I've been saving a couple of boxes of .303 British thinking, for some reason, that they were hard to come by, which they're not. This foolishness had stopped me firing my Lee Enfield for the last month or so until today, when the scales fell from my eyes. "Don't be stupid, LSP,'" I thought to myself, "take the SMLE out for a spin, you can always get more ammo."
Struck by this ammunition epiphany, I loaded up some weapons and drove off to my Treasurer's farm for a shoot. First off I stalked the acreage with a .22 looking for rabbits - no joy, doubtless because they were 1/2 a mile away gorging on vegetables in the plot behind the barn.
Nothing daunted I set up a target by some hay bales and fired off a box of .45 ACP to decent effect, somewhere in the region of 3 inch groups at around 20 yards. Shot lower left of target initially but got things together after a time and pulled up close to the center.
Then it was off to the combine harvester with the Lee. The advantage of the CH being that you can sit up high on the machine and shoot safely down on the target from appx. 60/70 yards.
Despite ammo paranoia induced lack of practice, the rounds grouped well, albeit a little low. Used battle instead of peep sights - perhaps an error. But that was less important to me than the sheer enjoyment of the action of the rifle, which I find robust and well engineered.
Shoot over, it was back to church for Vespers and a conflab with parishioners who were setting the hall up for a Father's Day reception after Sunday Mass. They figured it should have a theme and chose "On the Beach." I don't know why and didn't ask, but did congratulate their ingenuity.
Have a great Father's Day.
LSP
