If you are one of those really negative people who post on CGN – and you like the 303 British round – you have lots to complain about. Guns in 303 British are plentiful, but factory ammo isn’t.
The normal work-around for this situation is just to reload, but even that option isn't great, at the moment. This is because there is a major shortage of powders and primers, with no obvious end of that situation in sight.
I've owned at least one Lee Enfield for pretty well all of my adult life. Right now, I have about 3 Lee Enfields, as well as a pretty good number of Globco 555 Mohawks. Of the latter, most are in 303 British but – believe it or not – I have one of those in 7.62x54r, as well.
Anyway, the 303 British guns haven't had much use in years, but I ended-up taking my son-in-law out to the range, a few months ago to shoot my Dad's First World War era no.1 Mk III* semi sporter – using the 18 rounds left from a 1965 era box of Dominion factory ammo remaining from my late father’s days.
Both my son-in-law and I enjoyed that day. Afterward, I got interested in current options for reloading to shoot my various 303 British guns.
I have experienced reloading 303 British from scratch – using various commercial components, but of course, not all of these are available anymore – at least where I buy my stuff. This led me to try-out the trick that I'm sure most have run across; which involves cannibalizing cheap, plentiful Soviet 7.62x54r surplus ammo and reloading the various components (specifically the powder and the bullet) into boxer-primed 303 British cases.
For those of you who aren't aware of this trick, please surf the web to identify the specifics of how to do this. Importantly, it involves using LESS than the full factory powder charge from a 7.62X54r round to push that Russian copper Jacketed, steel core 150 gr projectile.
Obviously, to do this trick you still will need some boxer primed 303 British brass, as well as a source of large rifle primers – and of course the relevant reloading dies, etc.
I had hoped that this trick would work out well, but had no idea how good the results could possibly be.
I loaded this ammo (made from the components of Russian 7.62x54r surplus ammo) into a Globco 555 Mohawk and this gun (that I had never sighted-in or shot before), ran flawlessly. The gun threw the spent cases out cleanly – about 2-3 yards from my shooting position; and the brass was completely unharmed – certainly completely reusable for further reloading.
As a crazy bonus, I hit the gong at 100 yards on my first two shots – open sighted and off hand; something that I couldn’t repeat, using my 7.62x39, scoped M+M M10Z. I'm not necessarily the World's best shooter, so some misses followed after that, but honestly, I was really surprised by how this cobbled-together ammo (and the untested Mohawk) performed. I put about 40 rounds through the gun with this set-up-with good accuracy and no ammo problems. Total cost to me for the ammo itself – about 25 bucks.
As noted in the title of this post, this situation adds-up to one where I have determined a way to have essentially an unlimited supply of cheap, accurate 303 British fodder. The fact that this load runs perfectly in 303 British Globco Mohawk is a big bonus – because, in spite of all the shi**y people who seemed to have nothing better to do than put down these guns, the fact is that the Mohawk is really nice shooter – as long as YOU are sorted-out with the gun. That means that, to shoot a Mohawk properly, you HAVE TO own the proper SVT 40 gas system adjustment tool – and you have to know how to use it – and, of course, you also have to clean the bloody gun after every time you shoot corrosive. And cleaning the gun after shooting corrosive ammo definitely means flushing it out with WATER before you use any commercial gun cleaning solvent. Also, you absolutely have to completely disassemble and clean the gas system. If you don't do these things, then you will be yet another one of those idiots who hates the Mohawk because they have no idea how to make it work.
BTW, this thrifty reloading trick results in non-corrosive ammo – so it actually improves the character of the donor ammo.
So, what is my secret formula? Most posters go with using 7 grains less than the standard 7.62x54r charge when pushing those surplus 150 Gr. 7.62x54R projectiles. I went down 6.2 grains, because that happens to be what you get when you use the 3.1 cc dipper – that comes with your Lee 303 British reloading kit – to measure the surplus powder from the donor Russian 7.62x54r ammo.
Obviously, this is just my experience – and I have no idea what type of surplus 7.62x54r ammo you might be starting with, or what the right load would be for cannibalizing that stuff. It's up to you to practice safe reloading – and to not assume anything, in your situation.
As for me I'm in a good place knowing that I can shoot these 303 British guns as much as I want – with available, affordable donor ammunition as my source of reloading components.
I haven't yet tried reloading 303 British with scavenged powder and bullets from 7.62x39, but I have heard that is possible too. In that case, clearly one needs to use more than the powder charge from a single 7.62x39 donor round – specifically supplementing the charge with a small amount of extra powder from a second 7.62x39 surplus cartridge.
