300 Yards, Middlewick - Essex, Range Report

[Tower75]

Hi boys and girls.

Hope today was as nice for you as it was for us.

Today was a 300 yard shoot at the Middlewick range in Essex, I had with me my SMLE, No1 MkIII and, I actually had a really satisfying day.

Here's some pics:









It took me about 10 rounds to find where I was going and how the rifle liked to be pointed, etc. I was prone with a front barrel-rest, using iron-sights and I was feeding my girl homeloads of 180gr Spitzer, BTs.

After the initial ten or so "sighters", I was starting to place shots like these (some of these are actually taken one after the other, too) :shakeshout:

















I finished the day on a V, too. Ok, it's not marksmanship shooting by any means, but I thought that was darn good

Here's the girl



And just because, me in my cowboy hat, 'cos cowboy hats are cool. Please excuse the fat-face. Self photography is hard

[ovenpaa]

That is some handy shooting from the SMLE, have you tried it off a sling yet?

[Steve E]

Get rid of the front rest and learn to shoot the rifle properly . The 'purists' will be cringing at the thought of shooting a military rifle of a rest. Just Joking.
Without a rest and using the sling I am able to hold the 'modern' inner just out of the bull with my P14 out to 1000yds you should be able to do the same with your SMLE.
Seriously though your group is very good especially when you consider that 300yds was a distance that was not traditionally shot with the .303s and the targets in the day of the .303 was large by todays standards. ( the old .303 bull was 7'' at 200 yds there was no 300 and 15'' at 500 and 600yds. The Long Range bull was 36'' compared to todays 24'').
Nice that you had good weather.

I expect to see you at Bisley competing in the Classic Meetings especially the Trafalgar in October if you carry on shooting like that.

Steve

[tikkathreebarrels]

Aye not bad for a fat-faced cowboy yee ha!

[Tower75]

I have shot from sling on occasion, but I didn't really warm to it, but you never know, maybe I'll pick it up and try again.

The front barrel-rest I use, I count it as a sandbag, or the top of a wall, or trench, or numerous other things a military rifle can be slammed down upon and fired. That's how I justify it in my mind. I used to shoot free-hand when I was in my "pfft, I can hit anything" stage a few years ago. After about a year of missing I decided it might be best to try something to steady the rifle :lol:

The pics of the targets, only some of them follow each other, there got to a point in the day that every shot was an inner, I had the odd flyer that hit but was a "no score", but all-in-all I reckon I did quite well. Okay, I know that 300 yards is generally considered the "starting point" for full-bore, but hay, I hit what I aimed at