Thread: Lee Enfield No.4 Mk2. rifle front sight windage adjustment?
Retrieved: 06/04/2014

I have been trying to get information on the Lee Enfield No.4 Mk2 rifle front sight windage adjustment. I bought one recently and after testing accuracy it is clear that the windage has to be adjusted.

From information obtained off the Web it appears that windage cannot be adjusted with the rear flip up sight and that a special tool is needed to adjust windage on the front sight.

Thunderbox
11-25-2010

Its really just a matter of drifting the front sight blade across; it doesn't really matter if you have the solid sight base or the one with a friction screw - a gentle tap with a punch or similar instrument is sufficient to drift the blade across.

As a rough guide, one width of the front sight blade gives you about 5" adjustment on the target at 100 yds.

paulseamus
11-25-2010

Adjustment of the front sight is easy if you have the right tool.

You need a driver with a slot cut into it.

Rather than buy one, I found a suitable diameter screw driver in my kit. It was a Phillips head that was past its prime.

Make sure that your selected driver has a shaft diameter small enough to fit into the front sight.

I simply cut of the Phillips end and then I cut suitable slot into the end of the remaining shaft.

Followed by a quick cleanup with a small file and a coating of oil for protection.

Ten minutes of fiddling in the shed resulted in one front sight adjustment tool.

Correctly adjusting the front site to accurately zero the rifle is another story.

Peter Laidler
11-26-2010

Or better still, just replace the crap reverse screw in the foresight block with a 4BA allen bolt and be done with it!

The original screw was there so as to be 'soldier proof' It might have been but it was also Armourer proof too once they'd been there for over a week and had corroded a bit!

RDSkidmore
04-05-2012

Front sight windage adjustment SMLE No.4 Mk2. rifle.

I have never read such drivel for front site windage adjustment for the Enfield No.4 Mark 1/2.

Always use the CORRECT tool even if you have to make the thing. Never ever use a drift punch.

To adjust the front sight on the SMLE Enfield requires three tools. (1) slotted screw driver with a 5 mm head, (2) a locking screw tool (I made mine), and (3) Sight Adjustment Tool (I purchased my from Numrich Gun Parts Corp. through my local gun shop). A forth tool, a mm ruler may be used if one does not purchase the Sight Adjustment Tool. The ruler is used to measure the increment adjustments as you bring the front sight blade to center on the rifle in its location.

The front sight is locked with a locking screw that must be released before adjustment can be made. I made my tool to unlock the front screw. Use a screw driver, either Philips or slotted that has a shaft diameter of 5 mm. Cut off the end of the screw driver (flatly/square with the shaft). Then cut a 2mm slot on the end of cut off and in the middle. I used a cold chisel to mark where I would cut. The depth of cut was 2-1/2 to 3 mm. This tool will fit into and over the head of the locking screw. For the cutting I used my Dremel tool with cutting disks. Simple job.

Undoing or sufficiently loosening the lock screw allows the front sight blade to be adjusted left or right. Doing this properly will prevent damage to the front sight assembly.

Now there is a front sight windage adjustment tool that can be used, and this tool requires that the front cap be removed to align the tool with the front sight. On my No.4 this is held on with one slotted screw.

The Front Sight Adjusting tool was purchased through my local gun shop, but the manufacturer is Numerich Gun Parts Corp. Address: 226 Williams Lane, PO Box 299, West Hurley, New York 12491. Toll free number is 866 686 7424; Web: e- gunparts.com.

The part number is 255950.

Terrylee
04-05-2012

I made this tool for adjusting the sights of a No.4, and if I could do that I'm sure that there are lots of others who can. It works very well.

Peter Laidler
04-05-2012

Good morning RD Skidmore. I'll not beat about the bush... I have been an Armourer since I started my apprenticeship in January 1963. When I say 'Armourer' I don't mean an enthusiastic amateur or one who has tinkered with a few No.4s and the like, but I mean a REAL Armourer who's been there and done that - you know the spiel... I am also a graduate engineer so from that, you can take it that when I tell you something about a No.4 rifle, having spent my formative years, on the bench, fixing literally - and I mean it - hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands of them, day in and day out AND range testing, accuracy testing and zeroing huge piles of them, you and the rest of this forum can take it that when I tell you about sights and zeroing, then it's the real McCoy.

