Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire First service rifle with a peep sight?

Watching a guy take a snap shot at a German with his No.1 Enfield in the movie “1917” I was reminded how relatively poor the sights were on that rifle and how much better they were on the No. 4 a generation later.

IIRC too, even as late as ‘39 the Germans still had poor front post/rear notch irons on their standard Mauser rifle.

When and where did peep sights and ghost rings come into use?

Tks.

Garand is the 1st I can think of.

A later model of 03 Springfield maybe? 1917 Enfield. P14 Enfield.

03A3 had peeps. The earlier 03's I've seen didn't. But they may have added them in later production models.

The Buffington sight, as used on the Springfields, had a peep sight option but it was a far cry from a ghost ring; being mounted forward on the barrel. The same sight was used on the 1873 Springfield Trapdoor and on the Krag. Sharpshooters in the Civil War, who used their own rifles, usually used a tang mounted aperture sight. GD

My first big game rifle is an Enfield .303 no 5. "Jungle Carbine".
Shot many deer and elk with it. Great in thick cover. It has a peep sight. It also has a flip up sight you can adjust for long shots. I never trusted the sights for that. My shots have all been 100 yards or less.

Still have it. Only thing incorrect about it is someone cut off the flash suppressor and ground down the bayonet lug. Numbers and manufacturing all match.

The Springfield Buffington sight circa trapdoor and Krag, I suspect was the US's first entry into aperture rear sights. I don't know the dates, suspect 1870's though.

1902 30-40 Krag had a combo aperature/leaf I believe, as did the 1884 Springfield trap door 45/70.

This is a good question.

I believe they first appeared on real battle rifles in the 20's. But the Enfield's original versions were deemed somewhat janky. The No. 4 had the improved version and I think those came about in the early 30's. (Same sight on the MKV Jungle I believe.)

After that of course came the Garand. Garand and Enfield testing really proved their worth and 1903's were converted to the peep making them 1903A3's for service in WWII.

There may have been other testing and options prior to these but I'm pretty sure they went mainstream with the Enfield No. 4.

P14 Enfield, not the SMLE MK III.

My first deer rifle was a Lee Enfield No.4 Mark 1 that of course had the peep. Killed a few deer with it, before moving on to a Marlin 336 in 35 Rem, onto which I put a peep sight.

I believe that the World War 2 rifle with the peep sight was a Lee Enfield No. 4, MK 1. The World War 1 rifle was an Enfield Pattern 1914, it was a Mauser based rifle.

P14 Enfield/M1917 US Enfield.

My Enfield has more of a ghost ring setup. Small ring near the eye, and the front sight with a blade looking guards on either side. Center the three front blades within the rear sight, keep your focus on the front sight, put your target on the top of the center blade and pull the trigger. Easy peazy. Very similar to the M16 sight picture.

The rear sight does is not adjustable side to side. If you flip up the rear sight, it is adjustable to 800 meters. Not a precision piece by any stretch, but I hit well enough with it at shorter ranges.

Back when they were cheap, I had as many as five Enfields at one time. A wartime production 1943 BSA (?? I forget) No. 4 that I owned had two-groove rifling and just two flip up rings in back; long range and short range instead of the usual ring/flip up graduate peep sight arrangement. Now I have only one, part of the last 1957 "Irish Enfield" No.4 Mk II production run. Looks practically NIB, I gave it to my nephew up in NY State, just waiting for him to finish his enlistment and get settled enough to take possession.

Yep!

Starting with the US Rifle Musket Model 1861 had peeps in the ladder of the long range rear sight. I cant remember of the US Rifle Musket Model 1855 had them or not. Also the Buffington rear sight on M1884 Rrqpdoor had a peep on it. As did the M1901 (?) variant Krag rear sight.

As well as the P14 and M17, both based on the pre WWI P13, there were soldiers who took their personally-owned peep sights to war, for use on SMLEs. These were typically blokes who’d used them in competition before the war. The use of such sights by some of the ANZACs at Gallipoli is documented, for example.

FWIW Galilean sights were also used on SMLEs, for sniping, in WWI.Some of these were privately owned, and some were issued.

Oh. I get it now.