Although only five members brought their Lee-Enfield No 4 rifles to The Hill on a beautiful Sunday morning for zeroing, changing their foresight heights for range and adjusting them laterally for windage took the full two and a half hours available.

The workshop proved both interesting and informative and showed just how badly set-up military rifles can be when purchased. One rifle fitted with a very tall foresight was shooting 4.5 inches low and 1 inch to the right of the expected point of impact. While this error might have partly been due to home-loaded ammunition that did not achieve the designated 2440 fps muzzle velocity of the Mk VII cartridge, clearly a much lower foresight was desperately needed. When the lowest sight available had been fitted the rifle was shooting to point of aim at 25 yards and its sights had to be set at 400 yards to be 'on' at 300. Surprisingly they were spot-on at 500 yards as set. Who said that ballistics was a simple subject?

All of the rifles presented needed their sight elements changing and only two were reasonably 'on' for windage. The armourer's No 4 foresight adjuster allowed us to make much finer settings than would have been possible had we been forced to revert to the more traditional 'whack it with a hammer' method.

The downside to the workshop is that four members now have accurate rifles with which to thrash all comers in Club competitions. Why not five? Well, our illustrious Club Secretary's foresight clamping screw proved to be even more obstinate than its owner absolutely refusing to budge despite the application of much brute force and ignorance (qualities never in short supply at our Club meetings.)

Sincere thanks are due to: Phil Rose for kindly loaning the armourer's tools and providing assorted replacement foresight blades; Allan Littlefair for relieving me of Range Officer duties on the day; Chris Hall for printing the targets onto card and loaning his benchrest stands and spotting scope and to the members who brought their rifles along and made the session worthwhile.

Apologies go to: Chris Hall for not being able to set up his rifle (we'll do it when you get the screw released, Chris) and to Gary Strong for busting his special foresight screwdriver during my aforementioned brute strength and ignorance demonstration.