What is this gun?

Bluey303 yes that’s it for sure. They also had the oval brass piece half way down the stock from the trigger guard on the left hand side. It’s marked in degrees. I figured it was some kind of aiming device for grenades or some such. I attached a photo I found on the net of the device.
Again thanks everyone.
 
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In his book 'Combat Leadership', WWI German Lt. Adolph von Schell (who after the Great War went on to teach at Ft Bragg Infantry School) well described the use of volley fire on platoon/squad level. If memory serves correctly, it played out like this- Once an enemy troop movement was spotted at said distance, men would be brought on line with rifles to bear. The Squad Leaders would estimate range, announce it, and issue orders to fire. The idea wasn't so much to accurately shoot individual enemy soldiers, but to shoot amongst a large body of them to harrass. Any resultant kills or injuries were not considered much more than icing on the cake.

Not sure when that practice died out- maybe with the introduction of more portable MG's? Either way, his book is an excellent read and is considered mandatory reading at many leadership schools. It's lessons are equally valuable for anybody in any workforce.
 
Ozzieman - No worries. Yep, like what Mike said. That is the long range front volley sight, calibrated for the .303 Mark VII round, from 1700 yards onwards to a good 2600 yards. It's a very rare thing to have the originals, so if you have that and the rear volley sight which is just over the left side as well, but beside the rear sight, then it makes that particular P-14 very appealing to the collector.

I don't have them on the P-14s I have, they were removed (rather crudely at one point) because, it was found after the hard-won experience of WWI that volley sights were about next to useless, served very little purpose, so the unit armourers were often asked to remove them where possible. They can be restored though, via a mob in the UK, but the threads used aren't of the normal variety, they're unique "Enfield" threads, so it'll be a real interesting time when I get around to fixing them!
 
"Not sure when that practice died out- maybe with the introduction of more portable MG's?"

Exactly.

Machine guns could do a far better job of creating "beaten ground" than any squad of riflemen could hope to do.
 
Well some more news on the collection. The 1917’s were drilled out to 410 shot shells. A friend and gun store owner came over to look at them and every one of them was smooth bore and 410.
WHY on earth would someone turn a 1917 into a shotgun?
And the K98 is mine.
 
They did that with Lee Enfields, as well. They were used for training purposes.

Sounds like a crazy idea but British long guns are new to me. One of them had a painted red line around the stock and receiver right at the magazine, about 4 inches wide. Also, all of them had the internal magazine held in place in some way so that they were only single shots.
Thanks Mike.
 
Ok I am officially “smarter” now! Concerning British guns.

Muskets and Shotguns

Conversions of rifles to smoothbored guns was carried out in several locations, for varying reasons.

SAF Lithgow, in Australia, produced shotguns based on the MkIII action, chambering the common commercial .410 shotgun shell. Commercial gunsmiths in Australia and Britain converted both MkIII and No4 rifles to .410 shotguns. These conversions were prompted by firearms legislation which made possession of a rifle chambered in a military cartridge both difficult and expensive. Smoothbored shotguns could be legally held with far less trouble.

RFI, in India, converted a large number of MkIII rifles to single shot muskets, chambered for the .410 Indian Musket cartridge. These conversions were for issue to police and prison guards, to provide a firearm with a much-reduced power and range in comparison to the .303 cartridge. A further likely consideration was the difficulty obtaining replacement ammunition in the event of theft or the carrier's desertion.

While British and Australian conversions were to the standard commercially available .410 shotgun cartridge (though of varying chamber lengths) the Indian conversions have been the source of considerable confusion. The Indian conversions were originally chambered for the .410 Indian Musket cartridge, which is based on the .303 British cartridge, and will not chamber the common .410 shotgun cartridge. Many of these muskets were rechambered, after being sold as surplus, and can now be used with commercially available ammunition. Unmodified muskets require handloading of ammunition, as the .410 Indian Musket cartridge was not commercially distributed and does not appear to have been manufactured since the 1950s.
 
Interesting. I had heard that they were largely used to teach how to lead targets for aerial machine gunners and others who would fire at moving targets.
 
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