What say ye?

Yes, once, well in fact ever since I was fifteen up until about 1997 when I was forty.

At school it was standard military classification (we shot the Bren Gun also) elsewise falling plates or targets at 300 and 500 yards. Plus quickloading competitions. Five or so loaded charger clips with drill rounds per lad. Start standing a eas with the rifle. Hit the deck and the quickest to load and "shoot" all of them off.

Also the odd foray onto an electronic target battle range. With each firing point having an area for prone, a foxhole, a gate ppost (to siulate firing from around a wall) and a sloped wood platform to represent firing from the reverse side of a roof.

In my thirties and forties it was again 300 and 500, a few times at 900 and 1000 yards (I could hit a man target at 1000 yards fairly easily) and fixed bayonet at 200 yards.

Also re-visiting old British Army courses of fire, and standing 200 yards. Plus the "Mad Minute" of one minute and as many rounds as you could at a figure target at 200 yards.

And a few times on a CQB (close quafrter battle range).

At fifteen it was at school using military Mk VII ball. Afterwards when I was in my thirties and forties that supply of reliable CONSISTENT Mk VII had dried up.

Best factory then...no more Kynoch...was South African PMP. All the rest HXP and Sellier & Bellot wasn't as good.

I figured that it was because the PMP was made for war (and thus overhead machine gun fire) whereas the other stuff was made with mere rifle target shooting as its use.

For reloading the best recipe when money was at stake and/or medals.was none of the US powders but Vihtanouri N140 and N150. About 40 or 41 grains behind a 173 grain FMJ.

In the late 1970s the only bullets availbale to reloaders loose were Speer's 180 grain soft point. The ballistic performance qualities of a hhalf a brick and trajectory like a thrown blancmange.

There are various tips and tricks o learn to win. Not gamesmanship but methods in fact taught by the British Army.

It makes me laugh when "Gunnie" Lee Ermey shoots the Model '03 against and SMLE and the SMLE guy doesn't have a clue how to use the thing properly. So "Gunnie" wins.

Any decent Brit brought uo and trained on the Lee Enfield (swe#re all now the youngest of us near on sixty) would shoot "Gunnie" off the range!

Over the years I've shot No4...one hundred plus to choose from at school...and No3 plus the useless Pattern '14 in standard and the 1919 Sniper Rifle.

From standard No4 MkI, to No 4 MkII (I thought the MkI better) with barrels in six groove, five groove and two groove. Fazackerley, Savage, Long Branch, M47 BSAs in standard and No4(T) etc., etc..

And the No3 MkIII in standard and the BSA five groove WWII from Enfield, to Lithgow, to SSA to Ishapore. The military BSA were the best. The Ishapore ovften had issues with the charger guide not being correctly set up.

And I've used them as issue and bedded and set up by Fulton and A J Parker (I dealt with Edna Parker often) and Alex Martin.

But the standard was the better rifle IMHO. Not mucked about with or "fetteed".

So yes, I've shot the .303 British in competition.

Just the once or twice.

I have both the No. 4 MKI and a No. 1 MKIII and find both are quite accurate. I only shot imported commercial ammunition initially but now reload. The SMK is my bullet of choice. Reloading for this cartridge in these rifles is a little different than many others and I only neck size my brass to save wear and tear on the cases by constant shoulder set back.

I had an Ishapore in 7,62 for a while and stupidly let it go. Also quite accurate and again the SMK was my bullet of choice.

These Enfields are fast to cycle and fire accurately with a little practice. I'd say they are the fasted bolt gun out there which I am sure will bring a down pour of criticism but I stand by the claim.

I would run a No. 4 Mk. I with good bore in a military match in a heartbeat. Spares, I had pretty good luck with the Greek HXP, but never tried the South African PMP. I guess I should have.

quote:

I only neck size my brass to save wear and tear on the cases by constant shoulder set back.

Here we all did pretty much the same just setting back the shoulder a very small amount. So a neck size plus a little bit. And we used to crimp, slightly, to get better consistency in velocity.

Agreed. When I acquired my N°4MkI*, I bought along a box of 50 S&B factory rounds (the dealer had no other .303's). The factory loading shot reasonably, enough to sight in the rifle properly). Since then I've been reloading those cases 6 x so far without losing a single one. I partial sized from the 1st. day (my std. procedure, BTW) and my rifle has a new barrel (FTR) and correct headspace (bolt head 0). Cases do not need trimming after each firing and most don't (over)grow for 2-3 x. I'm impressed for I used to bash S&B brass, having experienced poor performance years ago. Did S&B brass improve over the years ?

whilst I don't use my 30h's at the range at all I have gotten rather handy at shooting moving targets with quite a few pigs, wild dogs and the odd cat falling prey to federal 180 gr factory ammo