Also, they were concerned about ammo expenditure. Whether the cut-off was open or closed was a decision made by officer/NCO depending on the situation.meles meles wrote:Dougan wrote: but why us a magazine cut off? ...the action was made for rapid firing
Ah, but the magazine cut off was to allow single shot fire to lure the fuzzy wuzzies out into the open after they had counted ten rounds gone, whereupon one could mow them down with the full magazine as they ran forward to chuck their pointy sticks....
11 rounds can also be used without a cut-off. My dad told me they'd quite often chamber the first round, closing the bolt with trigger depressed. They'd remove the mag and top off the '10th' round. When told to load, instead of cycling the bolt, they'd pull the cocking piece back.
As for the rifle choice, find a nice MkIII with original fittings such as the cut-off, windage adjustable rear sight and volley sights - you never know when you need to protect the sett at ranges over 2000 yds
Personally for the No4 I'd want a genuine WW2-era one, so that rules out the Mk2s. Don't forget the Indian Ishapore variant too, and the WW2 Lithgows, etc..... Hard to know where to draw the line
