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

[inthehizzy]

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.

Yes, actually. Varget is my go-to powder and I usually put 39.0 grains (mild to moderate load) with the afordmentioned 180gr.lead cast round.

I just plink with the no.4 Mk.1 and accuracy is pretty good at 100 with the lead so I seldom bother with jacketed bullets.

I'd recommend slugging your barrel too see how much throat errosion has transpired. Mine wasn't .311 but .313 and I was able to have R&R tweak the projectiles to suit.

 

[Potashminer]

If you have just one .303 and you plan to mostly shoot paper and plink with it, then read up on the "O-ring" technique for the first firing of the factory or the new brass - this will give you the very best match to your chamber - regardless of what a 303 headspace gauge says, since the 303 headspace is just measuring the face of the bolt to the front of the cartridge rim - the shoulder is not part of the headspace measurement. To have your brass last the longest - 1st firing with "o-ring", then carefully neck size or partial full length size so that you get the cartridge to headspace on the shoulder, not the rim - your brass will last much longer, along with an occasional annealing of the necks.

 

[cdn1canhunt]

suggestion .........
Buy new brass or ammo fire and use the brass. The case is the most critical part of a cartridge. It is what contains the explosion that goes off beside your face. Buy new, count firings and inspect after each firing. Learn how to look for enlarged primer pockets, case wall thickness issues. If anything looks wrong or may be suspect, toss it and buy new again. Cheap insurance for your rifle and yourself. Stay away from one time fired brass.

 

[84wankel]

suggestion .........
Buy new brass or ammo fire and use the brass. The case is the most critical part of a cartridge. It is what contains the explosion that goes off beside your face. Buy new, count firings and inspect after each firing. Learn how to look for enlarged primer pockets, case wall thickness issues. If anything looks wrong or may be suspect, toss it and buy new again. Cheap insurance for your rifle and yourself. Stay away from one time fired brass.

thanks, ive been doing a lot of research the last few days and thats what il be doing. then il be reloading it all myself. judging by the rounds i have fired, the brass seems to be really good, not showing any noticeable case expansion in the rim area.

 

[cdn1canhunt]

thanks, ive been doing a lot of research the last few days and thats what il be doing. then il be reloading it all myself. judging by the rounds i have fired, the brass seems to be really good, not showing any noticeable case expansion in the rim area.

I have recently started to invest into buying Lapua brass. From my research it seems this is about the best you can buy. The initial price is a little steep but if I manage 10 firings it's about $0.10-0.12/case depending on caliber. In the beginning I was going cheap. But all it takes is one failed case to cost you a lot more than buying good quality brass. Thankfully I have not had any incidents except one primer pocket issue that made a small pit on my bolt face. Since then I have tossed all my old brass and have began to buy new and replace with good quality brass. This is just what I do not saying you can't get good results with other brass.

 

[RonR]

Op, we have 2 303 brits here. At the start i had the same thoughts as you have. But head space is not as tidy as yours.

It so happened that locally available was 180gn PRVI rounds, so i purchased 100. They way i looked at it was that my time was worth something. Instead of spending time reloading i could fire form the brass, save on components and have great brass to work with going forward. It was 1.40 a round at that time. I will do it again if they become available.

Whichever route you choose, working with better brass will should pay off with longer brss life.

For myself the cumulative effort at the reloading bench isnt thrown out the door with poor brass that i started with.

Regards
Ronr