Jungle carbine shoots low

[us019255]

What I find odd is that over the years the exact opposite is said when a rifle (SMLE) shoots high.

The rifles I noticed this on were SMLE. The first was an Ishapore, the second a Lithgow. I found my explanation, and an illustration of the half black bull in a UK publication, which escapes me at the moment.

[JB White]

If it's the same half bull on a post which I'm familiar with, it was available for download at full size too. At one time I had a brass scale which had the various increments scribed into it that I used when indoor sighting during the frigid/snowy winter months.
Using the scale centered in the bull I was able to determine my 6:00 POA using a 1" orange sticker on the paper. The scale told me the POI roughly translated from 75 ft to 200 yards. It worked well enough that come spring thaw I was pretty close on paper at the actual ranges.

Something we need to keep in mind is factory/armorers sighting took place many decades before we got our hands on these rifles. There has been a lot of barrel wear and wood shifting etc. since then, not to mention recoil compression at the draws (along with changes in tension on the so-called "voodoo screw" on the No1's). Whether it shoots high, low or dead on all depends on the individual rifle at this point. So long as the bedding checks out proper, then it's a matter of getting used to a new set of sight settings. Quite often the rear sights incremental scale goes by the wayside and we use whichever setting works for us.

Also for those who may have missed it by brushing over the quoted text in an earlier post, front sight height is determined mostly by the height of the dovetail base and not so much the height of the blade itself. In the past I have even used tall BREN gun front sights or Parker Hale's almost wafer thin sights to get my prefered sight picture and range settings.
I just wish it were that easy to get Martini Henrys and Snider carbines to hit lower at shorter ranges!

[John Sukey]

One other thing. With age, forends can warp a bit, putting pressure on one side of the barrel. You should be able to slide a thin piece of paper around the barrel and move it up and down the length of the forend (rear sight excepted.)