Looking to install a front sight on an Enfield with a shortened barrel. The rear sight is a stock flip 300/600 type and I'd like to keep it. How high should the front sight be for the 300 range setting to be calibrated at 100 yrds? How high is a standard front from the top of the barrel? Thanks, any input appreciated.
No 4 front sight height?
- Thread starter johnsamp
- Start date
If you rifle doesn't have the foresight block with the screw you might want to get one and make up the recessed slot driver to fit the screw (if you can't buy the driver somewhere). Makes it much easier to change blades than driving them in and out of a solid block. The only blades that are supposed to be used in the solid blocks is the kind with a cut down the the center of the male dovetail on the blade.
Saved for future reference,Thank You!
Well, if that's the answer you want, then that's the answer you should have.
There have been remarkably few ANSWERS in this thread, likely because most shooters realise that there IS NO answer.
Barrels "whip" when they are shot. There are decent spark-gap photographs of this phenomenon in the TEXT BOOK OF SMALL ARMS - 1909, as well as in other publications. Factors influencing barrel whip include:
Length of barrel
Weight of barrel
Type of powder
Speed of powder burn
Weight of projectile
Operating pressure
Pressure curve of burn
and a raft of others.
Cordite gives you a different motion than slow NC powders which give a different motion than fast NC powders, motion is different with a 130 than with a 150 than with a 180 and so forth and so on ad nauseam. Under some parameters, a slow bullet can actually shoot HIGHER than a fast bullet. If you don't believe me, ask some of the guys who used the Number 4 Rifle (for that is what you seem to have: an "Enfield" can refer to more than a dozen rifles built since 1839) in competition.
This is why the charts (which you now have). Note their LACK of specificity; that is because there IS no cut-and-dried answer.
The Army issued complete KITS of front sights and made them readily interchangeable because manufacturing differences between INDIVIDUAL barrels altered the sighting.
It's a fit-it-and-hope situation at best, complicated by the facts that (1) you have hacked the barrel, so standard solutions no longer are viable, and (2) we have no idea what loads might be run in the rifle.
When you get it worked out, let us know the parameters. Somebody else is bound to ask this.
.
There have been remarkably few ANSWERS in this thread, likely because most shooters realise that there IS NO answer.
Barrels "whip" when they are shot. There are decent spark-gap photographs of this phenomenon in the TEXT BOOK OF SMALL ARMS - 1909, as well as in other publications. Factors influencing barrel whip include:
Length of barrel
Weight of barrel
Type of powder
Speed of powder burn
Weight of projectile
Operating pressure
Pressure curve of burn
and a raft of others.
Cordite gives you a different motion than slow NC powders which give a different motion than fast NC powders, motion is different with a 130 than with a 150 than with a 180 and so forth and so on ad nauseam. Under some parameters, a slow bullet can actually shoot HIGHER than a fast bullet. If you don't believe me, ask some of the guys who used the Number 4 Rifle (for that is what you seem to have: an "Enfield" can refer to more than a dozen rifles built since 1839) in competition.
This is why the charts (which you now have). Note their LACK of specificity; that is because there IS no cut-and-dried answer.
The Army issued complete KITS of front sights and made them readily interchangeable because manufacturing differences between INDIVIDUAL barrels altered the sighting.
It's a fit-it-and-hope situation at best, complicated by the facts that (1) you have hacked the barrel, so standard solutions no longer are viable, and (2) we have no idea what loads might be run in the rifle.
When you get it worked out, let us know the parameters. Somebody else is bound to ask this.
.
For the record, I did not shorten the barrel. If I did, I could have measured what fell on the floor. It was aquired with a poorly mounted scope, and I like open sights.
As someone else is bound to ask, thought I'd let others know where to look.
Posting the question in the milsurp section was not intended to offend. Just figured you fellows with the stock sights would have had some answeres. Thanks to those who helped.
As someone else is bound to ask, thought I'd let others know where to look.
Posting the question in the milsurp section was not intended to offend. Just figured you fellows with the stock sights would have had some answeres. Thanks to those who helped.
The Lee Enfield #4 Mk1 point of impact is raised or lowered by exchanging the front sight.Available front sights for the #4 are as follows;
-0.045
-0.030
-0.015
0
+0.015
+0.030
+0.045
+0.060
+0.075
+0.090
+105
+0.120
I have also found that the above mentioned sights also work with the "P14" & "P17"
-0.045
-0.030
-0.015
0
+0.015
+0.030
+0.045
+0.060
+0.075
+0.090
+105
+0.120
I have also found that the above mentioned sights also work with the "P14" & "P17"
No offense, just advising that the question has a multitude of answers..... and so very many variables that to answer it "this is IT" is not possible.
That's why the kit is important.
You fit the sight blade to whatever load you are using. That way, the rifle is sighted for THAT load.
GOOD part is that exchanging sight elements is quick and easy. The necessary TOOL can be made from a dead screwdriver: just hack off the tip and put a slot in the remaining shank. Works fine.
Issue barrel length on these was 25.2 inches, measured breech-face to muzzle. Your MV tends to drop between 35 and 50 ft/sec for every inch removed. You can compensate for this somewhat through judicious use of a faster powder and then making sure that that ammo doesn't get used in a different rifle.
Have fun! That's what it's all about.
.
That's why the kit is important.
You fit the sight blade to whatever load you are using. That way, the rifle is sighted for THAT load.
GOOD part is that exchanging sight elements is quick and easy. The necessary TOOL can be made from a dead screwdriver: just hack off the tip and put a slot in the remaining shank. Works fine.
Issue barrel length on these was 25.2 inches, measured breech-face to muzzle. Your MV tends to drop between 35 and 50 ft/sec for every inch removed. You can compensate for this somewhat through judicious use of a faster powder and then making sure that that ammo doesn't get used in a different rifle.
Have fun! That's what it's all about.
.
