Brazing for a taller Lee Enfield Front Sight

[kungfustyle]

Someone at our range had a Lee Enfield for sale that had to follow me home. Finally got some ammo for the rifle and it shot about 7" high at 50 yards. After researching the front sights I found out that they range from -.03 to +.075. Nine graduations each with a .015 change. Looking up the formula for sight adjustment for the Enfield, it looked like I needed to raise the front sight .111". The tallest sight available was only a .06 change. I looked and looked and couldn't find any sight that would work. I did order a .075 sight from E-bay. I thought about having a spot weld put on it and asked our local garage if they could. The guy at the garage said that Brazing my work. I've never heard about this, so home to research it I go. After some hunting I got some brazing rods from Napa and got my propane torch ready to give it a go. After getting the sight and brazing stick cherry red, the stick started to melt/bead and stuck to the sight. I did this a few times and was able to build up the sight to the height I needed. The brass stuck to the steel sight and I was able to melt it down and get it smooth. I broke out my dremmel and sanded it down with a little room to spare. We will see if this thing works.
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For never having done something like this before. I'm happy with the results.

[W.R.Buchanan]

OK: this is all fine and good, but you kind of missed some important stuff.

1. These guns are sighted in at 200 yards using 150 gr factory ammo or issue "Ball Ammo," and that is the "Mechanical Zero." or to put it a different way, this is the basic zero that all other zeros are taken from.

You would set the rear ladder sight to 200 yards, then adjust both the windage and elevation to zero using the different front sights.

With the Enfield Sight Radius .008" = 1 MOA so the front sight increments of .015 = 2 MOA in elevation or 2" at 100 yards, or 4" at 200 yards.

If your gun has the Mk2 "L" shaped rear sight then the lower aperture is for 300 yards and the other one is 600 yards.

Hopefully your gun has the Mk1 Ladder Sight as it gives you more options to sight in slower ammunition like Cast Boolit loads.

You will also need a sight pusher tool to adjust the Front Sight Side to side in a predictable manner.

I just happen to make such a tool and you can PM me if you would like one. It makes moving the Front Sight a given amount much easier.

Randy

[303Guy]

I've wondered about sighting the flip up sight for 160 and 320 yds (it wouldn't quite work out right but close enough for practical purposes). What would it work out at? I should check AmmoGuide Interactive.

[kungfustyle]

The rifle is a Mark 4 No2 and it has the vernir like sight on the back. I don't know why someone would set the front sight to 300m only to have a flip up sight marked at 200m. OK, I'm sure that there is a reason. There is no way mine was sighted in at 200m that would have put me at about 3" high at 100 yards and 2" high at 50. Mine was about 7 to 8" high. Anyway here we are and what I wanted to do was possibly hunt and target shoot with it. Get the peep sight set up at 100 yards and then start playing with cast boolits. So now I can do that. Just got back from the range and was a few inches low at 25 yards so I made some adjustments and should be right on now. Ended up with .416 col and right on at 100 yards.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Kung Fu: if your gun has the ladder sight then after you are zeroed at 200 yards with the rear sight set at 200 yards, then 4 clicks down should yield a 100 yard zero. With the Sight laid down the Aperture in view should be sighted at 300 yards.

Keep in mind that these are "Battle Rifles" and you really don't want the enemy any closer than about 200-300 yards. That's why the base zeros are 200-300 yards. But there is one other factor at work here, and that is called "Maximum Point Blank Range."

Here is a good explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-blank_range

With the gun sighted at 200 yards you should be able to hit a man sized target in the torso by holding dead on out to about 300 yards.

With respect to shooting Multiple Loads thru the same gun, the whole idea here is that with the 200 yard "Mechanical Zero" using 150 gr ball or factory ammo (PPU). That will be the fastest load you will ever shoot thru the gun. Therefore all other loads which are slower, will result in "Plus" Elevation changes.

For example on my gun with the afore mentioned ammo and zero, it is about 1.5-2" high at 100, zero at 200, 12" low at 300 (needing +3.5 MOA,) 28" low at 400 (needing+7.0 MOA,) and 60" low at 500 (needing +12 MOA.) This is using a Very Precise Redfield Olympic Rear Sight. Using your Ladder Rear Sight it should follow the divisions on the sight nearly perfectly. This is all based on the trajectory of the 150 gr bullet traveling at around 2600fps which is what the Privi-Partisan (PPU) Factory ammo produces. Military ball ammo is very close to that as well.

Slower loads (Like 174 or 180 gr) PPU Factory Loads will follow a different trajectory, and that will be a taller one,which will result in slightly higher sight settings. (.5 @ 200, 4.0@300 7.5@400 and 12.75 at 500.) In order to figure out what the Elevation Offsets will be you must shoot the gun with these loads at all the different distances and note (IE:write down) the elevation offsets which produce zeros for all the ranges.

Once again: this is all based on the 200 yard Mechanical Zero you established using the 150 gr loads.

On my gun,,, my goto cast boolit load is a Lyman 314299 (205gr) Boolit over 16 gr of 2400. This produces around 1600 fps. However the Elevation Offsets for this load are completely different. They are +12 MOA above Mechanical Zero for 50 yards, +15 for 100, +18 for 150, and +21 for 200. So you can see how this much slower load results in a much taller trajectory and hence the larger Elevation Offsets to achieve hits at the different distances.

I highly recommend buying a little booklet from Sinclair or Brownell's to write down all of your sighting zeros.

I will tell you from experience that in order to be successful with any rifle you must have the gun sighted in EXACTLY at a given distance. For most High Power Centerfire Rifles of Military or similar calibers, 200 yards is the best distance, using some readily available standardized ammunition. That Mechanical Zero always becomes your reference point that all other loads relate too. When done shooting you always return the Rear Sight or Scope to that Mechanical Zero and thus you always know where the gun is sighted at.

I am also a big proponent of finding a good load for any given gun and sticking with that load and not changing it everytime you shoot.

Everytime you change the velocity,,, You change the trajectory! Everytime you change the trajectory, you get to go back to the range and shoot the gun at all the different distances to find the elevation offsets for that new load, or else you will not hit what you are aiming at and will end up just "chasing the sights" all day,,, which generally yields few hits and simply wastes ammo.

This gets old fast!.

That is why it is best to sight the gun in right the first time so you at least have one load you can hit something with.

It should be noted that the primary purpose for most guns is to hit something other than paper targets.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

Peter: One click down on your ladder sight should move the Zero to 160 yards or damn close. 320 would probably work right at the 300 yards hash mark on the sight,,, Or damn close.

Randy

[kungfustyle]

Hey Randy,
Thanks for the info.