What shall I sight-in my Lee-Enfield with?

[BBroadside]

I have a Lee-Enfield No. 4 (303 British) with the milled adjustable rear sight. I'd like to shoot in 100/200/300 yard WWII-style matches, plus metallic silhouette if I can find a match in my area. The latter would be up to 500 yards if I competed with the big dogs (i.e. folks with them newfangled telescope thingamajigs on their rifles) or maybe 100 yards (?) in a sort of informal military silhouette thing. Also there are cast-bullet matches but I don't know what ranges they use.

So what is the best choice for these competitions? If it's not the same load for each I would probably sight in for the WWII-style matches since there I could actually be competitive.

I suppose I should also take into account the adjustable sight; if I sighted in for a higher-velocity load I suppose I could always adjust the sight for a heavier and slower bullet, but not vice versa. Is that correct?

(I'm not into handloading yet but I intend to get into it in the next year or so.)

 

[mokin]

It sounds like a ton of fun! I own two Lee Enfields and would recommend getting into reliading as soon as possible. I found 123 gr Hornedy bullets make good plinker rounds for ranges up to 100 yards. For distances over that I like 150 grain bullets. With my Lee Enfields it doesn't seem to make much difference in the manufacture. I really like the 174 Sierra hollow point boat tail bullets for distances over 300 yards.

I've found that many factory loads are on the hot side and have seen split necks on the first firing with Remington ammo. I tend to stay away from military ammo. To many duds and the brass isn't reloadable. Even before I was into relaoding.

Enjoy your rifles and have fun.