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Anyone know what this is?

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Forum Name: Enfield Rifles
Forum Description: Anything that has to do with the great Enfield rifles!
URL: http://www.enfield-rifles.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8439
Printed Date: March 28 2024 at 12:26pm
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Topic: Anyone know what this is?
Posted By: splinter
Subject: Anyone know what this is?
Date Posted: May 15 2017 at 6:05am
Hi there.
Only just joined this forum and probably won't stick around for long.
Was just hoping some one here might be able to enlighten me as to what this particular object might be.
I have reason to believe it has something to do with an Enfield 303 that my dad once owned, maybe even his dad before him. He was at Gallipoli.
Years after dad died I had to hand his old 303 army rifle in to the cops to be destroyed as there was a big clampdown on gun laws here in Australia and well...I guess 303's were no longer ideal weapon of choice to shoot rabbits in the average suburban Sydney back yard.
There was a small box of accessories that did not get handed in due to oversight, a peep sight and a few other little odds and sods.
And this thing!
Looks like a tiny brass periscope.
I'd guess it is for checking up the barrel but not entirely sure.
Anyone know for sure what it is?




Replies:
Posted By: Pedro
Date Posted: May 15 2017 at 5:57pm
Interesting. Haven't really a clue, but interested to find out. I appreciate you aren't really into Lee Enfields as such. At least you have the honesty to say that, as opposed to those who just flit through and disappear without trace, so good on you for that. Stick around a little while and I expect that someone will shed some light.


Posted By: SW28fan
Date Posted: May 15 2017 at 7:51pm
The rear sight looks like some I have seen on Martini Rifles

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Have a Nice Day
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Posted By: Canuck
Date Posted: May 15 2017 at 8:06pm
Those brass tools look like one is a chamber inspection mirror and the other a bore mirror inspection tool? Just putting that out there. That one piece that looks like a car battery terminal....not sure. Other than that rear sight the rest is unknown to me.

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Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually


Posted By: Norwegian
Date Posted: May 15 2017 at 11:51pm
I guess this is a homemade optics bracket for that rifle. One of the part is a Lee enfield peice for the saftymachanism, but it got a longer skrew through it.


Posted By: Stanforth
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 12:04am
Originally posted by Canuck Canuck wrote:

Those brass tools look like one is a chamber inspection mirror and the other a bore mirror inspection tool? Just putting that out there. That one piece that looks like a car battery terminal....not sure. Other than that rear sight the rest is unknown to me.
 
It is a tool for inspecting the bore. It looks like 2 items but in fact it is the optic and it's cover.


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Life.. a sexually transmitted condition that is invariably fatal.


Posted By: Canuck
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 12:24am
Splinter, do you want to sell that brass inspection kit?

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Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually


Posted By: splinter
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 1:13am
he!!o again. When I first tried to make a post I in fact tried to put several images of the item in question up for viewing.
I don't think it is a home made item as it is made with a lot of precision, I am an engineering patternmaker and recognise fine work when I see it.
Just for the record I wouldn't say I had no interest in the old army 303's either. It was with a heavy heart that I handed the rifle in to the cops to be destroyed, as well as a 5 shot semi automatic shotgun and a nice browning 22 semi automatic rifle and a really old single shot lever action 22.
Anyway I will see if I can post a few more pics now of the mystery item.
Cheers.





Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 5:22am
It a factory-made bore inspection tool. I tried to get better info but tis was the best I found, at least you know a value (in the UK) now!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303-Bore-Viewer-Breech-Inspection-Mirror-WW1-SMLE-Enfield-Rifle-Vickers-Gun-Tool-/162485909349" rel="nofollow - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303-Bore-Viewer-Breech-Inspection-Mirror-WW1-SMLE-Enfield-Rifle-Vickers-Gun-Tool-/162485909349



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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: Norwegian
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 5:41am

Meant this


Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 9:13am
To the O.P. something you might not be aware of regarding the peep sight.
There's a hot debate on exactly what a "Galipoli sight" might be & you seem to possibly have one with its provenience.
https://thetartantrouvere.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/the-gallipoli-sight-2/" rel="nofollow - https://thetartantrouvere.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/the-gallipoli-sight-2/




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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: englishman_ca
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 9:28am
An armourer's bore inspection tool originally produced for use with the 303 Maxim machine gun (and Vickers). The handle allows one to reach inside the breech with it and to wiggle it into position.

The rifle version doesn't have the handle as the breech on the rifle is easily accessible


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Look to your front, mark your target when it comes!


Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 4:14pm
yup , mine does not have the handle , 


http://s1034.photobucket.com/user/watabmike/media/mikesphotos-2251_zpsc7771146.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">



Posted By: maxwell smart
Date Posted: May 17 2017 at 11:15pm
Originally posted by Shamu Shamu wrote:

To the O.P. something you might not be aware of regarding the peep sight.
There's a hot debate on exactly what a "Galipoli sight" might be & you seem to possibly have one with its provenience.
https://thetartantrouvere.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/the-gallipoli-sight-2/" rel="nofollow - https://thetartantrouvere.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/the-gallipoli-sight-2/



The target sight in the parts pictures is a Central, not a Mues type one; I think the patent date on these is about 1934 so unlikely to have been used at Gallipoli.


Posted By: splinter
Date Posted: May 18 2017 at 2:57am
Well on closer inspection the sight is not a mures one. The first patent date on this one is actually 1934 and the last 1941 but you can see it is not mures.It is a "Central No 4" .Gotta say though it is remarkably similar in design and no doubt strongly influenced by the mures one.
Here are a few more pics of the sight.
Thank you all for the enthusiastic replies.






Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 18 2017 at 5:00am
Oh well it was just a thought. With those dates it couldn't be. The "Hot Debate" was about who exactly made the Galipoli sights, some say Mues some believe it was someone else.
There were a lot of copies of copies BSA had a similar one as well.


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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: Zed
Date Posted: May 18 2017 at 11:04am
The sight looks to be in good condition. Did the base plate that fix's to the rifle go with the rifle?
Both the sight and the bore inspection mirror are desirable items; You will have no problem selling them; if that's what you want to do!


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It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!


Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 18 2017 at 1:40pm
I'm wondering if that wasn't the purpose of the modified safety spring & screws?
Some kind of home-brewed sight bracket for the Central?


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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: Long Tom
Date Posted: May 18 2017 at 11:47pm
Hi from New Zealand.
Glad the Knowledgeable have spoken and ID'd the Central aperture range sight.

As a collector from a country directly involved with the capture of Chunuk Bair at Gallipoli(1915), only to have it lost back to the Turks by Australians hours later(X%@#!!!) I want to say this;

Over recent years there have been various 'vendors' on ebay etc purporting to have for sale aperture sights that were used on the SMLE(UK and AU) or MLE(NZ Issued ex Canada) during the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey.

Buyers of these, usually high priced, items should do their own research before purchasing. In all that I have read I have NEVER seen mention of official or unofficial(private)use of these devices to kill Turks. Nor have I personally ever seen a photo of this use. Period.

The young Kiwi's, in their late teens or early twenties, ultra fit by today's standards did not need, and probably would have profanely cursed, fragile aperture sights to help them to kill Johnny Turk. Their rifles were accurate and they generally had excellent eyesight to be accepted into the Army.

Keep this in mind and send your hard earned $ on Trench Art. We have HEAPS of it here in NZ...
To the fond memory of William George Malone VC (Just kidding with the VC but sure earned it!)           


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My firearms are not weapons. They are for my own enjoyment and pleasure.



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