SIGHTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ENFIELD
RIFLE Page 1
FRONT
All Lee Enfield's utilized a dovetailed, blade type, front sight. (Note: SMLE
and No4 front sights will not interchange because of different dovetail dimensions)
There were nine different front sights available and were marked on top of
their base with their sizes. They were: .090, .075, .060, .045,
.030, .015, .0, -.015 and -.030 (see Figure 1 for an example).
Although it was the individual rifleman who
fired his rifle for zero at either 30 or 100 yards, it was the armourer's task
to select and install the correct front sight to adjust the rifleman’s
group to hit center. Once the armourer had corrected the zero for the rifleman,
the front sight was staked in place (see
figure 2 for an example). The British rifleman was taught to “aim
off” if windage corrections were needed. For a more detailed explanation
on how to zero your own
REAR
Rifle, SMLE
The SMLE was fitted with a windage adjustable rear “U” notch
sight, mounted to the barrel. Eventually the windage adjustment was omitted and
existing ones were pinned in place, though there are still some out there that
escaped modification. Be careful if you find a SMLE with the windage adjustment
wheel, the pin used to secure the sight preventing windage adjustment was small
and hard to see. If it does not turn easily or offers resistance, DON’T
hog on it, you will shear the small pin and the sight will be rendered useless.
The rear sights were graduated from 200 to
2000 yards most with the course adjustments (100 yards) on the right and fine
(25 and 50 yards) on the left. Adjustment could be made by depressing the slide
catch and moving he slide to the desired range (course) and then turning the
worm wheel to adjust the slide to a particular 25 yard increment (fine). Also
on early Marks, was a long-range volley sight. This was a separate set of
sights mounted on the left side of the fore-end and on the safety lever axis
pin. The concept of volley fire was to engage an enemy formation with harassing
(not effective) small arms fire from a great distance. This type of fire
involved organizing a large formation (company or battalion) to fire on
command. Concentrating on one point of aim, the volley created a beaten zone,
not unlike machine-gun fire today. Matter of fact, it was the use of
machine-guns (and the shortened engagement ranges of modern warfare) that made
the use of volley sights unnecessary and they were omitted from further
production and existing ones ordered removed altogether.
Rifle No4 (All Marks)
The No4 rifle was equipped with a receiver mounted rear sight arrangement that
initially was comprised of a fixed range battle aperture sight (300 yards)
combined with a flip up range adjustable micrometer aperture sight. The
original sights were milled and of very good quality, they were adjustable from
200 to 1300 yards, but again had no windage adjustment. Through the course of
WWII, increased production demands caused manufacturers to develop several
expedient alternatives. These alternatives were two stamped type slide
adjustable sights and a two position "L" type aperture sight (see figure 3). All three expedient type
sights were combat functional but obviously lacked the ability for precision
shooting. The two position flip sight only offered the shooter the choice of a
300 or 600 yard setting.
SMLE (No1 Rifle) Sight Examples
Figure 1
Figure 2
SMLE Long Range Dial Sight (upper) and Rear Iris
(lower)
SMLE rear windage sight
No4 Rifle Sight Examples
Pictured is a Mark 1, 2, 3 & 4 rear sight in order of appearance.
A
Mark 2 wartime expedient two
position sight. Graduated for 300 and 600 yards only.
Figure 3
The Competition Sight
As the Lee-Enfield rifle was developed
as a front line battle rifle with only the ability to adjust for elevation (a
practical arrangement for field use), it left little to be desired when
applying the rifle to long range competition. The competitions, which still
exist to this day, include target ranges of up to 1000 yards or more and
certainly require quality sights. For this reason several enterprising
gunsmiths and companies developed precise adjustment rear sights for the
Lee-Enfield’s of all numbers and marks. These competition sights varied
in quality, size, shape and method of adjustments but they all had to be
“no gunsmithing” attachable. The rules for competition shooting
required that all rifles be in original condition or be returnable to original
military configuration. Thus the Parker-Hale, AJ Parker, Central etc. sights
all utilized existing screws or screw holes to effect the attachment of their
sights. The competitor simply removed the issue back sight and replaced it with
a competition version. Illustrated below are examples of these various
competition sights.
Parker-Hale
PH5A
Parker-Hale
PH5C
Pictured is a Central Co. (