The L1A1 SLR and Enfield .303 No 4 have lost their virginity!
Took them out for a play today :).
Due to a logistics cockup I bought high mounts for the SLR scope, only found out a couple of days ago when the Picatinny top cover arrived that they fouled the woodwork so I needed extra high, which arrived three hours after I left for the range today :rolleyes:.
Never mind thought I, I'll shoot it on irons anyway......
I was the only one of two that wanted to zero, and everyone else was itching to start, which was late anyway because someone forgot the radios and had a 20 mile round trip to go back and get them........
Consequently zeroing at 100 was done in a bit of a hurry, and the irons only go down to 200 anyway!
I couldn't get a consistent shot, and put this down to a virgin barrel, a virgin SLR shooter, and the fact I haven't been on a full bore range for 40 years!
Never mind, sort it on the firing point......
We were paired up and took it in turns to shoot five each. We started on 300.
The SLR was inconsistent on elevation, and I couldn't work out why....then I realised the recoil was bouncing the rearsight off the 300 setting up to 600 on every shot without me noticing (so I had been attempting to zero it at 100 with the backsight at 600 :rolleyes: ).
I had to pull it back every time, but it was at least then in the black.
After lunch we moved back to 600, and that's as far as the backsight goes, so at least it stayed there this time.
Most of the time it was in the black again.....
Conclusions?
Boy, does it kick with a wooden butt, solid aluminium butt plate, PRVI 175gn ammo, and a thin fleece on! :move eek:.
It's great fun to shoot.
No extraction problems.
It attracted a lot of attention!
It's pretty much a waste of time shooting it on the standard irons (particularly at 600). The foresight blade is wide and covers pretty much of the target, and the rearsight aperture is like the Channel Tunnel .
And so to the Enfield .303......
I didn't get the chance to shoot it in the morning, as I was concentrating on the SLR and shooting in pairs there wasn't that much actual shooting time (and I'd left the .303 bolt in my car anyway :rolleyes:).
After lunch was 600 yards, so straight in the deep end - standard blade foresight, aperture rear sight, I haven't shot a .303 for 40 years, I don't think the rifle has ever been shot, or not much; and since it went into store in 1954 it has been sold to the USA, repatriated, stripped and put back together again; and the sights hadn't been calibrated .
What a peach :).
I shot 5 shots and my partner spotted for me, and I adjusted the sights by guesswork, consequently the first five were a bit all over the place but most were on the paper.
The second 5 shots were (not in this order) a vbull, a bull, an inner, and two outers :move eek: .
I left it at that....if it ain't broke don't fix it......
And then the range time was up, so that was that for today.
When I got home the extra high mounts for the SLR had arrived so the scope was on in 10 mins.
Can't wait for the next outing!