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

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.