What has been your experience with these two approaches?
The normal work-around for this situation is just to reload, but even that option isn't great, at the moment. This is because there is a major shortage of powders and primers, with no obvious end of that situation in sight.
I've owned at least one Lee Enfield for pretty well all of my adult life. Right now, I have about 3 Lee Enfields, as well as a pretty good number of Globco 555 Mohawks. Of the latter, most are in 303 British but – believe it or not – I have one of those in 7.62x54r, as well.
Anyway, the 303 British guns haven't had much use in years, but I ended-up taking my son-in-law out to the range, a few months ago to shoot my Dad's First World War era no.1 Mk III* semi sporter – using the 18 rounds left from a 1965 era box of Dominion factory ammo remaining from my late father’s days.
Both my son-in-law and I enjoyed that day. Afterward, I got interested in current options for reloading to shoot my various 303 British guns.
I have experienced reloading 303 British from scratch – using various commercial components, but of course, not all of these are available anymore – at least where I buy my stuff. This led me to try-out the trick that I'm sure most have run across; which involves cannibalizing cheap, plentiful Soviet 7.62x54r surplus ammo and reloading the various components (specifically the powder and the bullet) into boxer-primed 303 British cases.
For those of you who aren't aware of this trick, please surf the web to identify the specifics of how to do this. Importantly, it involves using LESS than the full factory powder charge from a 7.62X54r round to push that Russian copper Jacketed, steel core 150 gr projectile.
Obviously, to do this trick you still will need some boxer primed 303 British brass, as well as a source of large rifle primers – and of course the relevant reloading dies, etc.
I had hoped that this trick would work out well, but had no idea how good the results could possibly be.
I loaded this ammo (made from the components of Russian 7.62x54r surplus ammo) into a Globco 555 Mohawk and this gun (that I had never sighted-in or shot before), ran flawlessly. The gun threw the spent cases out cleanly – about 2-3 yards from my shooting position; and the brass was completely unharmed – certainly completely reusable for further reloading.
As a crazy bonus, I hit the gong at 100 yards on my first two shots – open sighted and off hand; something that I couldn’t repeat, using my 7.62x39, scoped M+M M10Z. I'm not necessarily the World's best shooter, so some misses followed after that, but honestly, I was really surprised by how this cobbled-together ammo (and the untested Mohawk) performed. I put about 40 rounds through the gun with this set-up-with good accuracy and no ammo problems. Total cost to me for the ammo itself – about 25 bucks.
As noted in the title of this post, this situation adds-up to one where I have determined a way to have essentially an unlimited supply of cheap, accurate 303 British fodder. The fact that this load runs perfectly in 303 British Globco Mohawk is a big bonus – because, in spite of all the shi**y people who seemed to have nothing better to do than put down these guns, the fact is that the Mohawk is really nice shooter – as long as YOU are sorted-out with the gun. That means that, to shoot a Mohawk properly, you HAVE TO own the proper SVT 40 gas system adjustment tool – and you have to know how to use it – and, of course, you also have to clean the bloody gun after every time you shoot corrosive. And cleaning the gun after shooting corrosive ammo definitely means flushing it out with WATER before you use any commercial gun cleaning solvent. Also, you absolutely have to completely disassemble and clean the gas system. If you don't do these things, then you will be yet another one of those idiots who hates the Mohawk because they have no idea how to make it work.
BTW, this thrifty reloading trick results in non-corrosive ammo – so it actually improves the character of the donor ammo.
So, what is my secret formula? Most posters go with using 7 grains less than the standard 7.62x54r charge when pushing those surplus 150 Gr. 7.62x54R projectiles. I went down 6.2 grains, because that happens to be what you get when you use the 3.1 cc dipper – that comes with your Lee 303 British reloading kit – to measure the surplus powder from the donor Russian 7.62x54r ammo.
Obviously, this is just my experience – and I have no idea what type of surplus 7.62x54r ammo you might be starting with, or what the right load would be for cannibalizing that stuff. It's up to you to practice safe reloading – and to not assume anything, in your situation.
As for me I'm in a good place knowing that I can shoot these 303 British guns as much as I want – with available, affordable donor ammunition as my source of reloading components.
I haven't yet tried reloading 303 British with scavenged powder and bullets from 7.62x39, but I have heard that is possible too. In that case, clearly one needs to use more than the powder charge from a single 7.62x39 donor round – specifically supplementing the charge with a small amount of extra powder from a second 7.62x39 surplus cartridge.
What has been your experience with these two approaches?
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