No4 rear sights

[Steve E]

[quote="Charlotte the flyer"]I was on the range with my number 4 today and I noticed that my sight, a screw thread adjuster type, appears to have smaller marks above the standard yard marks. The gap between these marks and the yard ones gets larger the higher up the sight you go so I'm assuming that they are for metres. Does anyone else have a sight like this and does anyone know if this assumption is correct? I'll post a pic when I'm cleaning the rifle later on.[/

The rear sight is marked from 200yd to 1300yds in 50yd increment. The large line is the 100s of yds marker and the smaller marks that you are seeing are the 50yd increment. No sight for the Enfield rifles was ever marked in metric units, it is all yds.

[Alpha1]

Everything on a Lee Enfield is imperial. You will not find any Lee Enfield with sights graduated in meters.

[Sandgroper]

Everything on a Lee Enfield is imperial. You will not find any Lee Enfield with sights graduated in meters.

According to Skennerton that's not strictly true in regard to the 7.62 conversions:

While the trajectory of the 7.62 projectile is flatter than that of the .303-inch, the change from yards to meters as the service unit measurement, meant the old .303-inch calibrations somewhat approached those of the 7.62mm when yards are read as meters, up to 800m. At ranges greater than this, the shots will strike above the point of aim, so a replacement backsight was available to match the 7.62mm cartridge at all ranges. Most rifles, however retain the original back sight.

[Alpha1]

That is correct but I doubt you will find one of those sights on a .303 service rifle.

[Sandgroper]

True, but that's why I specifically referred to the 7.62 conversions.

[Rearlugs]

The small marks are the 50-yard increments between 100 yard settings.


You will notice that they lie between each pair of 100 yard settings, but are closer to the lower value - that is because the sight correction of course increases with range.