Is it truth or just myth

[originalrebelyell]

Did Confederate soldiers sometimes remove the rear sights on their Enfields. I have seen a few with no rear sight or sight base.

 

[Youngblood]

Thats odd. Maybe broke off.

 

[James N.]

Did Confederate soldiers sometimes remove the rear sights on their Enfields. I have seen a few with no rear sight or sight base.

I used to own an odd Enfield that had apparently been heavily modified into a smoothbore but I don't recall if its sights had been altered or not, though they might've been. It was dated 1865 and I used it for several years as my reenacting gun. My understanding is that the British armed their native contingents in their colonies with arms like these in order to keep them well-armed but with weapons that were always a step below those used by regular British troops. This was a legacy from the Sepoy Rebellion or the Indian Mutiny of the 1850's when the native troops in India revolted against their British overlords.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

The Confederate soldiers knew the value of a rear sight and did not remove the sights on their rifle muskets. Especially the Enfield series of arms because the rear sights are usually silver soldered on. Believe me, they are difficult to remove even today without a lot of heat!
J.

 

[originalrebelyell]

The Confederate soldiers knew the value of a rear sight and did not remove the sights on their rifle muskets. Especially the Enfield series of arms because the rear sights are usually silver soldered on. Believe me, they are difficult to remove even today without a lot of heat!
J.

I have wondered about it, because I have seen a few old Enfields that had no sight or sight base on the barrel, on one you could see traces of solder on the barrel where the sight base had been.

 

[johan_steele]

I have wondered about it, because I have seen a few old Enfields that had no sight or sight base on the barrel, on one you could see traces of solder on the barrel where the sight base had been.

The Brits issued a smooth bore version of the p53 to native troops. I don't believe It had a rear sight. But it did have the broad arrow acceptance marks.

 

[Craig L Barry]

As Jobe said, the rear sight was silver soldered onto the barrel, but not screwed in like the Italian P53 reproductions or the US model rifle muskets. I have always thought that they sometimes got knocked off in the course of handling or transportation by the solider but I can honestly say I have not ever tried to remove a rear ladder sight so I don't know what degree of effort that takes.

 

[originalrebelyell]

I have seen a couple of originals with no rear sight or base and one still had some solder on the barrel where the sight base would have been.

 

[Yankeedave]

We had something similar on the farm, a bead site, but none in the rear. We called it a smoke stick. It could be accurate.

 

[tbuckley]

I have seen a few Enfields without rear sights and had assumed that the sight had been removed post-war when being used as a shotgun.

 

[yulzari]

The post Mutiny Pattern Indian Army 1859 smooth bore Enfields were .656" bore and came with a fixed rear sights. Ammunition was formed as the old musket cartridges with a spherical ball of .632" and a 110 grain charge.

Handy pieces for military percussion musket competitions these days and quite accurate out to 100 yards plus.

Smooth bored Pattern 1853s will have a .58"+ bore from the original groove diameter.

 

[James N.]

The post Mutiny Pattern Indian Army 1859 smooth bore Enfields were .656" bore and came with a fixed rear sights. Ammunition was formed as the old musket cartridges with a spherical ball of .632" and a 110 grain charge.

Handy pieces for military percussion musket competitions these days and quite accurate out to 100 yards plus.

Smooth bored Pattern 1853s will have a .58"+ bore from the original groove diameter.

That sounds very much like my old 1865-dated Enfield I described in my above post; thanks for the information!

 

[thomas aagaard]

As Jobe said, the rear sight was silver soldered onto the barrel, but not screwed in like the Italian P53 reproductions or the US model rifle muskets. I have always thought that they sometimes got knocked off in the course of handling or transportation by the solider but I can honestly say I have not ever tried to remove a rear ladder sight so I don't know what degree of effort that takes.

My rear sight became loose so I decided to remove it. (better than loosing it)
At first I could not pull it of, but by twisted it it came loose eventually. But it did take some effort.

Not sure if I had hit it on something...
(mine is an original from 1859.. at least that is what the plate tell me)

 

[gary]

I very much doubt that the Confederate soldiers would have removed the sights. They would have been chastised by their ordnance officer for doing so. Never read of any account of it being done by the soldiers. I did read one account of a Kerr armed sharpshooter who got his bullet stuck and ruined the gun by trying to melt it out.

BTW, in WW I Capt. Herbert McBride stuck a razor blade between the receiver and scope base of his Warner-Swasey optical sight equipped rifle. When he turned it in, he caught h*ll from the armorer for that stunt.

 

[Republican Blues]

The post Mutiny Pattern Indian Army 1859 smooth bore Enfields were .656" bore and came with a fixed rear sights. Ammunition was formed as the old musket cartridges with a spherical ball of .632" and a 110 grain charge.

Handy pieces for military percussion musket competitions these days and quite accurate out to 100 yards plus.

Smooth bored Pattern 1853s will have a .58"+ bore from the original groove diameter.

I have an original!! need a lock for it though..

 

[D.H. Hill]

I've seen a lot of old Springfields that were modified postwar to be shotguns by removing the rear sight, drilling out the bore, etc. Perhaps the same was done to surplus Enfields (by civilians) after they became obsolete militarily?