Sniper sight on Enfields

[ES1861]

Gentlemen,

I have a question.

A month ago I made an inquiry on this forum. I asked about sniper sights.
The most interesting answer I got from Curt-Heinrich:

""The U.S. actually dabbled in "sniper sights."
The first versions of the U.S. M1855 Rifles, the two brass mounted versions,
with the long nosecap had their "implement box" (patchbox) mortised for a screw on, "Figure Eight" front sight.
This consisted of a large bottom half of the "eight" that slipped over the muzzle. Its smaller top half contianed cross wire.

I once built an early (1857-1858) brass mounted and browned barrelled M1855 rifle with such a sight attachment. For shooting, I found the "figure eight front sight" to be next to worthless. (As did the Ordnance folks, who dropped it in 1859.) ""

Now, I have used this "figure eight sight" on my Enfield and found it an useful shooting aid.

Here comes the question:

Does anybody know, whether these "figure eight" sights were ever used on Enfields?

(I remember reading from somewhere that they furnished many sniper rifles during the CW, probably not true)

Yours,

Eric Seppälä

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Sniper sight on Enfields

Hallo Kameraden!

We should be using the more period term "sharpshooter" rather than the later usaged "sniper..."

Not that I have ever come across, researched, or documented.

I am still looking for a thirty year old or so AMERICAN RIFLEMAN article by Howard Madaus (now at the Cody/Winchester museum) on the M1855 that I recall showed the front sight.

I see DIXIE GUN WORKS still sells a repro as the "Remington Zouave Sniper Sight" in their catalog.

In theory, again in theory, the front sight attachment could have worked on an Enfield as the Enfield had a long-range rear sight graduated to 900 yards.
I don't have such a sight to see whether it would fit over an Enfield muzzle or not, but without documentation of the preWar front sight being used in such a way, IMHO it is not something worth pursuing.

To over generalize, long range "sharpshooter" rifles (with the rarer exception of the British hexagonal bored Whitworths) were usually heavy bench style target rifles- the larger ones weighing in the 20-36 or so pound range, and typically firing a patched round ball. For such units as Berdan's/Post's, these tended not to be carried in the field, due to the weight and fragile nature of the optics- but kept boxed in the supply wagons until issued to a competant marksman, often times the best shot in the company, for a particular shooting assignment or special need.

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt
Company "A," 1st USSS (LH)
Company "C," 7th ICOVSS