another day with a T and a DCRA

[smle addict]

Had some l lovely weather this past week, and I figured it would be a good time to get some rifles out of the safe to put some rounds down-range.

First rifle is a 1943 No4(t) with a mis-matched mount and a Kodak Mk 1 scope. This rifle rarely shoots below 2" at 100 yards, no matter what handload I push through it. However, it is a real stand out at 200 and 300 yards. Best target of the day was a 13 shot group measuring 3.5" x 4". If I hadn't shanked the last shot (low right), the group would have been 2.25" x 3.5". This rifle is a consistent performer.


Also took my DCRA No4 in 7.62mm. Best 100 yard group of the day. The one consistency is my proclivity for shanking the last shot of whatever rifle I'm shooting. Pulled last shot high and left. It's a good thing I don't play golf.

[Surpmil]

Very nice. The second one proves that the first one wasn't your fault.

It used to be said in some quarters that these "L8" (UK designation) rifles wouldn't group etc. etc., but they were used for competition here for years and went to Bisley etc.

Looks like an "L" Longbranch butt with the slim wrist, always liked those.

(Still looking for the mag off my ENVOY I sold by accident years ago!)

[Brian Dick]

Accuracy using the standard contour barrel and bedding like an L8 series rifle was mediocre at best at short range. They really showed their stuff at longer ranges. Barrel harmonics and all that. Is your DCRA center bedded as many were? I'm almost finished restoring a very tired DCRA No.4 for a client. I test fired it this afternoon as a matter of fact. It's been a slow, painstaking process as it was flogged to death when it arrived here but I've got it serviceable and safe again. I always shoot better when I shoot a string of three or five without spotting. If I spot each round, I'm bound to pull one for sure.

[smle addict]

Hello Brian,
I couldn't tell you with certainty if its center bedded. I do know the muzzle end of the stock is generously relieved, leaving about 1/4” of clearance between barrel and wood. Barrel is free floated. I have never had this rifle apart as i’ve been too scared to upset the bedding. Also, action is ‘glass bedded.

[Surpmil]

Center bedding was very popular with those, but they tried nearly everything I think. Even saw one where the barrel was wrapped in layers of wire and bisonite up to the center bedding.

[Brian Dick]

I'd guess it's center bedded. If they're relieved at the bearing in the front of the forearm, that's usually the case. I have a few spare forends here that have been modified that way.

[Patrick Chadwick]

"If I hadn't shanked the last shot (low right), the group would have been 2.25" x 3.5"."

Funny how often it's the last shot. When I learnt to shoot - which was before "black rifles" were invented" - the number of targets spoilt by the last shot would have papered the walls of a fair-sized room. I think it's an unconscious tensing-up as one starts to think "OMG, if I get this one in the 10, that's a clear 100/100". And lo and behold, the last one is a 9.

But sometimes the first shot is hopelessly pulled. So one thinks "OK, ruined that competition, nothing to lose now", relaxes, and the rest of the target is excellent.

It's all in the mind. So one needs to get in that semi-trance which I associate with Zen archery, where the release of the shot is purely an incidental part of the flow. Easy to say, hard to achieve.

[Atticus Thraxx]

That DCRA is gorgeous. Nice shooting too.