start with all new brass, or purchase rounds and reload from there?

84wankel

84wankel

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hey guys,

with owning a .303 and hating the prices of ammo, il be looking to get a reloading setup. figured id ask for the opinions of people who load their own regularly.

500 rds of S&B 180 gr FMJ would be 673.75 minus tax, or just under 1.35 per round. if i purchase once fired brass, and reload using western munitions fmjsp rounds i can do it for roughly 633.87 or 1.26 per round the first time, after that it will be .73 cents per round.

would you spend the extra money and get new ammo and brass and fire it? or would you start from scratch? im thinking i may just spend the extra 40$ and buy the S&B and reload from there. any insight is appreciated.
 
I shoot pistol so we are really apples to oranges as far as platform and caliber, but i use once shot brass and it is just as good as new. Way cheaper. Only issue with once fired is you can get the odd bad piece of brass, wrong caliber, stuff like that mixed in. Out of 1000 rounds i usually only see 10 or less throw away ones. New brass will eliminate this issue. That's about the only advantage as i can see it, at least for what i load.

My 2 cents
Corey
 
okay thanks, the "new brass" i mentioned is actually once fired from western munitions. the cost difference between loading with once fired vs buying all new rounds is only 40 bucks. im thinking its worth it to just pay the extra 40 and go from there.

if anyone has insight into a 250-300$ setup for loading id be interested in that as well.
 
84wankel said:
okay thanks, the "new brass" i mentioned is actually once fired from western munitions. the cost difference between loading with once fired vs buying all new rounds is only 40 bucks. im thinking its worth it to just pay the extra 40 and go from there.

if anyone has insight into a 250-300$ setup for loading id be interested in that as well.
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I agree, thats not a huge amount from new. The calibers i shoot are almost 10 cents on the dollar difference from new so it makes no sense for me to buy new, in your case it makes good sense.
 
its a no1 mk3 full wood.

i dont intend to sell the brass, i want to keep this rifle for many years and this seems like an affordable way to shoot it. minus the first investment in the tooling and the rounds. thanks for the tip on PPU, its about another 100$ for 500 empty brass for them. but if i can find ppu full rounds, il fire the first 500 and save all the brass for later reloading.

appreciate the insight guys!
 
I'm going to suggest maybe buying, say, 200 or 250 new brass. the money saved could go against powder, bullets, & primers.
 
"Once shot" is a gimmick name. It should be called found range brass or else it's been shot lots and I can't remember how many times it's been reloaded brass. I buy and reload range brass, I buy new brass, I buy new ammo and reload the brass. It depends on my cashflow and what seems like a good deal at the time.
 
All options given will work. A couple of years ago, I was helping a vendor at the Calgary show and went for a walk. I found a table with bags of 200 30-30, .303, and some others. I think I came away with 800 30-30, and 400 .303 for less than $100. It was nice and clean. I was like a kid in a candy store. I now have enough 30-30 for another lifetime! ;)
 
84wankel said:
its a no1 mk3 full wood.

i dont intend to sell the brass, i want to keep this rifle for many years and this seems like an affordable way to shoot it. minus the first investment in the tooling and the rounds. thanks for the tip on PPU, its about another 100$ for 500 empty brass for them. but if i can find ppu full rounds, il fire the first 500 and save all the brass for later reloading.

appreciate the insight guys!
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Those old rifles are notorious for having head spacing issues, oversize chamber issues, etc. Its not like they were made for precision target shooting. As is the norm for a massively produced military firearm of the time, there are a few excellent, some very good, most good to average, some poor, and a few that never should have made it out the factory door (some say more than a few). They were never meant to fire reloaded ammunition. Final forming of the brass was completed with the cordite in place. After 100 plus years of use, with who knows how many rounds through them, and how they have been treated otherwise, they certainly haven't improved any. If by some miracle you managed to get hold of one on the 'good' side of the bell curve rejoice. My opinion - buy new rounds, shoot and save the brass. Get some good quality tools to measure them and see if you have a rifle that is in spec or close enough that you can reliably reload your brass for it multiple times without case separation issues. There are some workarounds to some of it like using an o-ring to hold the case in position initially, etc, but these only work to overcome some problems and will not work with others. If it turns out that there are serious problems, but not sufficiently serious that the rifle needs a lot of work to fire safely then buy whatever you want, shoot it, and forget about reloading.
 
84wankel said:
okay thanks, the "new brass" i mentioned is actually once fired from western munitions. the cost difference between loading with once fired vs buying all new rounds is only 40 bucks. im thinking its worth it to just pay the extra 40 and go from there.

if anyone has insight into a 250-300$ setup for loading id be interested in that as well.
Click to expand...

If you are buying once fired .303 brass, inspect it very carefully before reusing it. Incipient separations are not uncommon. I have culled 20% out of a large batch.
 
I would buy PPU factory ammo and save the brass for reloading. This is what I did the last time I wanted more .303 brass. When you consider the cost of empty cases plus bullets, powder, and primers to fill them, I think it is worth your while to just start with factory ammo for the first firing.

