Here's a very brief video of me charger-loading a 1943 Ishapore Lee-Enfield No 1 Mk III* and shooting five rounds rapid. I got annoyed with all those lengthy YouTube videos by people who don't really know how to do either of these things. This is really a 'short' for a longer film I want to make showing not only the No 1 Mk III* as here but also the No 4 Mk 1 and 2.
The load I'm shooting (23 gr IMR 4759, Sierra 150 gr .311 spitzer) chronographed at 1900 fps that day, so is powerful enough but without the kick of the full-strength load. It's a good reduced load for a demonstration like this and also for practicing the rapid fire technique.
Interestingly, none of the musketry manuals I have, including the 1955 British Infantry Training manual, specify this technique for rapid fire, but instead require the rifleman to shoot as fast as they can using the trained technique for shooting the rifle with the hand returning to the grip for each round. My uncle who was a British army rifle instructor in the 1950s said that this was because all the emphasis in British training was on accurate single-shot fire. However, in battle the use of this technique is amply attested - my grandfather described it to me when he told me about how his cavalry troop dismounted in March 1918 to pour rifle fire on the advancing Germans during the huge spring offensive on the Somme. Both he and his brother (a scout sniper, in the same squadron) were highly trained rifleman, in a professional regiment that spent weeks behind the lines on musketry exercises, so it was doubtless accurate fire as well.





















































