Original Item. Only One Available. This is a fantastic & scarce set of WWI Mark II Self-Luminous sights for the Browning Machine Gun Model 1917. The set includes a front and rear luminous sight which fits the standard sights. The set comes in its original small dovetailed box still wrapped in paper. The box measures 2⅝ x 2 x ¾”.

The label on the box reads:

Self Luminous Sights,
Mark II
For
Browning Machine Gun
Model 1917.
Made by
Watson Luminous Gun Sight Co., Inc.
New York

The box no longer closes correctly as the top of one side has come off, but it still displays very well in the box. 

This is an incredible set, the first we have offered, and to find them in the original box is just unbelievable. Comes ready for further research and display.

The M1917 Browning machine gun is a heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I, World War II, Korea, and to a limited extent in Vietnam; it has also been used by other nations. It was a crew served, belt-fed, water-cooled machine gun that served alongside the much lighter air-cooled Browning M1919. It was used at the battalion level, and often mounted on vehicles (such as a jeep). There were two main iterations of it: the M1917, which was used in World War I; and the M1917A1; which was used thereafter. The M1917, which was used on some aircraft as well as in a ground role, had a firing rate of 450 rounds per minute; the M1917A1 had a firing rate of 450 to 600 rounds per minute.

The Model 1917A1 was again used in the Second World War, and was primarily used with the M2 ball, tracer, and armor-piercing ammunition introduced just prior to the outbreak of hostilities. Some were supplied to the UK for use by the Home Guard since all production of the .303 Vickers were needed to resupply the equipment abandoned during the Fall of France. The M1917's weight and bulk meant that it was generally employed as a fixed defense or as a battalion or regimental support weapon. At the fierce battle of Momote Airstrip in the Admiralties, the US Army's 5th Cavalry machinegunners killed several hundred Japanese in one night using their M1917 Brownings; one gun was left in position after the battle as a memorial to the desperate struggle.