SMLE rapid fire

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British solidiers were trained to do the mad minute. 30 rounds, aimed at a target 300m distant in a minute or less. So with training, it's pretty darn quick, almost comparable to a semi-auto.
 
SMLE comes close but it's slower.
I've done some rapid fire practice with the enfield using blanks for safety and just going for speed I could fire 10 rounds in 4 secounds easy
 
not discounting your claim, but i would have to see 10 aimed rounds in 4 seconds with a bolt action before i could possibly believe it.

or even 10 unaimed rounds.
 
The Smelly is quite fast. Last time I tried it in competition I got off 14 aimed rounds in one minute, all of them hitting a fig 11 target at 200 yards. The idea is to hit the target as well as speed, suppose for volley fire thirty rounds in a minute would be attainable. A few examples on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lYxJwwmcwU

Think that my 1894 Marlin 38/357 would be faster although not as fast as this guy....10 rounds in 1.7 seconds.

And there again, probably not......Forgot about reloading, the Smelly is faster to reload.

http://www.marlinowners.com/forums/index.php/topic,55892.0.html
 
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using blanks
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No recoil to account for so 10 rounds in 4 seconds would be easy.
I have emptied the mag on my No1 aimed at the target at 25 yards, all the room I had at the time, in maybe 15 seconds. I didn't have a stop watch so I was trying to count in my head and aim and fire and reload. Not scientific, but I'll grant I ran out of rounds very quick. And all were on target at my point of aim.
 
I have shot a SMLE over the Infantry Trophy course. Starting from a prone position at 600 yards with magazine loaded, fire off the ten in the mag on the outboard "E" silhouette, reload with 2 strippers and bang off another ten rounds on my swing target, firing off 20 acurate rounds in a minute, managed to score enough hits on both of my two targets to qualify for bonus points. If not concerned with accuracy but only volume fire no trouble to bang off more rounds, simply holding onto the bolt knob with thumb and fore-finger, tripping trigger with your little finger as the bolt closes. Old WWI trench-fire barrage technique.
 
In shooting both my Fazkerley #4mk1 and Fazakerley #5mk1 in Vintage matches using the Camp Perry Springfield Rifle course, I always finished the 10 rounds in 80 seconds prone before all the other shooters (loading 5 rounds from 2 chargers). The Enfield is smooth and sweet, and the cock on closing allows for fast movement.
 
Not SMLE, but it shows what can be done with a bolt action. If anyone can copy that with a pump or lever, I would like to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfY899uNOk0

The target is sorta oval shaped with a flat bottom, about 10 inches wide at the widest, 12 inches high at the highest. Range is somewhere between 150 and 200 yards. Shooting time is 25 seconds, mostest hits wins. The accompanying text says this guy hit with all 17 shots.
 
17 shots in 25 seconds is quite impressive and that is just about the fastest I have ever seen a bolt move...

17/25 is quite a bit slower than 10/4....even when you take away the mag swap time.
 
17/25 is quite a bit slower than 10/4....even when you take away the mag swap time.
Click to expand...
Bear in mind that that is 17 hits. A dinner plate size target at a couple of hundred yards isn't very impressive - until you do it with split times under 1 second (not counting mag changes). Sorry if I confused aimed fire with fast noise. :)

I only posted to show that a bolt gun can be fired - accurately - a lot faster than most of those Lee-Enfield videos you find on youtube. Or any of them in fact, since the "cyclic rate" in the link I posted would be roughly the same as for the old all time "mad minute" record for the Enfield, set in the 1930s, and that wasn't posted on youtube.
 
Michail would have never even designed his AK, if he had seen this on youtube! :)
 
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