in2anity wrote:I floated then bedded my No4 on the platform behind the sling swivel platform, in RTV silicone. Frustratingly it seemed the thing would behave differently under sling tension vs off the bags, which kind of invalidated the outcome. I’ve since removed that bed and moved it forward to the center platform, and second time I used acraglass to “clamp” the barrel tight. Shoots well now, but the first two are always low and to the left. The next ten go south of 2moa however, which is good for an application detail. That’s the 174gr SMK over 08 - high quality pill that one.
I really don't expect spectacular accuracy out of any .303 milsurp, they were never designed for that, and modernising them defeats the enjoyment of shooting them as they were issued. As long as you are competing against similar rifles it doesn't matter. If you're trying to be competitive against other milsurps that do shoot inherently better, like Swedes, Swiss and some of the less common Mausers, then the .303 is going to struggle, as it should.
I'm not interested in getting original milsurps to shoot especially well, I want them to shoot as they would've done in their era. I grabbed this one for the value in the sight, very handy to have if I do come across an excellent-shooting SMLE, and it came with a very cheap rifle attached. The rifle is just a sporting rifle, in the same vein as my sporterised Turk, or the sporterised Swedes that were so common in the eighties. Any "milsurpness" has already been destroyed by somebody else. This one I will be happy to scope if I decide I don't like the PH sight, or even drop her into a poly stock as a hunting rifle. If I decide I do like the sight arrangement, and I find that it does shoot more akin to a modern rifle, then I might keep it as an open-sight target rifle. But it gives me a cheap rifle option to play with the cartridge without having to mess with an original rifle.
I have plenty of modern rifles for making precise shots when I need to, straight out of the box, no messing about with bedding or modifying them to shoot acceptably
I like the SMK, but they're too expensive for tossing downrange