Most accurate WWII bolt rifle?

I'll admit that this is the first time I've ever heard that cordite ammo was supposedly all over the place velocity wise, and as far as I can tell, that's never really been the case.

Maybe in the very early days of cordite production, when the British were (like everyone else) learning how to make a consistent smokeless powder that didn't start to decay the second it left the extruders...
 
I don't know, they used cordite in the main guns on battleships and those things were accurate up to 5 miles away.... couldn't be too much variance;)
 
The British used cordite for everything. There were, however, different formulations based on what its purpose was.

Not tremendously different, but enough that you couldn't take cordite from a battleship main gun charge, chop it up and use it in rifle or pistol cartridges.

Earlier formulations of cordite for battleship use are also suspected as being the primary cause for the loss of at least two British battleships. Early naval cordite blends apparently had the nasty habit of weeping pure nitroglycerine when they got warm. And on a ship assigned to the tropics, it was going to get warm.

Oh, and by World War II, using cordite, British battleships were capable of sub-MOA accuracy at over 20 miles.
 
&, as they are technically "Naval Rifles" I suggest we nominate the the Vickers 18"/45 (45.7 cm) Mark II as the most accurate rifle of WW2.:eek:
 
Uhm.... except that the N3 class of ships was cancelled before the 18" guns ever got past the initial testing phase.

If the trials and tribulations of the 16"/45 Mk I are any indication (many of the design parameters and build techniques would have been the same), the 18" guns would have been... problematic.

The toss up for the most accurate big guns ever to put to sea is a battle between the 16"/50 Mk 7 as mounted on the Iowa class ships, and the 15"/42 Mk I as mounted on a whole slew of British battleships and battlecruisers (and even two monitors).
 
Oh, and by World War II, using cordite, British battleships were capable of sub-MOA accuracy at over 20 miles.
Click to expand...
1 MOA at 20 miles subtends about 10 yards.

From http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.htm on 16" guns on US battleships:

As modernized in the 1980s, each turret carried a DR-810 radar that measured the muzzle velocity of each gun, which made it easier to predict the velocity of succeeding shots. Together with the Mark 160 FCS and better propellant consistency, these improvements made these weapons into the most accurate battleship-caliber guns ever made. For example, during test shoots off Crete in 1987, fifteen shells were fired from 34,000 yards (31,900 m), five from the right gun of each turret. The pattern size was 220 yards (200 m), 0.64% of the total range. 14 out of the 15 landed within 250 yards (230 m) of the center of the pattern and 8 were within 150 yards (140 m). Shell-to-shell dispersion was 123 yards (112 m), 0.36% of total range.
Click to expand...
At 34,000 yards (19.3 miles), one MOA subtends about 9.5 yards.
 
"1 MOA at 20 miles subtends about 10 yards."

I just redid my math...

Yeah, I screwed up. Somehow I got 350 yards...

That's even too big if we use a more nautical measurement...

1 Midshipman of Angle...
 
In the late 1960's, talking with the battleship New Jersey's B turret captain (a Chief Gunner's Mate) and a Fire Control Tech on her, they said their Main Battery Smooth Log (general record of 16" gun battery stuff) listed the mean miss distance for first round at shore targets in Viet Nam was 91 meters at 20 some thousand yards (11+ miles)
 
I've always found it fitting that Admiral Lee, who led USN battleships against IJN battleships off of Guadalcanal was an Olympic rifle champion.
 
'course "working the bolt" on them would have been a bear!:D

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And here are two 14"/45 Mk 12 main guns from the USS Pennsylvania, which are now on display at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. IIRC at least one of them was installed on the ship on December 7, 1941.

Pennsy_1001.jpg


They were "discovered" a few years ago in storage at the US Navy's weapons storage facility at Dahlgren, Maryland.
 
Mike - I'm surprised to learn you've never been to the Imperial War Museum. I've been there several times and to the HMS Belfast once.

As far as the most accurate WW II production rifle, I'd go with the Finnish version of the Mosin Nagant.
 
My two 'A3s came from the CMP via honor guard duty from veteran organizations with heavy varnish on the stocks and spray painted stock metal. I had high respect for their post war service, and low expectations for their accuracy.

Both tore up the X ring in their very first visit to the range. One cleaned the target the other one scored 99 with the very first 10 shots fired out of each of them. No warm up or fouling shots, they shot like that on their first live ammo firings in decades.

Both had high X counts with my standard milsurp reloads. These rifles were abused and bores were filthy. Once cleaned they still performed with near flawless accuracy 70 years later.

As for the Mosins, my trip to Cody was with a borrowed 91/30 that is capable of five-shot, one-ragged hole accuracy. Not every time, but often enough you shouldn't bet against it. That was with SMKs over Varget.

Not scientific, but I would have hard time finding more accurate rifles than those three--anywhere.

BTW: Kraig and his 'A4 still out shot my brother and me, even with his excellent coaching advice. Thanks again Kraig. And we did not pull bull elk tags for this fall. May be in your neck of the woods for cows though...
 
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