Recently acquired BSA 1911 SHTLE III

[CINDERS]

If it were a 3MD it would be marked like this except with a 3 I have no clue as to what the 3 may mean

[smle addict]

I second what Brian and the others say: don't give up yet and switch ammunition.

From personal experience: I Have a beautiful commercial Charger Loading Lee Enfield. Bore is in mint condition. First time I shot it with handloads, it keyholed as yours at 100 yards. I happened to have some crummy POF ammo on hand and shot that. Aside from the delay (click/bang) the rifle started marking round holes. Next trip, I shot some HXP 73 military ammo through it, and it shot great. It still wont shoot any of my handloads, so I have a bunch of 174 grain military projectiles I pulled from some Pakistani (POF) round and load into commercial cases with commercial powder. No problems, and the accuracy is great.

You'll have to experiment a bit to see what it shoots best with. You might spring for a box of Remington 180 soft points; those are flat based bullets, and available at most gun shops.

But definitely run some military through it.

Hope it works out.

[Johnius]

Thanks, gents. Hoping to get out today, I have some Remington that came with it. Indoor range, though, so only 100ft. I found new old stock barrels online for $120. Do you think that would be worthwhile?