303 mkII ballistics

**CorditeCrazy** · 05-09-2017, 16:13

Does anyone have the ballistic table for the 303 MkII ammo that was used during the Boer War? I've read how the 303's had rainbow like trajectory compared to the 7x57 Mauser. This was remedied as the MKVI 303 ammo seemed to be a touch flatter shooting that the latter.

Hell, the MKVI isn't that much more curved than the 3006

Anyway if anyone has it would be interesting to plot the bullet drop.

**Terrylee** · 05-09-2017, 18:08

The Lee Metford with its Mk.II ammunition compared with other Boer War rifles.

**CorditeCrazy** · 05-09-2017, 19:28

Thanks Terry. Looking at the graphs I can only think the issue was individual marksmanship and that of the British troops, in the beginning of the war at least, not being on par with the Boers. There is not much between the two.

**Terrylee** · 06-09-2017, 09:18

The sights of the Long Lee as compared with those of the Boer Mauser are coarse and inexact. Moreover, the Lee Enfields were initially incorrectly sighted.

Skill with a rifle dated from a Boer's early days and were part of his heritage. The marksmanship of the average British Regular depended upon limited and inappropriate training which only commenced upon him signing up.

The British Boer War experiences initiated many changes to both their rifles and the men who carried them!

**A-R** · 06-09-2017, 20:41

It is often forgotten that the Boer forces may have started the war with their "state of the art" 7mm Mauser rifles, but ammo for these rifles soon ran out and most of the war was fought using captured Brit 303 rifles and ammo.

The Boers had superior marksmanship skills, mostly learned from subsistence hunting. The tools they used were mostly just the same as those used by the Brits. The British tactics were still based on firing volleys at masses of tribesmen. This did not work on the Boers, who had developed modern warfare doctrines without thinking too much about the matter. They knew they were outnumbered, so they had to adapt to the conditions.

**CorditeCrazy** · 07-09-2017, 07:08

For sure. One wonders then why/how the 7x57 got such mystique around it and the 303 none when they are balistically very VERY similar.

Event today mention the 303 and is scoffed at in favor of the 7x57 when it's 174gr mkVII ballistics mirror the 175gr 7x57

**Werner747** · 07-09-2017, 08:14

Indeed! The .303B seems to evoke a less than favourable reaction, however from my own experience shooting it at long range, it is as accurate as any other type of 30 calibre I have fired. I don't understand the negativity towards it from so many quarters. I love my own Lee-Enfield in .303B. It is very accurate, far more so than I am :-).

Regards

Werner

**Kayback** · 07-09-2017, 08:19

I thought it was mostly Spitzer vs round nose performance?

**Terrylee** · 07-09-2017, 10:58

We need to remember that most of the present enthusiasm concerning the .303 results from the use of a succession of models which were first developed to correct the shortcomings of the Long Lee as originally identified during the Boer War. One cannot reasonably compare the performance of a Lee Metford with its Mk.II ammunition with that of a No.4 using Mk.VII cartridges.

**A-R** · 07-09-2017, 16:07

Originally Posted by CorditeCrazy

For sure. One wonders then why/how the 7x57 got such mystique around it and the 303 none when they are balistically very VERY similar.

Event today mention the 303 and is scoffed at in favor of the 7x57 when it's 174gr mkVII ballistics mirror the 175gr 7x57

Because it's English... And we don't like the rooinekke.