's my father was given various Air Raid Wardens odds and ends, nothing very exciting, various unused forms and paperwork and an assortment of odds and sods. Amongst the items that my father received was this item, seen in the photos, which appears to be "home made" and I rather think is not Civil Defence or Air Raid Warden related. I believe that my father was given several similar items to the one that has "resurfaced" recently.

We don't believe it to be Air Raid Warden related but other than that we don't know what the item is or purpose it serves. It could quite well be Home Guard related, because of the "sight like" silhouette painted on it, but that is pure speculation on my part. What purpose the small hole in the centre serves I don't know. There appears to be a steel tack hammered fully in on the plain, bottom, end.

I am sure that the purpose of this item is obvious to someone?

Many thanks for any replies and information.

Information

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[Mk VII]

It's an aiming disc; the instructor looks through the hole at the pupil aiming his rifle at his eye to see if the alignment is correct.

Musketry (·303 and ·22 cartridges), by E. John Solano--a Project Gutenberg eBook


Under no circumstances will drill rounds and eyediscs be in use at the same time.
You can still buy them in India, it appears Aiming Disc / Eye Disc. Singhal Enterprises. Tele : 011-2852 6831

[Flying10uk]

Thanks for that.

I would assume that it was made by the Home Guard unit during WW2.

[browningautorifle]

I agree, aiming disc...we used them until a short time ago.

[Mk VII]

In wartime, many units had to improvise stores out of whatever was lying around. So, yes, Home Guard, cadets, schools, local military units.

[emmagee1917]

Something similar was used over here . Ours had a student lay down behind a rifle fixed into position on the floor and look through the sights . A second student moved the disk across a blank paper by directions of the shooter . When it was in the proper place , the instructor either used a pencil or straight pin to mark or punch a hole through the hole into the paper . The disk was just a black disk .
Chris

[browningautorifle]

a student lay down behind a rifle fixed into position on the floor and look through the sights . A second student moved the disk across a blank paper by directions of the shooter . When it was in the proper place , the instructor either used a pencil or straight pin to mark or punch a hole through the hole into the paper

We did the same practice until we moved away from iron sights, then it was not really possible with optics. The same aiming disc was used, we had one side painted black and one was half white and black as in a tin hat target... We did both types of practice. One was called aiming discs and the other triangulation. The use of a pencil was the triangulation and the THREE pencil dots were joined and measured, had to be less than 1/4" to pass the practice. It was just to see if you could achieve the sight picture the same way each time.

The first practice was to see if the sights or rifle moved when the firer released his dry shot, thus an eye watching the tip of the sights through the hole in the center of the disc...see?

[Flying10uk]

I had been looking for some vinyl records in order to try out a vintage record player. I didn't find the vinyl but i did find the item pictured in post 1 and thank-you for informing me that it is an aiming disc, chaps. I believe that I may have a couple more of theses discs, that came from the same source, and that I will now put with my other Home Guard items.

[nzl1a1collector]

[Flying10uk]

Jim, what was the "protocol" when using the aiming sticks and a "live" rifle or a "D.P." for that matter? I'm assuming that the instructor handed the student the rifle after the instructor had checked the rifle to see that it wasn't loaded and then the student checked the rifle again because the student had just been "handed a rifle"? Thanks.