Quote Originally Posted by villiers View Post
My theory was that the bullet left the barrel and spiralled in a cork screw fashion until it was stabilised by its spin. Thus, it struck the target randomly at shorter distances until the spiral was reduced by the spin on the bullet, and it was better stablilised at about 300 metres.


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Theres a diagram of bullet flight in one of my old books that suggests very much what you've said. This was in relation to US service rifles and had nothing to do with the SMLE rifles.
I'll see if I can find that book.