Thread: Resurgence of interest in the old "Three Oh"?

What would happen if you took a SMLE and put a decent new modern barrel on it and used appropriate handloads and a half decent well mounted 'scope? What sort of accuracy would it be capable of? Easy MOA?

I would like to go back to the old 3-oh but wouldn't be able to tolerate that awful old 3moa group business.

@Tahr Pretty good I'd say. My 1944 SMLE shoots 3" at 100yds (3 shots) and it only has a 16.5" barrel. I'm not a long range shooter. I do have a Howa 308 and a Howa mini 223; I call my 223 the freezer filler! But my Howas are my Toyota Corolla's; the 303's are me going for a spin in an old jalopy for the sheer hell of it. But really; for the vast majority of NZ hunting (unless you're a LR shooter) a 303 will do the job

Originally Posted by Tahr

What would happen if you took a SMLE and put a decent new modern barrel on it and used appropriate handloads and a half decent well mounted 'scope? What sort of accuracy would it be capable of? Easy MOA?

I would like to go back to the old 3-oh but wouldn't be able to tolerate that awful old 3moa group business.

Tahr, shoot your .303 unsupported and you won't mind or notice it's a 3 MOA rifle. The awful trigger alone will see to that.

Originally Posted by Tahr

What would happen if you took a SMLE and put a decent new modern barrel on it and used appropriate handloads and a half decent well mounted 'scope? What sort of accuracy would it be capable of? Easy MOA?

I would like to go back to the old 3-oh but wouldn't be able to tolerate that awful old 3moa group business.

Greetins All,
I think I have part of the answer to that question. My No4 with a near new two groove barrel often shoots MoA groups with the 174 grain Round Nose Hornady and light loads. It is sensitive to different batches of those projectiles and needs a few shots to settle down after the fore end has been off. My son has requently fallen under the Lee Enfield spell via one with a like new .308 groove barrel and the .303 case. It will be interesting to see how this shoots. There are also some test loads made up to test how much difference there is between my 5 and two groove barrels. The loads have the 174 grain projectiles loaded to 76mm LOA giving a jump of 1.6mm in the two groove and 5.8mm in the 5 groove. Comparing different sets of .303 load data hows some considerable differences in velocity for the same load so this test looks at possible reasons why this is so. Will report results in due course.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by Tahr

What would happen if you took a SMLE and put a decent new modern barrel on it and used appropriate handloads and a half decent well mounted 'scope? What sort of accuracy would it be capable of? Easy MOA?

I would like to go back to the old 3-oh but wouldn't be able to tolerate that awful old 3moa group business.

I was given a long branch no 4 mk 1* it has had a barrel swap at some time and the bolt is also not original but it shoots very well my first 3 shot group at 100 yards blew me away at just over an inch with mill surp ammo using the aperture sight
So yeah they can be very accurate with a good barrel

Originally Posted by Tahr

What would happen if you took a SMLE and put a decent new modern barrel on it and used appropriate handloads and a half decent well mounted 'scope? What sort of accuracy would it be capable of? Easy MOA?

I would like to go back to the old 3-oh but wouldn't be able to tolerate that awful old 3moa group business.

Tahr, my .303 has an excellent bore and will shoot 1.5 inch groups with the army open sights. With a scope who knows, maybe a bit better. But this is with handloads. With PPU or Winchester factory ammo it will do 3 - 4 inch groups so I thin a lot of the problem is the factory ammo. (When I say "handloads", I mean I loaded up the cheapest bullet with the max load in the ADI book and then shot it a couple of times. It's a .303.)

I am thinking of putting one of those mini red dot sights on my .303, like the Burris Fastfire. The coolness of this idea has quite overexcited me.

Heres on on a Garand type thing:

Originally Posted by Tahr

What would happen if you took a SMLE and put a decent new modern barrel on it and used appropriate handloads and a half decent well mounted 'scope? What sort of accuracy would it be capable of? Easy MOA?

I would like to go back to the old 3-oh but wouldn't be able to tolerate that awful old 3moa group business.

My old fully wooded free floated barrel #4 mk2 with peep sights regularly shot 25-30mm 5 shot groups with ex mil ammo. It sure was a honey. Should have NEVER got rid of it

Sounds good, will take her.

Originally Posted by Nzcoup1

Sounds good, will take her.

I sent you a PM with contact details