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There is a lot of myth surrounding around the Mk1. Ditto the M16 (if there is a gun with worse ergonomics I don't know what it is but people who train on it swear by it). It just means you can train around any deficiency.
Mk1 is has pretty poor accuracy so its disingenuous to say it’s the fastest most accurate bolt action rifle. That might go to the M1917.
The 303 is not a great cartridge either. Pretty much an clunker that the US gave up with the Kraig as did almost all other armies (some like the Russians never got out of the mud of the trenches as it were). Lots of striked against the Mk1 but if you had to use it and your life depended on it you would find it virtuous.
British believed in volley fire and trained for it (and had sights on the guns for it). Ergo the techniques and worked fine when you did not loose lots of troops.
Long time trained and drilled British army solder could shoot rapidly with ok accuracy against a mass, but they also perished at a high rate in WWI (as well as the Boor War) so that left you?
I doubt the average Brit was any better than the average American with his rifle (be it M1917 or the 1903).
I had one guy claim the Mk1 could outshoot an M1. Hmmm. Right.
Respect the iron men who used it, but reality has its own cold bath of water. 1903 was not the most used arm by the US in WWI either, it was the M1917 by a lot. Pretty fair adaptation of the platform to a useful form the Brits would have been better off keeping.
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