Now come closer and listen as I don't want everyone to hear... The issue tool to adjust the foresight, regardless of whether it has got a reverse headed keeper screw or not, is a complete waste of rations. Say that after me slowly... 'A COMPLETE WASTE OF RATIONS' Good.

It was taught during your apprenticeship, together with the variations per turn by rote. But once you got out into the real world, it was left back in the workshop cupboard along with the other theoretical crap, while you learned from the more experienced Armourers, who had served from Monte Cassino to Korea how things were REALLY done.

There IS a place for the forked/reverse headed screwdriver and foresight cramp. You could give it to someone you don't like as a fishing weight or you could slip it into your range bag so that you will look like a bit of a wally (you know the saying, all the gear and no idea) if anyone peeks in.

Real Armourers as opposed to the all the gear and no idea queens just know that on a No.4 rifle it's 'FORESIGHT INTO THE ERROR' So if your shots are sneaking over to the left at, say 100 yards, just a slight tweak of the foresight blade to the left with a brass drift and small hammer through the foresight protector will do the job. Oh yes, I almost forgot. A real Armourer will just KNOW from years and years of experience exactly hyow much to move the foresight over too.

There, that wasn't toooooo difficult was it. Now just a little decorum from now on and you'll be welcome. But, it's not wise to tell the most senior Armourer in the Army that what he's written about sights and zeroing and what you've read is drivel.

Beerhunter
04-05-2012

Thanks Peter. I use a drift on all of my rifles and have done ever since I learned how to do so in the CCF at school.

Until yesterday, I didn't realise quite how naughty I had been but now, in your company, it doesn't seem quite so bad after all.

Peter Laidler
04-06-2012

Someone asked exactly WHY the No.4 (and No.5 and Sterling) foresight tools are useless and it's only fair to tell you. The first thing is that you have to unwind and wind in the screws for every rifle that needs adjustment. And it's usually every one when they've been FTR'd. And secondly, it sits over the foresight protector that is never a good snug fit in the cramp so when you do need to move the blade over to the left by the amount you have calculated after having learned the formula by rote (only to forget it immediately after the exam I hasten to add), you find that the screw touches the edge of the foresight blade and the next half turn or so doesn't move the blade at all... NO! It just takes up the backlash between the cramp and the protector until it starts to bite. By which time your calculations are half a turn out which is x" at 100 yards which means that the... so the left side screw must now be released another half turn - or is it tightened up...?

Someone else also suggested that tapping the side of the blade with a small hammer and brass drift might move the foresight block unless it's supported and.... No it won't, believe me. The foresight block band is sat astride two full length positioning lugs and it ain't going to move nowhere!

Bindi2
04-06-2012

Glad the sights on my slingy thingy dont need adjusting. You can borrow it if you like Peter.

Peter Laidler
04-10-2012

Come on RDSkidmore... money where your mouth is time. A reply is called for.

Frederick303
04-10-2012

Capt. Laidler,

Most of us on this site would not challenge your knowledge; your inside view is what makes this board the best one out there (though I also like the Gunboard's forum for Mosin-Nagants). Now having been in possession of incorrect information in the past, I would ask for clarification, though your explanation of the problem with the sight tool has more or less done that. Perhaps the guilty party thinks that discretion is the better part of valor in this case.

That said, in defense of the "guilty" party, some folks here in the US have a bit of a heavy hand and it can be painful to see the "adjustments" they make to what were formerly perfect arms. We call them "bubba" and perhaps because of our less restrictive laws the honor rendered to surplus arms is not that common in some quarters. Things like urethane finish, drilled action bodies for dubious sights, cut back wood, etc. To have a very nice No.4 MK II that has the drift sight (not the screw type foresight block) dinged up is painful to see for many of us. That may have been where the fellow was coming from.

No actual Enfields were harmed in this posting...

Peter Laidler
04-11-2012

I hear what you're saying Fred, it's just that I don't accept some complete unknown saying that my initial comments, nor those of TBox were drivel. It's OK if they were indeed drivel, but they weren't. They were based on (and I hope I speak for TBox here...) TBox's many, many years in the commercial No.4/Enfield world and mine in the military world and the Engineering Officer at the Small Arms School no less... The cheek of it!

jmoore
04-11-2012

Originally Posted by Buccaneer
If I am reading this correctly the origional post was dated 25/11/2010, RDSkidmores response is dated 05/04/2012, has he managed to reply to a thread that was started 15 months ago?

