Thread: MUES Aperture sight for SMLE?

After looking at some older posts on aperture sights, it looks like the MUES sight I have may be missing a few parts but I’m not 100% sure….the other thing is it looks like it may only fit the SMLEs I’m restoring if the forestock is fitted for volley sights. If it won’t fit on a normal SMLE forestock I’ll look to sell and source an aperture sight that would fit. If any of the fine gents on here know anything more about this type of sight it would be great to hear, from what little I’ve found out they were originally designed for long toms? and central ended up copying the MUES design as it wasn’t copyrighted well enough, or something like that. Any guidance appreciated.

You can use it in place of the safety washer. The dumbbell spring has a protrusion that fits in the grove at the bottom of the sight you have. Sure, you can't fold it against the stock like the early volley sight models, but you can still use it.

May find that the safety spring doesn't like working with the sight - remember the Long Lee never had a safety catch on the side of the receiver and the original setup was the rear volley sight arm. Can only try it... Sights set up for the SMLE in 'Range' configuration had a base that bolted onto the rifle, and a different windage setup to account for the slight sideways shift with the extra width of the base. I don't know which version you have, if it is a Long Lee or an SMLE version missing the base...

I've got a Sporter type purpose built for Left side of a Smelly action manufactured by Field Instruments from Aussie.Needs D & T to install.PM me if of any use

I agree with the above comments and the safety issue. You might be better off with an early central sight for the smle (has the verticals cut for mounting and the smle sight base). Lots around but the plates are harder to find. Note the reference on them to no4 has nothing to do with no4 rifles. You should find the smle ones will probably have the correct smle marked plates as most people didn’t use them on omarks ( they went with the later models)

I've got a JNT sight that bolts straight to the safety screw holes if youre interested?

If you want to sell your MUES I'd be interested just because of the history the brands holds

Thanks for the feedback and guidance guys. I’ll look at if it’s able to fit on without affecting the safety and see how it functions. A few more jobs to do, just planed one the the top woos done ever so slightly (approx 2-3mm) so it will fit under the nose cap, it was a fair bit higher than the other top wood. It also looks like where the barrel bands sit is in need of filing down, the bands are not even close to fitting. Makes me wonder if I’ve ended up with No4 barrel bands so I’ll take my No4’s band off and see if they are the same. It’s taken 12 years to get to this stage, picking up bits and pieces as I find them, but they will be on the range this year finally!

Getting there, my 1918 and a ‘41 Lithgow

Originally Posted by apkiwi

Thanks for the feedback and guidance guys. I’ll look at if it’s able to fit on without affecting the safety and see how it functions. A few more jobs to do, just planed one the the top woos done ever so slightly (approx 2-3mm) so it will fit under the nose cap, it was a fair bit higher than the other top wood. It also looks like where the barrel bands sit is in need of filing down, the bands are not even close to fitting. Makes me wonder if I’ve ended up with No4 barrel bands so I’ll take my No4’s band off and see if they are the same. It’s taken 12 years to get to this stage, picking up bits and pieces as I find them, but they will be on the range this year finally!

Nice…..I can smell the hand rubbed RAW linseed oil from here����

Indeed, I’ll be doing a Voere .22 at the same time, it was this colour before hand but thanks to some good tips from the forum that I read (Citristrip) I’ve got it down to bare wood ready for oiling

So, turns out the Mues sight I have will fit an SMLE. The bottom of the dog leg has a horizontal groove cut across on the side that faces outermost. This corresponds with the same groove on the thick ‘washer’ that sits on top of the safety lever. The sight is designed to replace that washer. Fits well. Does anyone know what a good foresight option is for this type of aperture sight, I’m guessing some kind of hooded foresight to suit???

Hey mate, thanks for the tip on fitting the sight!

Originally Posted by apkiwi

So, turns out the Mues sight I have will fit an SMLE. The bottom of the dog leg has a horizontal groove cut across on the side that faces outermost. This corresponds with the same groove on the thick ‘washer’ that sits on top of the safety lever. The sight is designed to replace that washer. Fits well. Does anyone know what a good foresight option is for this type of aperture sight, I’m guessing some kind of hooded foresight to suit???

They were only ever shot with a blade. Tunnel type for sights were not used until late 60s. There were some Motty and central examples with removable blades but almost all rifles used standard blades

That's why you had the ability to 'slip' the elevation and windage scales - saved adjusting the foresight blade and you could go back to using the factory rear vernier sight for certain matches if needed. Some later safety springs deleted those two ridges and stopped any unnecessary shaping of the spring to save machine time during manufacture, they won't work with those sights obviously as there wasn't a separate washer it was one piece with the safety lever. If that was an issue you could swap it back out with the earlier version though.