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First of all, is the rifle in original wood or has it been sporterized?
You said you bought it without wood. Have you put wood on it? If not, how did you fire it? Is "the damned crack" present in the small wood area connecting the back end of the forestock? In fact, is the correct wood forestock installed?
PICTURES--PICTURES----PICTURES. Many times there are things in pictures that give a clue as to a problem. Without PICTURES, as it has been raining here in Manitoba for some time, the cloudy skies distort any mental images received by my Crystal Ball.
What ammo did you use? Bullet weights and make if possible. Were all from the same box? Did you rest the rifle? How did you rest the rifle --forestock or barrel? Even the point at which you held your hand or rested the forestock will change point of impact, as will a hard or soft surface the forestock is rested on.
A number 4 rifle was designed to be zeroed at 300 yards WITH the Bayonet attached, using .303 Mark VII Ball ammunition. Any other weight and type of ammunition can give wide variation in point of impact.
If you had been assigned this rifle, you would have had enough range practice to have the sights properly aligned and zeroed by an Armourer, and a proper length butt stock. To say that you would have hated to have been issued this rifle and then go into battle when it is you who have changed so many variables is not really the best comment to make, considering your inexperience.
Without a lot more information, it is possible to give some guesses, but that is what you are going to get---a guess.
Now, saying that, it is quite possible to adjust sights to coincide with the point of impact. A special "screwdriver" is needed to loosen the front sight, which MUST be moved in the direction of the group. In other words, you will have to move the front sight to the left AFTER loosening the locking screw.
As mentioned, your front sight will have to be changed to a taller one. You could install a Mark I adjustable micrometer sight on the rear sight base, but probably putting a taller front sight on the rifle will throw off any marked distances on the sight after 100 yards.
Military rifles are designed to hit VERTICAL targets, that is, a MAN and not really have a nice group centered on a target bullseye. Aftermarket adjustable sights are available so that you can shoot paper targets, with a proper center hold on the bullseye. Therefore Military sights generally have a MINIMUM sight setting of approximately 300 yards or Meters, and by setting the sights at this minimum distance, a Man sized target can usually be engaged out to about 450-500 yards with a center of mass hold.
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