So what's .303 got going for it?

[WelshShooter]

For a couple of years I didn't bother reading my 303 stripper clips properly and never had any rimlocks. I load them correctly and still don't get them. Not quite sure what you have to do to cause one...?

[meles meles]

We don't experience rimlocks, but we're loading on a one way range with plenty of time and no pressure. It's a potential issue though if you are frightened teenager loading them under pressure in a trench, at night, in the rain with the 'un breathing down your neck. Best avoided if possible, hence our pondering if the .303 bullet itself had sufficient merit to be carried forrard to a rimless cartridge. It seems the 7.65 Argentine was essentially exactly that... Sandy seems to know his stuff.

[dromia]

7.7mm Japanese is another rimless 303.

[Sandgroper]

We don't experience rimlocks, but we're loading on a one way range with plenty of time and no pressure. It's a potential issue though if you are frightened teenager loading them under pressure in a trench, at night, in the rain with the 'un breathing down your neck. Best avoided if possible, hence our pondering if the .303 bullet itself had sufficient merit to be carried forrard to a rimless cartridge. It seems the 7.65 Argentine was essentially exactly that... Sandy seems to know his stuff.

When I was planning to rebarrel my 257 I considered the 7.65 Argentine as I thought it would make an interesting rifle but in the end I went for boring (308 Win) over interesting...

[TomEnfield]

Having had the pleasure of training modern soldiers on .303 weapon systems; No4, SMLE, Vickers, BREN and Lewis I feel that the "rim lock" issue isn't really an issue. I have never personally experienced a "rim lock" failure to feed and have only seen it happen once or twice with a rifle.

The only time I've seen it happen is when rounds have been loaded individually into the magazine by an individual on their first attempt at loading a No4 magazine. Also the individual usually isn't handling the weapon in the positive manor required. I've never known stripper clips to cause an issue even when incorrectly loaded, the rims just seem to sort themselves out in the magazine. I feel that this must be down to design rather than accident.

Also with BREN magazines I've noticed that rims also seem to sort themselves out. The action of depressing the round and letting them pop back up seems to jiggle them into correct place.

With regards to 47 rnd Lewis gun mag rim lock is impossible, and you'd have to actively try to achieve rim lock with the 97 rnd mag.

In the Vickers action the rimmed cartridge really comes into its own, solving issues with feed extraction and head spacing. The simplicty of the action is impart down to rimmed cartridges.

[TomEnfield]

With regards to the SMLE as the perfect battle rifle of the time here are my thought's:

Due to the captive large market that where British Empire's armies.303 had a monopoly. To that end there was not a selection of different cartridges that the Lee action had to accommodate. Therefore the action could be perfectly engineered to the specifications of the .303, not too strong, not too weak, just right. Subsequently the action could use rear locking luggs and be cock on close, which makes it quick. Very quick in the hands of a trained solider.

Mauser did not have the luxury of this captive market and had to build an action that was strong enough for a large variety of cartridges, including civilian dangerous game rnds. A range spanning from .22rf to .416rigby. Therefore the Mauser action had to be over engineered, slowing it down.

The SMLE was the culmination of the real lessons learnt from the Boer War. Not the bogus long range accuracy ones.

-Weight of fire is more important than accurate shots - Quick action completely designed to facilitate rapid fire. Cock on close, rear locking luggs, reduced bolt lock angle, position of bolt handle relative to rear hand, charger loading and 10 rnd mag.

-Engagements take place at less than 300m - One of the arguments against .303 is that it's relatively slow therefore you get more bullet drop, therefore it's harder to hit a target at long unknown ranges. This doesn't matter at 300m or less; just set your sights to 200m aim for center of mass and you'll put a round on a 5ft x 2ft sized target at 400m

-Rifles need to be short and maneuverable- SHORT Magazine Lee Enfield does exactly what it say on the tin.

- Opportunities to take a shot are fleeting- Yes tangent sights don't squeeze the very best performance out of your rifle, but they're instinctive and give a much better field of view than aperture.

Yes the SMLE is no range queen it wont hold a MOA but it will easily hold a minute of man out to 400m. If any one doubts how good they are at what they where designed for, get one and shoot a course of fire on pop up targets between 100m and 400m and then repeat this with a G98 or modern bolt rifle.

bigteeth

[safetyfirst]

Excellent stuff!!

[Dellboy]

Its fun ??????