Before FAZ No4 MK1 .303 sporter

And after conversion to .762x51 with Parker Hale rear sight and Parker hale front tunnel sight (visit ESS and removable Faux L39a1 / L42a1 

Photo shows mock-up on sported barrel not new .762x51 

Will forward completion and range accuracy report

Sweet!

Keep us posted.

It has been a work in progress spanning 57 years🦊

I am hopeful as to how accurately it will shoot …

Please let us know how it shoots.  

I've seen a few rifles now with the No. 4 (T) cheek piece on the butt stock.  Not sure how well that will work with iron sights which are nominally only 1 inch above the bore.  On PH5C sighted rifles, I don't need any additional height on the stock for getting good sight alignment until reaching the 800 yard sight setting.  I have perhaps an unusual shooting position, my head is well forward on the stock and my cheekbone sits right on the base of my right thumb.  My eye is about an inch behind the aperture which allows me to close it down quite small to improve depth of focus and reduce sighting errors.   You might think recoil would push the rear sight into my eye, but nope.  I wonder if anyone else uses this type of hold/head position?

Thank you for relaying your experience sighting and accordingly your cheek weld position sir!

For myself it is a personal preference as to what ergonomics seems to “fit” and how well it works.

In my experience the riser is equally suitable for both iron PH target sights as scoped.

This “Frankenstein-rifle” (for those “bloke on the range fans) is hoped to be a convertible from both faux L39a1 to faux L42a1 in spirit as the tunnel front sight can be readily removed from the barrel mount dovetail and the PH rear site swapped for a no drill scope and mount

Horror of horrors perhaps, but hopefully as much fun as accurate and at hopefully capable of at least as much  accuracy as I am

As my search for a heavy barrel was futile I resigned to the best I could find Ishapore 2a1 barrel

According to the Prestgious Wood Stocks website the cheek riser sent was not a No 4T but a “ MK4, L-42A1, Pattern 14 Cheek Riser”.(Not that I could discern a difference)

The L42 is of course the 7.62 sniper rifle converted from the No. 4 Mk I(T) which used the No. 32 scope, so the cheek piece is quite necessary.  I'm not sure how high above the bore the No. 32 scope is, I would guess at least 2 inches vs the nominal 1 inch above the bore with the PH5C (or original Mk 1 rear sight) with the standard blade front sight. 

The tunnel type front sight you have added might be higher above the bore than the standard blade.  I've got a A.J. Parker "matchmaker" tunnel type forsight fitted to my No. 4 DCRA 7.62 conversion, and it's a bit lower than the original blade foresight (mostly because the ring aperture insert uses a target center hold vs a blade which uses a 6 O'Clock hold on the target), I had to lower the rear sight by about 3 to 4 MOA with the tunnel front sight fitted. For me, it would be impossible to get eye alignment with the rear sight set at 200 yds with the cheek piece, YMMV.  

It’s not the height of the mount that matters, it’s the height of the mount plus scope rings and diameter of the scope tube.  The critical dimension is from bore centerline to scope tube centerline.  It’s really not possible that a scoped rifle to have the same height above bore as the original irons which are based on a nominal 1 inch height above the bore centerline. 

As always your direction as to my best route forward is much appreciated 

Thank you gentlemen!

Here's a photo of my L39A1 alongside the No8 .22's and the No1MkIII*. Not a great photo unfortunately; but you can see that the heavy barrel is quite long compared to the SMLE. Also the fore end is shorter than the No8.

I regret not having the No4Mk1 in the same photo.

I would pont out that the gloss varnish is not standard and has since been removed and replaced with linseed oil! 

The Cheek riser is not standard on the L39; but this rifle came with it. I don't have an issue with it when using the dioptre rear sight.

I have a Schmitt Bender scope for this rifle, (which is currently on one of the No8's) but haven't got around to fitting it yet.

It might well be possible with target/match sights. Probably not with the original issue though.

You'd have to have a QD for the irons to use the scope though.

My lithgow SMLE with the Central No4 rear-sight & the rather fat Gehmann dioptric diaphragm eyepiece has to be raised quite a bit to clear the bolt handle. Not really a problem as it has a lot of adjustment & is re-zeroable. But I do have to use an off market tall "shark Fin" front sight blade to get it to zero. That conveniently raises the LOS above the issue open irons so much I don't have to remove the blade as its no longer co-witnessed.

Then there's the "Fashionable" shooting posture of the day, as well as personal preferences. Back when these rifles were Issue the shooting posture of the body was far more upright than that popular today, that changes all the user /rifle geometry & so weld options.

Much of this is your own preference and what you were taught. I do know I’ve seen other shooters and photos in training books on the LE’s showing fairly steep angles between the body and rifle (30 deg or so) with a well forward head position, cheek on right thumb, in the prone position. 

Yep.

Even the shooting sports have fads!

In regard to the discussion of sight / scope heights and the use of a cheek riser I found this period photo of a target shooter appearing to utilize a cheek riser with his iron sights;

I don't have a L39, but looks to me that the front sight might be around 1.5 inches above the bore centerline (center of front sight insert to center of bore). 

Now that it is sighted in i will have to return soon, as time allows to shoot some extended strings -

I'm finishing off a similar one myself on a Mk.2 action.  The barrel is a DCRA conversion which came with about 3.5" hacksawed off the muzzle.  I even got the chunk he'd sawed off.   Cut it to No.5 length, mostly so the No.5 sight would collimate.   I'm also planning on a hand guard, a SILE Monte Carlo butt and probably a band off a No.5.  A hacked up No.5 flash hider to finish.

Would like to find another L8/L42 mag as have the right extractor.