One for the Gun & Shooting Buffs!

Hi All,

Found this in yesterdays mixed bag lot from an auction.

No makers name but looks similar to some gun sights parts I have had in the past.

Has had a brazed repair and looks to be incomplete but I know zip about these things!Any help or info most welcome.

Cheers,Martin

The patent number led me to BSA No. 9 aperture sight. The pictures are somewhat similar.

Mike

That part between thumb and forefinger looks like an aperture which can be rotated 90 degrees. There looks like a vee indent showing in the axis of rotation to hold it steady.

Well done, Mike

**LINK**

https://www.rifleman.org.uk/Images/WOM%20230%20Experimental/BSA%20WOM%20230%20Exp%20patent%2026943-WM.pdf

MichaelG.

.

Advert here: https://www.rifleman.org.uk/Images/BSA%20Sights%20Catalogue.pdf

and a current advert here: http://powderflask.uk/product/bsa-no-9-aperture-sight/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 16/10/2022 18:30:47

Very many thanks for that excellent info, much appreciated!

the item does not appear to have any BSA marks on it that I can see, also as I thought it is incomplete but still a nice thing.

Cheers, Martin

What confused me was seeing both the windage and elevation scales in the same plane. But when the small one is turned 90 degrees, its scale is then correct. The actual aperture is missing.

The last time I shot 303 was at Bisley on the 400 yard range. The club that I was a member was the Ewhurst rifle club, an indoor range for 0.22 rifles and pistols. The club was a home guard post during the war and we had a large box of mostly 303 ammunition in the safe. Eventually the police officer who inspected the facilities told us that we had no buisiness having full bore ammunition at the club and would not want to see it still there the next time he called. So we sat around the table and sorted out the ammunition, from 416 Rigby to .22 shorts. Most was 303 dated 1943, over 500 rounds, so we went to Bisley and hired two Lee Enfields No 4 Mk 1 with target sights and didn't have a single misfire. The sights were a more modern design than that BSA No 9.

The 1912 Pattern date in the 9c advert suggests it was intended for use with Mk.VII 303 ammunition, which had a higher velocity and flatter trajectory than the Mk.VI it had begun to supersede 2 years earlier. The range of Lee-Enfields it fitted is shown near the top of the ad - most are known by slightly different names now, but the 'Short' is the SMLE that became the standard service rifle through WW1 and much of WW2 - until the No.4 mentioned above (a reworked Lee-Enfield design) superseded it.