No4 shooting low.

[legs748]

After looking around for a long time I bought a Maltby no4, Maltby being about five miles from my house I was hold out for one and it has been a pleasure to bring her home! The rifle was FTR in 55 and upgraded to mk1/2 with the hung tigger at fazakerley.
Taking it to the range for the first time was both pleasing and disappointing, the rifle shoots a lovely 2" group at 100 yds with some quite pedestrian reloads, but to get it anywhere near point of aim I have to have the rearsight set to 400yds. The foresight is a zero so I thought it would be an easy fix to drop in a lower foresight but the difference between the lower setting and 400 at the rear is .070" and the foresights only go to -0.030 so would only cure half the problem. Any ideas?

[Hrun]

Surely, for it to shoot as per the sights, your loads would need to be the same muzzle energy as the original factory load?

If you download and the muzzle energy is lower then it will likely shoot low? That is my understanding having watched a friend load develop to get his Enfield shooting point of aim.

[GeeRam]

I agree......

I'd buy a few boxes of PPU or S&B and see where its shooting first with those before seeing whether you need to mess with the sights, and then go from there.

[TomH]

Agreed with the above. You can't expect the sight settings to match anything but the one they were calibrated for i.e. MK7 military ball ammo, but PPU should be close. A pedestrian load will shoot low. If you are going to be shooting at varied distances you will be unlikely to develop a load using modern components that match the original bullet and cordite anyway. So will need to work out what marked ranges approximate to real yardage. What load were you using?

[Furiouspilgrim]

My No 4 shoots lower than the sights suggest. Different ammo to back then. If you take a trip down to Bisley, get on the zero range with one of the .303 targets. Properly helpful.

[legs748]

I’m using a 174gn bullet over 39.5gn N-140. The same load shoots to point of aim in my SMLE. It’s not like I’m shooting cast. Coincidently if I do shoot cast from my SMLE I have to set the sights to 400 too!

[Alpha1]

174 grain bullet with 41 grains of N140 is a popular load for the .303.

[Chapuis]

After looking around for a long time I bought a Maltby no4, Maltby being about five miles from my house I was hold out for one and it has been a pleasure to bring her home! The rifle was FTR in 55 and upgraded to mk1/2 with the hung tigger at fazakerley.
Taking it to the range for the first time was both pleasing and disappointing, the rifle shoots a lovely 2" group at 100 yds with some quite pedestrian reloads, but to get it anywhere near point of aim I have to have the rearsight set to 400yds. The foresight is a zero so I thought it would be an easy fix to drop in a lower foresight but the difference between the lower setting and 400 at the rear is .070" and the foresights only go to -0.030 so would only cure half the problem. Any ideas?

Simple and obvious answer is if you want to match this particular load to the sight settings and can't get a lower fore sight blade, obtain the lowest one you can and progressively file it down to suit.

[legs748]

174 grain bullet with 41 grains of N140 is a popular load for the .303.

Justin bieber is popular, but I’m not confident he can solve my issues. I’ll try upping my load but I’m not confident another 1.5 grains of powder will give me 18” of elevation.

[breacher]

174 grain bullet with 41 grains of N140 is a popular load for the .303.

Justin bieber is popular, but I’m not confident he can solve my issues.