Many rifle cartridges come and go. And simply because some are out of date doesn’t imply they cease being enjoyable or pleasing to shoot. The legendary .303 British is a kind of rifle cartridges.
Reaching Out with the .303 British
It dates again to 1889 and is sufficiently old that the primary era was loaded with black powder and heavy, gradual, round-nose bullets. It first noticed use with the British Lee-Metford rifle earlier than finally discovering its means into the legendary Lee-Enfield household of navy bolt-action rifles.
With a 70-year service life, the .303 British coevolved with the rifles and machine weapons of British Commonwealth till 7.62 mm NATO changed it within the years following the Second World Battle because the Chilly Battle ramped up.
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Throughout that 70-year service life, the .303 British noticed many iterations, together with the well-known Mk.VII spherical loaded with Cordite, the spaghetti-like stable strands of propellant, together with a 174-grain spitzer bullet. The Mk.VII kind of grew to become the usual, and its official numbers had it pushing that 174-grain bullet across the 2500 FPS vary–possibly only a degree beneath .308 Winchester.
Though the .303 British retired from navy service a very long time in the past, the cartridge hasn’t utterly disappeared. Just like the .30-30 Winchester and seven.62x54R, .303 British is likely one of the few surviving and related rimmed bottlenecked rifle cartridges. It’s nonetheless related for some sporting functions, particularly in Commonwealth international locations.
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Pushing .303 British Far Past
This leads me to my subsequent level. I got here throughout this Australian ELR taking pictures YouTube channel known as “MarkAndSamAfterWork.”
One among their movies caught my consideration. Not solely is it about ELR (excessive lengthy vary) taking pictures, which is cool, however it includes the venerable .303 British, for which I’ve a comfortable spot. Granted, they’re not taking pictures an SMLE or No.4 rifle with Mk.VII out to 3000 yards both. I feel that may contain dumb luck greater than the rest.
To hit the 24 x 24 inch goal 3,018 yards, Mark and Sam are utilizing a modified bolt-action rifle that’s constructed round a Howa 1500 lengthy motion and a contemporary .303 British barrel full with an enormous brake. The barreled motion is bedded to an MDT Oryx chassis.
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Granted, whereas I’m not an knowledgeable on ELR matters, something involving distance, scopes, and rifles tends to be deep rabbit gap materials for me. I’m completely fascinated by the logistics of sending a .30-caliber 174-grain rifle bullet to such distances in an correct method. It includes each a 60 MOA scope mount and a Charlie TARAC “periscope.”
Utilizing the ability of sunshine, angles, and optics, this little system principally offers the shooter with extra elevation adjustment. The “come-up” from the standard scope and scope base isn’t sufficient. The Charlie TARAC permits shooters to rely on an extra 250 mils (850 MOA) of elevation.
In fact, all of the ammunition they’re firing is rigorously handloaded with 174-grain Sierra Matchkings (SMK).
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