I am buying a lee metford from a fellow gun nutter. from what I have read the early lee's used a black powder cartridge but I don't plan on reloading for this rifle. I was wondering what would be the closest load to the original would be in smokeless? should I look for some pre mk VII ammo? light or heavy bullets?
loads for the metford.
- Thread starter JTF#
- Start date
Ammo back when the LM was the standard rifle was the Black Powder Mark I or II, Cordite Mark I or II. The Mark VI was a post-Boer War re-creation of this load. As far as I can tell, the Mark VI Cordite load went out of production in Canada in 1911, the others much earlier.
All had a 215-grain bullet, round-nosed and FLATbased. The closest relatively-inexpensive bullet today would be the Hornady 174 RNFB.
Cordite back in those days was extremely energetic and extremely erosive. It utterly ATE the Leades out of barrels..... and did it in jig time, too.
The problem now arises that you will NEED a relatively-fast powder because it is entirely likely that even the soft Hornady bullets are going to need a sound kick on the backside in order to set-up and seal your bore.
Might I suggest 13 or 14 grains of Red Dot behind a flatbased CAST bullet, gas-checked, of course? LEE has a mould which will turn out this bullet, a 184, for about a penny a pop, given that you have some old wheelweights lying around. The gas-check costs you another 3 cents, the powder another 6 cents. You end up with 8 rounds for a buck.
That puts you in business with a mild load which ought to seal the bore and even produce half-decent accuracy with just a bit of luck. If it does not quite seal the bore, go another half a grain of powder, but I would not exceed 15 by any means.
And a nice point is that that shallow-rifled 7-groove Metford barrel will last about 5/8 of forever.
Good luck.
All had a 215-grain bullet, round-nosed and FLATbased. The closest relatively-inexpensive bullet today would be the Hornady 174 RNFB.
Cordite back in those days was extremely energetic and extremely erosive. It utterly ATE the Leades out of barrels..... and did it in jig time, too.
The problem now arises that you will NEED a relatively-fast powder because it is entirely likely that even the soft Hornady bullets are going to need a sound kick on the backside in order to set-up and seal your bore.
Might I suggest 13 or 14 grains of Red Dot behind a flatbased CAST bullet, gas-checked, of course? LEE has a mould which will turn out this bullet, a 184, for about a penny a pop, given that you have some old wheelweights lying around. The gas-check costs you another 3 cents, the powder another 6 cents. You end up with 8 rounds for a buck.
That puts you in business with a mild load which ought to seal the bore and even produce half-decent accuracy with just a bit of luck. If it does not quite seal the bore, go another half a grain of powder, but I would not exceed 15 by any means.
And a nice point is that that shallow-rifled 7-groove Metford barrel will last about 5/8 of forever.
Good luck.
unless I reload in the future I think this gun in going to just go in the collection.
it would be pretty interesting to shoot a slow 215 grain bullet out of the enfield type gun. I have to see the bore shape is also.
thanks smellie!
it would be pretty interesting to shoot a slow 215 grain bullet out of the enfield type gun. I have to see the bore shape is also.
thanks smellie!
- Location
- Tucson, Arizona
By the way, Black Powder was only used for two years before the switch to cordite.
Any original ammo you find for a Metfiord will be big time collector $tuff. This is a pretty good Lee-Metford site.
http://www.militaryrifles.com/Britain/Metford.htm
You won't be able to easily load 'close to original' ammo as nobody makes a 215 grain bullet. I think Woodleigh is the only game and their stuff is pricey and kind of scarce.
http://www.militaryrifles.com/Britain/Metford.htm
You won't be able to easily load 'close to original' ammo as nobody makes a 215 grain bullet. I think Woodleigh is the only game and their stuff is pricey and kind of scarce.
- Location
- Southern Vancouver Island
Good thing I have a pile of 215 gr. CIL soft points left from years back....and I ain't selling them either.
Besides, with such a large discrepancy in bore sizes as well as sloppy chambers along with iffy headspacing
on certain rifles, one definately needs to be a careful handloader to get get some decent results accuracy-
wise from these old buggers. Most of the Metford rifled rifles burnt out quick with cordite ammo.
