Lee-Enfield rear sight

O

Otto V

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
4   0   0
Location
Sprucedale, Ontario
My uncle was just given a sporterized 1942 Lee-Enfield. It was covered in years worth of dust and dirt but it seems to be in reasonable shape (the whole rifle looked like these pics before I cleaned it). Everything else seems to function, but the rear sight slider seems to be frozen. The part that looks like a small worm gear . . . is it supposed to turn/move to adjust the slider?





 
What they said. It actually looks to be in good shape, lots of dust (Sawdust?) but doesn't look rusty, should clean up well, some penetrating oil and a few days should clean it up and get it serviceable again. May just be a bit gummy from old oil , grease and dirt. It's nice to have the rear upper handguard wood. That part is often missing too.
 
Rusted shut, but you squeeze 'em in to move. The sight move on it's hinge pin?
Penetrating oil, but more than a short spray might loosen it. Downside is the rear sight comes as an assembly, not separate parts and aren't easy to find if you need to.
 
???????? Consider the source
Rear sights and individual parts are readily available if you make just a little effort to find them. I don't see any sign of rust here. I'm thinking it could just be dried lubricant or perhaps the OP did not know to press on the left side button. The spring can be quite stiff.

I very much like what I can see and would like to see the rest of it.
 
B_noser said:
. . . or perhaps the OP did not know to press on the left side button. The spring can be quite stiff. I very much like what I can see and would like to see the rest of it.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that you had to press the button (until I read the reply from Stencollector). The spring was more than stiff, but a bit of penetrating oil has it working much better now. This morning the fine adjust screw moves easily too. Sorry, these are all the pics I have at the moment. The rifle was made in 1942 and was FTR'd at some point.







 
That looks like one very nice No 1. It may have been manufactured in 1942 but, if I am not mistaken, it has an early cocking piece. That rust in the bolt should clean up fairly well with a little 0000 steel wool and WD 40 or penetrating oil. Be certain not to use something that will attack the bluing. That wood is absolutely gorgeous! It should match up perfectly with one of the new condition EFD-manufactured forearms showing up on the EE and available at Numrich. Appropriate upper fore wood may be a challenge.

By the look of the last picture, I am thinking she who must be obeyed likely made you sweep the floor after you were finished taking photos :rolleyes:
 
The sight on your Lee-Enfield was one of the finest adjustable military sights issued.

The wheel on the side is for range ( target ) adjustments, and each division is for 5 yards with issued ammunition.
 
Looks like it's in nice shape and cleaned up nicely. Would be a great candidate to desporterize, if it was FTR'd the bore and rifling should be in nice shape. How's it look down the barrel, have you fired it yet?
 
Sorry, all those pics I posted were taken before I did any cleanup. What looked like rust on the bolt and elsewhere was just a heavy accumulation of dust/dirt. It cleaned up nicely with some solvent. I just cleaned the bore and it looks great to me. No copper on the patches, nice and shiny, with nice sharp 5-groove rifling (I havn't fired it yet). Unfortunately, all the metal parts are covered in some sort of black paint (I assume that was done during the FTR process) and look quite ugly.

How long should an uncut barrel be? This one measures 24-1/2" from the front of the receiver to the end of the barrel.
 
I put the rifle back together this morning, here are some pics after I cleaned all the crud off the metal. The rifle was owned by a heavy smoker and smelled like it. The stock is varnished and still needs some work to clean up.









 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom