Thread: Short WW2 Movie named ".303"

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

There it is the fortunes of war and why no right minded person (who knows about war) would ever knowingly want to fight one, As for the .303, IMHO the rimmed cartridge is it's greatest downfall as a military rifle, if they had only been chambered in 8x57 or 7x57 or 6.5x55. But they were a black powder rifle anyway.

Re-writing history never works. The British usually fought what ever government was trying to dominate Europe this included at times France, Spain, Protugal, Germany, Italy and Russia. Basically everyone..

I don't really agree that Britain has "Invaded" all these countries but it is an amusing commentary none the less.

British have invaded nine out of ten countries - so look out Luxembourg - Telegraph

Yes, it is futile but still great to rewrite history, if nothing else to trace actions and consequences. The poison seed of National Socialism, apart from its roots in atheism and (Internationale) socialism, was very much sown at Versailles.

Yes, interesting .303 black powder ancestry, an interim measure while the Brass (pun intended) decided which smokeless powder type would get adopted for long term use. The cases were actually primed with straight walls, a single pellet of black powder with central channel inserted, and then the cases got tapered and bottle-necked! Later when cord-ite was adopted, it was similarly inserted into a straight case and the case tapered and bottle-necked. Hence, the only way you can remove cordite from a .303 case is to cut it open, the bundle of cordite strings will not pour out.

Rimmed cartridges are stronger, more reliable on extraction. The LE rifles were made with strong actions and wide tolerances so they would not jam on out-of-spec ammunition. They are for the same reason not that accurate as a hunting / target rifle. But try and feed out-of-spec ammo to a Kar98. Chamber rireforming and neck-sizing-only of brass can get better accuracy of the .303 but at expense of reliability in the mud, so to say, and at real-life hunting ranges below 30yds what is the point of all that effort? For a military target rifle, I'd go for the Mauser any time.

Speaking of extraction, this assumes the cartridge FED in the first place. The SMLE magazine tilts the cartridges a lot more than would be required simply to accommodate the rims and tapered case bodies. This is to avoid rim lock. Here is a very interesting debunking youtube vid on rimlock by Bloke_on_the_Range, a lost soul who loves Lee Enfields:

Why Lee Enfield Rimjams Are No Big Deal

Also:

Why are Lee Enfields So Fast?

Enjoy!