OMG.... Ballistics in Scotland!!!! Anyone else remember this gentleman? Worked in Saudi..... I know he was around twenty years back on the Shooterstalk Forum,
Here he is on the topic of aperture sights on Enfields....
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-278356.htmlGood they are, particularly the Mk I sight.
From what I can tell, I do believe though that the British Pattern 13 (circa 1912) and the Pattern 14 (circa 1914) rifles led the way with a good aperture sight. The US 1917 derivative of the P14 also used the same sight, but calibrated for the US 30/06 ball round of 1906.
The British were certainly ahead of the rest of the world as far as rifle sights went in the first 40 years or so of the 20th Century with their early adoption of aperture sights placed on the receiver bridge. The US caught up in a hurry though with the design of the M1 Garand rear sight.
I think that is true, and the military aperture sight originates with the P13 trials rifle. There were problems of flash, noise, metallic fouling and erosion with its large .276 cartridge, but they have been long since overcome with rifles like the 7mm. Remington Magnum, and could have been overcome sooner if some idiot hadn't started a war, which made a change of cartridge undesirable. Whether anybody in the world has ever needed a better long-range cartridge than the .30-06 is very doubtful, though. It was a reaction to the Boer War of 1899, and nobody has ever fought another war in which the infantry rifle was the dominant weapon.
The No4 Lee-Enfield rear sight is less well protected than the P13, P14 and M1917 versions, between the receiver "ears". But Parker-Hale and Alfred J Parker made accessory micrometer windage slide to clip onto the No.4 version, and accept screw-in discs. They still appear (not cheaply unfortunately) on eBay.
