Today i went to the shooting range. i go every few weeks normally but this time is was to a special range where I could shoot bigger calibre rifles. First Rifle that i took was my Lee Enfield No5Mk1 "jungle carbine" I loaded it with 5 rounds of .303 privi partisan and aimed at th target 50m away. It had the effect that i was used to. A firm kick, not much muzzle rise. The rifle is light, i can easily aim with it so the result was good. Next reload i loaded some Remington .303 and it was similar, one can say the kick was a bit more, the smoke a bit less. Then I loaded some 1943 production mark VII ball. Standard WW2 British ammunition, aluminium tip, lead base, brass jacket. I was not sure if it would go off, after all it was quite old and i had to use steel wool on the outside since over time it got a mild corrosion and became a bit rough. Also, when i shake it i could not hear the powder. I did not know why, maybe this one was loaded with the 'spaghetti' cordite, i have no idea. Still, it fired perfectly. As expected the kick was noticeably harder and the smoke it created was a lot more then in the modern ammunition. And to my surprise..... it smelled much nicer also! I sill had 1 type of .303 left then I found 1 bullet for hunting, 60's production, soft lead tip, hot load. I shot it also and wow, an ever harder kick. The impact must also have been quite massive because i could see quite a large impact at the end of the range. In total i shot around 50 more bullets after that, most modern of course. After that the rifle became to hot so i put it aside to let it cool for a bit.
Next up i took out my Portuguese 937a Rifle. For those that do not know, it is a 1937 made Mauser Obendorf made K98k with the main differences being that the belt has the possibility to be installed on the underside of the rifle instead of the side, and that it has a V shaped sight protector at the muzzle. It also has slightly different markings and a Portuguese crest and such. I had never shot this rifle but the day before i did a thorough inspection of it and found it to be in perfect like new condition, with the only problem that i found was a screw that had a different serial number, all the rest, including the stock and bayonet had the same numbers. Anyway, i loaded a 7.92x57 privi partisan bullet in it and shot it. I only loaded 1 bullet as a test shot. It worked perfectly and only missed the centre of my target at 25m by 4cm. Great first shot in other words. I loaded 5 more privi and was very happy. Next up i loaded it with a surplus box of 1982 steel cased eastern European ammunition. I don't know the country. It was a bit more violent, and a bit more stinky. but worked perfectly. I must say the the recoil in this rifle a quite a bit less then on the Enfield since it is about 25% heavier. Both these shots gave similar fireballs at the muzzle, comparable in size with an orange. A bit more yellow in colour. Next up i had some wartime German ammunition. I had 1935 and 1937 Ss, and 1944 Sme. First one is pointed bullet, lead core, brass jacket, brass case. The other one is soft iron core, tiny bit of lead around it, brass jacket. It also had a steel case with brass coating. Both standard ammunition for the Germans. I also cleaned them up a bit before shooting since they had some mild roughness since the brass was slightly corroded, but that is not that big a problem. I shot the oldest bullet first. It went of perfectly, again, a much harder kick then the modern ammunition, also, the fireball it made at the end of the barrel was about double the diameter of the modern ammunition. And surprisingly, it gave a lot less smoke then the modern ammunition! It did not really have a smell also, so all in all not bad to shoot. Next up was the 1937 bullet and it was exactly the same. Last came the 1944 one and also, it gave a very similar feeling. Only when i wanted to extract the case did i notice that it felt wrong. It needed more force then the other bullets. When i took it out i notices some "marks" 1cm before then back of the case, it clearly expended more then the others and jammed itself a bit more then normal because of that. also, the case head was dirty, not a good sign, It may have leaked some gas there, at the wrong side, which is not good at all. After that i shot about 30 more modern bullets and went for a drink.
So, in short, compared to Privi partisan amunition.
Wartime .303, more kick, so more power and also more smoke. Nice smell
Wartime 8mm mauser, more kick also, so more speed in the bullet. Also bigger flash and smells nice. Best not to shoot late war ammunition.
Also, i had a great afternoon!
