-
Legacy Member
Use of long range musketry in WW1
-
The Following 12 Members Say Thank You to Doug Bowser For This Useful Post:
#1oilman,
25-5,
303 Gunner,
30Three,
Bob Womack,
browningautorifle,
ed skeels,
Merle,
Ovidio,
RCS,
Sarge1998,
Steve762
-
07-13-2019 07:30 PM
# ADS
Friends and Sponsors
-
Legacy Member
Thank you for this series of historical stories.
-
-
-
Legacy Member
The Brits used volley fire on a fairly regular basis during W.W. I. Hence the volley sights and the 2,000 yard marking on the regular rear sights of a No. 1 Rifle. An entire regiment(About 600 to 1,000 troopies) would form up in the trench, set the sights to a specific distance and fire on command. Same thing was done with MG's. MG's were considered to be artillery in W.W. I.
800 yards isn't as far as it sounds. An M1 could easily reach that far.
Spelling and Grammar count!
-
Thank You to Sunray For This Useful Post:
-
Deceased May 2nd, 2020
While it was true that the P1914 rifle was initially fitted with a long range Volly Sight that was supposed to be used from 1600 to 2600 yards, in practice, it proved to be ineffectual and the sight was eventually removed. The British were using the .30. MK VII round with a 174 grain flat base at mv of ~2480 fps -not a 150 grain FB bullet. The US Army found that beyond 1700 yards, they could not build a target large enough to hit reliably with the M1906 ammo and the M1903 rifle.
I have shot the M1 out to 1000 yards but it was not a service grade rifle with M2 150 grain Ball ammo. It was a NM M1 with LC 62 or 63 NM ammo. When the USMC started shooting matches post WWII , they discovered that the M2 Ball was not adequate and used 168 grain M2 AP for their matches. Prior to the 1955 Nationals ,FA loaded some selected M2 Ball for the match, which was also inadequate. In 1956, FA loaded some special ball conaining the old 172 grain BT bullet for use by selected teams as an experiment. It proved successful so for the Nationals of 1957 both LC and FA loaded some M72 Match.
I have performed a complete analysis of the M1906 Ball ammo and the M1903.
FWIW
-
The Following 3 Members Say Thank You to Cosine26 For This Useful Post: