Either way, if the sights on those 2 rifles are interchangable then it's not the rifle that's imperial vs metric, it's the sights....
Haha no I trimmed the Star Wars joke off (Empire etc - although, strictly speaking they weren't rifles they were SMGs - props based on Sterlings!).
Anyhoo in the case of the L1A1 vs FAL; two otherwise identical rifles - even chambered in the same calibre (ostensibly) are dimensionally different - they're not just described as being X milimeters which is Y thousandths - they're actually two different dimensions when both are measured in either of the units of measurement.
In point of fact - regardless of what the sights are or are not - the L1A1 / Lithgow etc are inch pattern wheras the FN FAL is metric. Parts are not 100% interchangeable due to the aforementioned dimensional differences.
Now, it just so happens that the L1A1 sights were graduated in yards and the FAL's were in meters. I'm not sure how in any way this comparison can be seen to be anything other than a legitmate example of an Imperial rifle versus metric rifle - that even have the added benefit of looking near as dammit identical!
Just a for info really, I wonder what other oddities like this exist.......
I do also wonder at what point the Army switched over to metres for range / distance and mills for nav bearings / artillery etc?
I did actually think about this after I posted. That there could be rifles made in imperial measurements and those with metric measurements. I even thought about the way in which the rifles are threaded. not just for mods, but also the barrel threading and all threads used throughout. so there may well be imperial and metric rifles, I just didn't want to go back on my point and look foolish... Oh how that ship has sailed...!
In conclusion: No, theres no such thing as metric MOA sights, it's an oxymoron, but there are metric sights that are aperture sights and MOA sights that are aperture sights, amongst many other types of sights with both metric and MOA adjustment...
I have recently bought my first ever rifle with a spyglass fitted on top so you can take aim through it and never miss.
This is what I think.
If your spyglass (telescopic sight) is an imperial one it will be set up in degrees and minutes of arc, 360 degrees being a complete circle. One minute of arc (MOA) is one sixtieth of a degree and will subtend (subtend in this context means measure) approximately one inch at 100 yards.
On the other hand if the telescopic sight is a metric one it will be calibrated in rads and millirads. Mathematically a radian is 2 pi and so there are 6.2832 radians in a circle. This is inconvenient, and so it has been decreed that there are 6.4 rads in a circle, and so there are 6,400 millirads in a circle. The nice thing is that a millirad subtends one thousandth of the range whatever the unit; at one thousand metres a millirad subtends one metre; at one thousand yards a millirad subtends one yard; at one thousand leagues a millirad subtends one league; at one thousand dick lengths a millirad subtends one dick.
Whereas a minute of arc (MOA) at 100 yards is approximately one inch, at 100 metres a millirad is one thousandth of 100 metres, which is one tenth of a metre, which is 10 centimetres. My own new telescopic sight has the clicks in 0.2 of a millirad so that one click is two centimetres at 100 metres - which is getting on for one MOA - an inch at one hundred yards - one inch being about two and a half centimetres.
My experience of this in action on the range is very limited, and my theoretical knowledge I confess to be shaky, and so I would welcome someone who knows correcting or clarifying this explanation.
snayperskaya wrote:Seeing the Star Wars reference reminds me,there is a modified Lee Enfield in Star Wars......but in which film and where???
I have not followed the whole discussion as I find this constant comparison metric/imperial completely sterile when most imperial countries have since long adhered to ISO who list also angles in same degrees and minutes/seconds.
For long range sights, almost all now have 32tpi leadescrews threads, or metricated 0,7937mm.
The only non-imperial I know have 0,8mm threads.Both are quarter minute incréments. Is there a difference?
TattooedGun wrote:The sand people popped into my head, so I'm gonna say Tattooine, A New Hope...?
I think it's the Jawa's which were those wee little guys in the red robes. They had Jawa Blasters which were cut down Lee Enfields. The sand people were the Tuskan Raiders but I can't recall what their rifle's looked like. Ps these guys were in the first film, A New Hope near the beginning.
TattooedGun wrote:The sand people popped into my head, so I'm gonna say Tattooine, A New Hope...?
I think it's the Jawa's which were those wee little guys in the red robes. They had Jawa Blasters which were cut down Lee Enfields. The sand people were the Tuskan Raiders but I can't recall what their rifle's looked like. Ps these guys were in the first film, A New Hope near the beginning.
Spot on, it was a Jawa's Ion blaster
Nice to meet you yesterday Rich
"The only real power comes out of a long rifle." - Joseph Stalin
Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank.....give a man a bank and he can rob the world!.
