Lee-Enfield No. 4 foresight replacement

B

BBroadside

New member
I have a Lee-Enfield No. 4, factory thorough repair, shiny nice barrel. It shoots beautifully, theoretically. Problem is the original front sight was way too short. I ordered some new foresights of various heights, but they are slightly different - split base instead of solid base. My original (too short) with the solid base fit snugly and, as expected, I had to tap it out with a punch. My new ones slide in way too easily and would never hold position under recoil.

Should I probably be trying to spread the halves of the (split) base, to make it sit tighter? I guess I could pry with a screwdriver or something....

Or should I use some kind of locking compound? If that happens I don't know if I will just break it free if (when!) I have to adjust for windage. (Smart gunsmiths put witness marks for where the original sight was to make their first windage closer to true. So of course I didn't.)

Or should I give up, move back to the original sight, and try to increase the height? I heard you could do that, with solder or something.

(The painful irony is that I do have a windage-adjustable rear. This could solve a lot of my problems, but the only possible use for the rifle is a World War II match, where it would be forbidden. I suppose the War Office did not take my problems into account when coming up with specs for the No. 4.)
 
"...split base instead of solid base..." That'd be some kind of aftermarket sight.
Gunparts lists front sight blades at $2.35 each. No mention of heights though.
"...try to increase the height?..." You could silver solder a bit of brass wire on top and file it.
 
After a lot of googling, I found this.

I tried both proposed solutions. First, I turned the foresight upside down, put it in my vice, and peened its little feet with a centrepunch. It raised dimples, but it wasn't enough to stop slliding.

Then I slipped a screwdriver in between its feet and separated them slightly, probably much less than a sixteenth of an inch.

That pretty much did it. It slides in now and I need the centrepunch to move it. I'm not 100% sure recoil won't move it, but I'll bet on it since recoil is completely orthogonal to the axis on which the sight slides.
 
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