Accuracy

[Bruce_in_Oz]

And ALWAYS remember than from about 1912 onward, SMLEs were TUNED to Cordite-fueled Mk Vll ball and nothing else, because that was the "ammo du jour" for the next half century.

Not Mk VlllZ, not 150gn BTSPs: 174gn, flat-based Mk Vll.

Yes, there WAS a Mk VllZ, but that stuff was pretty much exclusively for aircraft MGs, because it produced less muzzle flash for AIRCRAFT guns, at night!.

Mk Vlllz ammo was designed to extend the useful "reach" of machine-guns (Vickers) , firing on fixed lines, off a sandbagged-in tripod against AREA targets. Such guns operated in teams of eighth to ten and were fired on calculated trajectories determine by ballistic tables, meteorological data and precision surveying equipment. Old-school "Volley fire" raised to a science. These days, mortar platoons to a similar job, but with greater gusto. Done right, you can saturate a couple of grid squares with HE and White Phos, and have the tubes and crews in vehicles and gone before the last bomb has fallen. It's NOT a game; never was.

The "Z" indicates "nitro-cellulose" granular propellant which has a different burn curve and peak temperature.

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