Hello, my Northern neighbors,
I am way down south of you, in North Carolina and Georgia, but I went out of my way to get not one, but two SMLE's. They are both 303B, and they both shoot well. I wanted at least one to hunt whitetails with. My first is a 1945 Long Branch that was made in Canada. It is a tack driver with the ladder type aperture sights. It has been sporterized, but it was tastefully done. The second is a 1916 that was made in Birmingham, England. It is a bit rougher, due to age and hard use, but the bore and action are fine and it shoots nicely as well. I hand load my cartridges, and use a 180 grain bullet in a Sierra Game King. I also love and shoot the 7X57, and it is in a Mexican Mauser. My very favorite deer rifle thus far however, has been my 280. I like the range that it can give me, and it is my most accurate rifle except for an AR15 in our now standard military cartridge. My longest deer taken thus far, was with the 280 at 415 yards in South Georgia. I was thrilled when I saw the deer drop, as I had practiced for the long shot a lot. I had doubts that it had enough power to take a big deer at those ranges, but it hit slightly left of where the tail connects to the rear end, and did a complete pass through and exited to the right of the breast bone area. She was the biggest doe in a herd of about 22-24 deer in a bunch. I had a good rest, so I took the shot. I also shot a nice 8 point buck about 25 minutes later.
I just wanted you fellows to know that there are some, south of the border, that understand the fine ole lady, the 303 Brit, and know a bit about her history of service and in sporting fields. I am still looking forward to taking a deer with mine...probably the Long Branch.
