doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Big and Rare....

This one is not mine either.....a full .577 3" nitro proved for 100grains of cordite and a 750 grain bullet, it handles great but that scope scares the bejesus out of me

With that scope in place, you'd have instant half moon scarring on your eyebrow with the first shot. OUCH!

Beautiful gun nonetheless.

A beautiful rifle I agree. Totally spoilt by the addition of a telescopic sight which is absolutely unnecessary. A Rifle of this calibre (.577" x 3" x 750 x 100) is meant to be a 'stopper' at very close range and not for long distance shooting where a telescopic sight may be adventagous.

I fail to see why a telescopic sight is necessary when the average range that these rifles of this calibre were used was no more than 30 yards, and often considerably less. Even over open sights, the worlds most dangerous game animals will look like the proverbial 'Barn Door' at 30 yards or less.

The large British Big Game calibre rifles and cartridges were developed at a time when the maxim for shooting at big game was, "Get as close as you can, and then get 10 yards closer"

Only someone with no idea at all about Big Game Hunting would have ordered such a rifle in such a calibre to be fitted with a telescopic sight.l

Harry

Maybe a pre Barrett sniper rifle

The telescope appears to be a commercial type Aldis Bros. made up after WWI, probably using lenses and parts left over from their WWI production of scopes for SMLE and P14 sniper rifles. They are very similar to, but not the same as the WWI scopes. The distinct downward cant of the scope apparently indicating that the owner intended to use it for longer ranges, which I suppose the cartridge is very capable of.

It is zeroed for windage by removing the cover on the object lens housing and rotating the prism therein with a flat key made to fit the two slots. This also throws the elevation adjustment out, so that has to be reset aftwards.

Here's a sheet on the scope.

Were it not for the beautiful condition of the rifle and the post-war scope, one might think it was set up to "bash-in" German sniper shields, as quite a few Express rifles were used for this purpose in WWI.

I notice that the 'scope pull', that is, the distance between the trigger and a vertical line extended downward from the rear of the scope's eyepiece, is essentially zero. Since 'scope pulls' of ~1.75" are more usual on modern rifles, I therefore assumed that perhaps this scope had been fitted with extremely long eye relief, to compensate for the excessive recoil movement. This scope's eyepiece position would place the shooter's eye more than 5" away from the scope; maybe not enough for complete safety but better than a first impression would indicate.
Regards, Joe

Joe,

I dunno if 5" of eye relief is enough...I keep getting this mental image of that scope eyepiece sticking out of the BACK of some unfortunate souls' head...

Greg