No. 4 MK I T Sporter *PICS*

[Scout Sniper]

Why would a sniper polish any of his brass ?

If you don't polish your brass, it goes dull and eventually 'greenish'.
The copper reacts with oxygen, carbon dixode and water (all substances any soldier may come into contact with) and the chemical reaction produces verdigris

Repeated shouldering and recoil on tough wool or cotton jacket would naturally polish soft brass.

If i was a sniper i would want my brass but changed. All about reflection limitation.

[CINDERS]

It ain't like on television.

They TV & Hollywood often portray the hero though seriously wounded and having crawled a million miles wins the day, in all reality if one is in a conflict you'll only make one mistake.
Literature I have on my shelves emphasises the skill a sniper has to have patience beyond virtue and observation retention skills like a hawk coupled with a cast iron will to keep above any adversity they may encounter and from some of the do's I have read about are a force multiplier.
Hathcock and his observer kept a group of VC pinned down in a paddy field for a considerable length of time taking a heavy toll of those that risked a look or rabbit bolted for the fence line. Showing in effect with concealment and movement as they were copping some intense fire from the VC that the snipers were in control of that zone until they lit out of there.

I am nearly though the book "Backs To The Wall" By G D Mitchell, in this book I have taken a whole new appreciation of what the WWI soldier had to contend with Mitchell is the first person writer, its not embellished with glorious deeds but the stark realness of being one step from the grave, he did receive the MM and a battlefield commission.
He at one point came back to his troops to find one chaps nerves completely rattled and well he might have been as he had been buried 3 times that day by shell fire and dug out by his mates, another has Mitchell in a captured pill box as he said zeroed to the inch by the Germans artillery.
He had only just got inside when a artillery round struck near the doorway blowing them all flat inside after the dust had settled he went outside where four other chaps had been, they were just a mess of what used to some of his charges, other times he has details from his diary he kept.
The soft cover is available on line allot cheaper than the 1st Ed H/C I have.

[Alan de Enfield]

Never believe what you see on TV - spot todays 'blooper' .................................

[bigduke6]

Never believe what you see on TV - spot todays 'blooper' .................................

Left handed M1917...... very rare

[bigduke6]

The butt plate on my own No4T has been blackened at some point, very dark around the edges but (no pun intended) I doubt a Sniper would be pointing the butt towards the enemy, more chance of getting a glare off the Scout Reg scope when observing etc.

Whats the consensus on on the L42 butt plates ? am sure mine is brass.

[Daan Kemp]

We're belabouring the point. However. If the butt plate was so crucial in shine, I'm certain it would have been replaced before being issued, or there would have been an instruction to the effect brass butt plates being replaced in service. I speculate it would take quite a long time to polish a brass butt plate in service just by being shouldered in between being on the ground many times. Etc.

[Surpmil]

Read one of the military pamphlets and you'll see exactly what they tell you about staying in shadows and such. It ain't like on television.

Don't watch television so can't help you there, but did correspond with a chap who was a sniper on Crete and he was out in the sun plenty.

I own the pams back to 1951, but pams are no more than that.

[Strangely Brown]

Whats the consensus on on the L42 butt plates ? am sure mine is brass.

The two L42's my battery were issued with in 1973 had brass butt plates.

We did a lot of Northern Ireland training with 3RGJ who did all sorts of things with their issued small arms using "black nasty" in some cases to smother the wood parts and probably the butt plate.
In my unit you would get a bollocking if caught with "mixed" webbing, i.e. 58 pat water bottle in a 44 pat holder; what I'm trying to illustrate here is that some regiments had a culture of changing things like Aim Points sights on SLR's and carrying personal weapons, (later stopped) to suit their needs where other regiments like mine would just go by the book.

[Alan de Enfield]

Mine is Brass, but who is to say if its original ?

No picture specifically of the butt, but it is clearly brass from the bit that can be seen.


https://i.postimg.cc/vTcJg3wb/IMG-8759.jpg

[Roger Payne]

Yup. I suspect the vast majority of L42's will have brass butt plates.