I don't mind that he resurrected an old thread (sometimes it's an excellent idea), but he hasn't been back since to this site after his post! So no point in getting worked up over it.

Beerhunter
04-11-2012

Originally Posted by Frederick303
To have a very nice No.4 MK II that has the drift sight (not the screw type foresight block) dinged up is painful to see for many of us.

They are both supposed to be adjusted with the "proper" tool. Its just that one of them has to be "unlocked" first.

Terrylee
04-11-2012

Perhaps I'm missing something. I realise that persons vastly more experienced than I regard the No.4 sight adjusting tool as being a waste of time. However, as mentioned previously in No.7 I made one, and with my limited ability to provide an expertly graded "tap" in the necessary direction, have found it most useful.

I'm the first person to admit that there is some slack to take up when tightening up either of the screws. What is more, this varies from rifle to rifle. Nevertheless, I've found that when turning the appropriate screw, the point where the slack has been fully taken up is easily felt. Thereafter, a 90 degree turn (with the thread that I used) equals almost exactly one MOA.

The reason I made the device in the first place was on account of the somewhat patchy success I have found using the other method. Surely, there is place for such gadgets if one does not have the necessary experience to develop the knack of an appropriate degree of force ? Whereas the professional may make such adjustments virtually on a daily basis, someone like myself might do it once in six months or less. I'm sure that there are many in a similar position.

Frederick303
04-11-2012

Beerhunter,

Glad we are on speaking terms.

I was making reference to folks who had used rather blunt instruments to make the adjustment, so that an otherwise pristine example of a No.4 MK I/2 had the paint flaking off on the side of the sight base and sight protector where someone had used brute force to move the sight, as well as a slight indent on the sight itself. My recollection was it was one of the sight bases that had a screw to secure the sight post in the sight base.

One of the other issues I have seen is a mint No.4 MK II that was for sale that had had POF fired out of it with only a light Hoppes cleaning. The rust fouling was clearly visible and the seller said that if I bothered to "shoot out the fouling" it would be bright and shiny.

Oy vey...

Because here in the US Lee-Enfields were very cheap for many years and the relatively easy purchase requirements, it is not uncommon to see a nice example badly treated. It makes the Enfield fans weep.

Not excusing the relatively poorly worded comments, just giving the possible context.

Peter Laidler
04-12-2012

With regards to the use of the useless tool, don't forget that we didn't have any adjusting tool for the Bren or the pistol. Guess what we used...? Yep, a brass drift and... a hammer!

But he hasn't come back so I guess that here endeth the lesson!

jmoore
04-13-2012

Last On 04-05-2012 @ 01:59 AM

He never even checked back in to see the responses, unless it was through another member's name. He posted and scrammed. Very odd!

Phooey, it reminds me that I forgot to take a photo of the homemade screwdriver. Maybe by Saturday?

CDB18
05-13-2013

Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
Or better still, just replace the crap reverse screw in the foresight block with a 4BA allen bolt and be done with it!

The original screw was there so as to be 'soldier proof' It might have been but it was also Armourer proof too once they'd been there for over a week and had corroded a bit!

Hopefully resurrecting an old thread isn't punishable offence.

I've got an No.4 MK.1* needing front sight base screw. Is the correct 'modern' type a 4BA 5/8"?

don311
06-17-2013

Hi Peter, you may remember my question about the No.5 front sight adjusting tool fitting the No.4 Mk 2, and your answer was no it won't try using drift and hammer, well before I got a chance to use drift and hammer a friend loaned me a No.4 adjusting tool and guess what you just as you stated with your wonderful knowledge it was about as much use as trying to move it with a ripe banana, after returning the tool to my friend I used a small hammer and brass drift, two little taps later I was bang on target. I bow to knowledge of all things Enfield.

Roadkingtrax
06-18-2013

Before using the brass drift, do you need to back out the screw a little? Also, where is a good place to buy a internal hex head screw for a replacement?

Peter Laidler
06-18-2013

I have never backed off the reverse headed screw prior to using the brass drift. As for the reverse headed screw being so called 'squaddie proof'. Someone ought to tell them that there is NO such thing! 4BA allen screws should be readily available by the dozen off Ebay or the like. Someone ought to buy a pack and sell the odd ones on.

Steve H. in N.Y.
06-18-2013

For screws in the U.S. you can also try britishfasteners.com. I don't know if they have a minimum order requirement or not.