Enfield and boat tail bullets.
- Thread starter LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1
- Start date
I have been reloading 150gr Prvi SPBT in my No4 Faz 5 groove for awhile. Barrel is in good condition with minimal throat and muzzle wear. Ive probably put through about 200 rds. I never shot pass 200 yards so one day I decided to stretch her out. At 300 and beyond, I noticed every so often I would get one that keyholes..like 1 in 10. Shooting under 200 you would never know and at 100 she shoots an honest 1.5moa consistently. Gonna stretch her out to 500 and beyond and see if the bullets still stabilize. Will have to test and compare to flat base bullets.
The flat based bullets shoot well in guns that have seen a lot of Cordite loaded rounds. Cordite burns very hot and causes a lot of throat erosion, if the barrel wears from the use of Cordite, the flat based bullets will shoot better, if the barrel is either new, or hasn't been fed a steady diet of Cordite, it will shoot well with boat tails.
Last edited:
This is my finding as well.
If you have a rifle with an excellent bore, on mean diameter or slightly under, the 174 grain boat tail bullets shoot very well.
The flat base bullets, during WWI and WWII and likely in Korea, were loaded with exposed lead core bases, into a cupped jacket. This isn't feasible with boat tail bullets.
The exposed lead would push up into the jacket when fired and force it to obturate into the rifling, which made up for the variances in bore diameters, either from the manufacturer or from wear.
I have a couple of No4 rifles, both Fazakerly made, that shoot both flat base and boat tail bullets well. The both have .312 diameter bores, in excellent condition. One of them is an FTR.
My Long Lee rifles are a different story. None of them like boat tail bullets. They all have over mean diameter bores, albeit in excellent condition. They prefer heavy, long bullets.
Most of my Long Lee rifles have Metford style rifling. One has Enfield rifling.
