I have to turn to my fellow gunnutz on this one. I have a buddy who has a very nice commercial sporterized No.III. He's looking to scope it and we have a problem. The charger bridge was removed in the rework so there's no rear attachment point for a standard drill & tap scope rail. I don't know if there's a rail made that is contoured to fit the curved side of the receiver on these rifles, but if so, can someone point me in the right direction? My initial advice would be sell it, and buy a nice No.4 sporter. That one I can set up for a scope mount without too much trouble. Thoughts or advice would be most welcome. Thanks all.
Scoping a sporter Lithgow No.III
- Thread starter LawrenceN
- Start date
the problem of scoping nr1 has been ongoing since WW1, if you find a gunsmith that will do it for you you are lucky, most people use gunsmith free rails but those are problematic in themselves, i think selling is the only option if your buddy wants scoped SMLE
My father had the same problem and an older gunsmith installed one on the side curving above the barrel. It's not the best system but about the only option you would have. Would take a pic of the rifle but he left this morning with it to go moose hunting. Could do it in a week to give you an idea.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
You are looking for a Parker Hale BA 27, I believe - it is a side mount that matches the curve of the left receiver wall - 3 screws to drill and tap. Original top strap would only accept Parker Hale rings, that I know of. That top rail can be replaced with a flat bottom Weaver or Picatinny. The BA27 looks like this:
