- Location
- east coast of vancouver Island
I posted this in the hunting section, but I think I would get better results here. This is a very old rifle that was given to me by a friend, he actually has two .303's the other is one that we think was issued to the Cdn Rangers or the Cdn Air Force as a survival rifle. It looks sporterized, but apparently that is how they were issued. In any event, I now have the SMLE Mark III.
"Got out to the range yesterday, finally. Camping and fishing took priority for a while. The .303 is quite accurate, suprising me for a rifle almost 100years old. I used Winchester 180gr cartridges, firing the first five into the berm at 200 meters, the first couple of shells were hard to eject, and had a few black specks embedded in the brass. The next three were at 25yards and grouped about 1.5 inches from a solid bench rest, but about three inches left, moving the front sight about a 32nd off an inch to the left corrected that. Moving the sight to 50yrds resulted in a group a little bigger than 2 inches, moving out to 100yrds, I found that it was impossible for me to even focus on the target properly, resulting in a group of about two feet (old eyes). A much younger person would do better I'm sure.#These results have convinced me that a scope is required. I will get it drilled and tapped by my local smith, if he can find suitable mounts. Does anyone have mount/ scope recommendations?"
I have since taken it to my gunsmith who has a Parker Hale mount for it that he could mount by drilling and taping two holes in the small bridge (charging bridge?) and two more at the front of the receiver. He has two concerns with this, 1) the threads in the charging bridge will not be very deep, and feels they may not be strong enough to hold up under recoil, and 2) the empty shell casings will not eject properly. His alternative is a mount that does not require any modification to the rifle but is held in place with set screws. However this mount sets the scope higher, and I am wondering if I would end up with chin rather then cheek weld when shooting.
Any thoughts and/or advice would be appreciated.
"Got out to the range yesterday, finally. Camping and fishing took priority for a while. The .303 is quite accurate, suprising me for a rifle almost 100years old. I used Winchester 180gr cartridges, firing the first five into the berm at 200 meters, the first couple of shells were hard to eject, and had a few black specks embedded in the brass. The next three were at 25yards and grouped about 1.5 inches from a solid bench rest, but about three inches left, moving the front sight about a 32nd off an inch to the left corrected that. Moving the sight to 50yrds resulted in a group a little bigger than 2 inches, moving out to 100yrds, I found that it was impossible for me to even focus on the target properly, resulting in a group of about two feet (old eyes). A much younger person would do better I'm sure.#These results have convinced me that a scope is required. I will get it drilled and tapped by my local smith, if he can find suitable mounts. Does anyone have mount/ scope recommendations?"
I have since taken it to my gunsmith who has a Parker Hale mount for it that he could mount by drilling and taping two holes in the small bridge (charging bridge?) and two more at the front of the receiver. He has two concerns with this, 1) the threads in the charging bridge will not be very deep, and feels they may not be strong enough to hold up under recoil, and 2) the empty shell casings will not eject properly. His alternative is a mount that does not require any modification to the rifle but is held in place with set screws. However this mount sets the scope higher, and I am wondering if I would end up with chin rather then cheek weld when shooting.
Any thoughts and/or advice would be appreciated.
