Any Lee-Enfield experts?

[Guest Gil]

I have a 1909 BSA made smellie equipped with a Parker-Hale dioptre. The dioptre is marked SMLE and has the broad arrow so it is definitely arsenal issued. Has anyone ever come any info or war time photos of a SMLE equipped with this device? I know the thing is hard to spot on a photo of WW1 quality but I don’t underestimate the observational skills of the real gun buff.

Greetings and a happy new year to all.

[Jacky Platteeuw]

Gil,

A good site to visit is:

http://www.leeenfieldrifleassociation.org.uk/

Jacky

[Guest John Orfei]

Gil, I do not have an answer for you however, if you have the time look into these two sites. 1) http://home.adelphia.net/~flinter/smi 2) http://www.surplusrifle.com/smle/index.asp

[riflegreen]

Gil,

Far as I know the dioptre sights were fitted for target shooting only, the normal sights were relied on for battle use, yours should have the rear sight with the windage adjustment ?.

Chris

[Guest Gil]

Thanks Jacky and John.

Happy new year!

[Tom Morgan]

Gil,

Is your dioptre sight on the left of the receiver, next to the safety-catch? A sort of little arm which swings up and down?

Tom

[Borden Battery]

Here are some CEF Study Group websites related to this topic. Borden Battery

The Lee-Enfield Rifle

This site was created to provide basic information on the many variations of the Lee-Enfield rifle, with particular emphasis placed on pictorial references. The site is ordganized under the following: Part One - General History, Part Two - Technical Information, Part Three - Rifle Pages, Part Four - Sub-Caliber Training Rifles, Part Five - Sporterized and Commercially Made Enfields, Bayonets, Links Page , Basic Enfield Identification and the Facts about Serial Numbers, Parker’s Rifle Shot’s Register. [Jay Currah Website][CEF Study Group - July 2006]

http://enfieldrifles.profusehost.net/

Enfield Rifle Research

The webmaster states the this comprehensive was created for collectors, shooters, and fans of the Enfield rifle, a rifle which in its various forms has seen duty for over 150 years as a main battle rifle, a home guard and constabulary weapon, a competition target rifle, and a game hunting rifle on five continents. There is much material and several links to other sites. A good website on the topic. [CEF Study Group - July 2006]

http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stratton/en-page.html

[TonyE]

Can you post a photograph? Also, is the sight marked to Parker Hale?

There were a number of special sights fitted to SMLEs before the telescopic sights were introduced. Some of these were of the diopter type and others were Gallilean optical sights. All were designed to be used in action for sniping. Amongst others there were the Lattey, Neill, Martin and Gibbs.

There was also a BSA diopter sight that was fitted to number of SMLE and CLLE rifles by Alexander Martin in 1915 for sniping use. I believe also that the Australians had a number of rifles equipped with target sights issued to snipers at Gallipoli.

Whilst it is most likely that your sight was simply used for army competition shooting, one never knows......

Regards

TonyE