Fuddster Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Hi All, I had the time to examine a 1915 enfield rifle today and found a curious little thingy thats left me puzzled......left hand side of the furniture,near where your left hand would be placed, was a inset brass dial with a rotating pointer with an inscribed reading dial going from 27 to 17 and then 1700 some way round on its own. I'm not overly familiar with these and its left me and a few guys at work stumped. any ideas? cheers fuddster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Pre-1916 SMLE's were fitted with a 'volley' front sight,which was used in conjunction with the rear 'diopter' volley sight,which was also on the left,just in front of the safety.I'm assuming the scale is in yards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Don't know, but you can be sure one of these will! http://www.efdrifles.com/ http://www.leeenfieldrifleassociation.org.uk/page.php?domain_name=leeenfieldrifleassociation.org.uk&viewpage=Shoot%20Dates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapp Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Pre-1916 SMLE's were fitted with a 'volley' front sight,which was used in conjunction with the rear 'diopter' volley sight,which was also on the left,just in front of the safety.I'm assuming the scale is in yards. I'm no expert, but I agree with the above. It is a sight used to provide the firer with the ability to put indirect fire onto distant targets. The idea was for large formations of troops to fire at other, distant large formations of troops using a high trajectory, dropping the shots onto them and creating a "beaten zone". Pretty inaccurate stuff, but when you have massed troops firing at other massed troops, you can see how it could have a disrutpive enough effect to suppress the enemy or force them to move. It is still done these days using machine guns like the GPMG in the medium role using tripods to fire over terrain features to provide suppression on distant enemy positions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedwards1966 Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 I'm no expert, but I agree with the above. It is a sight used to provide the firer with the ability to put indirect fire onto distant targets. The idea was for large formations of troops to fire at other, distant large formations of troops using a high trajectory, dropping the shots onto them and creating a "beaten zone". Pretty inaccurate stuff, but when you have massed troops firing at other massed troops, you can see how it could have a disrutpive enough effect to suppress the enemy or force them to move. It is still done these days using machine guns like the GPMG in the medium role using tripods to fire over terrain features to provide suppression on distant enemy positions. Without seeing it it sounds like the volley sight, which Zapp has described well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1066 Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Yep - Volley sight like this http://world.guns.ru/rifle/repeating-rifle/brit/smle-lee-enfield-e.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperfection Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Yes,its a volley sight and is unusual to find SMLE's still with them attached. Not many about because they were considered a waste of metal and melted down along with the magazine cut off's from earlier rifles. The theory of 'lobbing' a bullet into the enemys trench was a good idea,but in practice it wasnt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuddster Posted November 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Well done chaps-volley sight it is. thanks for all you help fuddster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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