$15 per 20 for used cases doesn't seem like a good value, considering that headstamps will be mixed and you may have to cull some of them, considering that Trade Ex sells new PPU brass for $80 per hundred.
 
To answer your actual question, I would buy the S&B ammo (only assuming it is boxer primed), shoot it, then reload it. Your time is valuable, and getting the "best" loads is, to me, fun.

I reload 303, both for my Ross and Lee Enfield. What I do: keep the brass separate between the two rifles, trim to length, and then neck size only. I then shoot the brass until there are visible signs of distress. Years ago I bought a case of Greek military surplus 303 ammo that is boxer primed. I also bought two boxes of Winchester hunting (SP) loads before I reloaded, so I am set for a long while.

As an aside, if you have corrosive primers but boxer primed, you can always pull the bullets/powder, deprime, reprime with non-corrosive primers, then put the powder and bullet back in.
 
Higginson has new Herter's brass, $21.50/Qty: 50

CCI 200 LR primers @ $45/Qty: 1000

Pick whatever powder, say 4lbs. of Hodgdon 4895 @ 139.00/Qty: 4lbs.

I shoot cast projectiles in my .303 from R&R bullets, 180gr., flat based, gas-checked and lubed. $80/QTY:500

About a buck a round with taxes in, maybe a bit less.
 
rick357 said:
Hmmm. Those old rifles are notorious for having head spacing issues, oversize chamber issues, etc. Its not like they were made for precision target shooting. As is the norm for a massively produced military firearm of the time, there are a few excellent, some very good, most good to average, some poor, and a few that never should have made it out the factory door (some say more than a few). They were never meant to fire reloaded ammunition. Final forming of the brass was completed with the cordite in place. After 100 plus years of use, with who knows how many rounds through them, and how they have been treated otherwise, they certainly haven't improved any. If by some miracle you managed to get hold of one on the 'good' side of the bell curve rejoice. My opinion - buy new rounds, shoot and save the brass. Get some good quality tools to measure them and see if you have a rifle that is in spec or close enough that you can reliably reload your brass for it multiple times without case separation issues. There are some workarounds to some of it like using an o-ring to hold the case in position initially, etc, but these only work to overcome some problems and will not work with others. If it turns out that there are serious problems, but not sufficiently serious that the rifle needs a lot of work to fire safely then buy whatever you want, shoot it, and forget about reloading.
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the gun was just looked over by Rob Wise, who was from Ellwood Epps. hes been around enfields for the last 40+years. the want for me on reloading has more to do with cost on firing than perfect accuracy. the headspacing and everything on my rifle is perfect, minus the barrel which will be replaced shortly. i just want to turn this gun into a reliable, reasonably accurate shooter.
 
This is probably your best bet for cost of bullets and cost of brass, then use that brass for reloading.

https://www.tradeexcanada.com/content/prvi-partizan-303-british-ammunition-174gr-fmj-bt-out-stock--

https://www.tradeexcanada.com/content/prvi-partizan-303-british-ammunition-sp-bt-150gr--

https://www.tradeexcanada.com/content/prvi-partizan-303-british-ammunition-sp-bt-180gr--

$1.45 per shot, bullets are $0.45 each, brass is $0.80 each, so $1.25 a shot just for the cheaper bullets and brass for jacketed bullets.

Then you get factory ammo to shoot, keep the brass and load it after, buy 5 boxes and then you have 100 brass to play with. You can neck size with a full length sizing die too, just have to back it out a bit.
 
inthehizzy said:
Higginson has new Herter's brass, $21.50/Qty: 50

CCI 200 LR primers @ $45/Qty: 1000

Pick whatever powder, say 4lbs. of Hodgdon 4895 @ 139.00/Qty: 4lbs.

I shoot cast projectiles in my .303 from R&R bullets, 180gr., flat based, gas-checked and lubed. $80/QTY:500

About a buck a round with taxes in, maybe a bit less.
Click to expand...

i was looking at varget, loading 180 grain round nose. any experience with that? i priced mine out to 73 cents per round once the brass was paid for.
 
Fox said:
This is probably your best bet for cost of bullets and cost of brass, then use that brass for reloading.

https://www.tradeexcanada.com/content/prvi-partizan-303-british-ammunition-174gr-fmj-bt-out-stock--

https://www.tradeexcanada.com/content/prvi-partizan-303-british-ammunition-sp-bt-150gr--

https://www.tradeexcanada.com/content/prvi-partizan-303-british-ammunition-sp-bt-180gr--

$1.45 per shot, bullets are $0.45 each, brass is $0.80 each, so $1.25 a shot just for the cheaper bullets and brass for jacketed bullets.

Then you get factory ammo to shoot, keep the brass and load it after, buy 5 boxes and then you have 100 brass to play with. You can neck size with a full length sizing die too, just have to back it out a bit.
Click to expand...

thank you, i think going factory and loading after just seems to make sense. especially since once its fired through my gun the rest of the case will be pressure fit to my rifle anyway. i think il be using the Lee Challenger breech kit as my first loading setup.
 
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