Pls remove

THIS is a game I would NEVER play!

Without knowing what the powder is, I would never feel comfortable rolling my own with it... I only have ONE face, and TWO eyeballs... I want to keep 'em!

Cheers
Jay
 
So much fear, lol.

The 303 British and the 308 Winchester have almost identical case capacities.
I would have no qualms about breaking down a few of those 303 rounds.

I would weigh the powder from each cartridge separately, then average the charge weight.
Weigh the 303 Bullet to find out what weight it is.
Then in the 308, I would load that same weight bullet, or a lighter one, with the powder charge from the 303, MINUS 3 grains to start.

This will be safe to use, you may be able to work up carefully to the same or even a slightly heavier charge.

However, for the 223, you are working with an entirely new situation, so I would probably steer clear of that.

PM me if you want more info/clarification.
Regards, Eagleye
 
Sell the .303 ammo and work with "new" powder, by the time you dump the powder from the .303 ammo and work up a good load the .303 powder will be gone. (if your sitting on a forgotten military ammo dump then its a different story) American .303 British ammo during WWII was loaded with BLC2 so "modern" non-cordite powder is in the same burn rate as the .308/7.62x51.

I just have two questions, would you put 50 year old surplus gasoline in your car and expect it to run right?
Have you ever shot surplus ammunition, pulled the trigger and heard the firing pin go click...............and then waited for the bang.
 
Umattok said:
i've weighed the 303 powder and it was somewhere around 42 and the 308 winchester factory ammo was around 45.
Click to expand...

This doesn't mean anything unless they are using the exact same powder.

The 303 has less capacity then the 308. If you put the 303 powder in the 308 round with a bullet of the same weight or lighter I'm sure it would be safe.

However . . .

I assume you know already the 303 bullet is LARGER then the 308 bullet, so you cannot shoot the 303 bullet out of your 308. Not sure if that was part of your plan or not.

And . . .

I would only do this if I was running a bolt action or something. Some semi auto rifles, like the Norc M305 or M1a, are sensitive to what kind of powder you use. If the 303 uses the wrong kind of powder you could damage your rifle.

What you want to do is do-able, but like other have suggested, you could probably sell or trade it for at least an equivalent amount.
This sounds like something I might have done years ago, just for the experience. Now days, not so much.

You probably know several people that own a 303, even if you don't know they own one. It shouldn't be hard to move.
 
Say you have 100 rounds that you want to salvage just for the powder. At $30/7000*45*100 that's roughly $20 in powder. I'm sure you could sell 100 rounds of 303 for more then $20
 
fred0000 said:
Say you have 100 rounds that you want to salvage just for the powder. At $30/7000*45*100 that's roughly $20 in powder. I'm sure you could sell 100 rounds of 303 for more then $20
Click to expand...

^^ Like he said.


But if you want to pull the ammo apart, the primed brass and pulled bullets will sell easily. The powder is about 3031 in speed. Use that data and work up.
 
Umattok said:
Ok, both rifles are bolt action, I shot one round with the 303 powder with a 180gr bullet out of my 308. No signs of case being cracked or damaged or fouling in the barrel, primer stayed in place. Will i experiment some more? Maybe.
Click to expand...

Barrel fouling doesn't really tell you anything as far as safety goes. If your load it too light or underpressure, you can get excessive fouling.
Generally the higher the pressures, the cleaner the burn.

Look for fouling around the neck of the brass case. If it seems really dirty after only one firing, that can mean there is not enough pressure to seal the brass into the throat and you're getting blowback. Blowback means gas pressure is able to leak past the seal between the brass and the chamber, and this can cause accelerated wear to your throat. You will get some blowback anyway, but it usually takes a few firing for it to really show on the brass unless you're running a semi. Realistically, I don't think this is anything to worry about, you're likely fine in that respect.

If you got cracked or damaged cases, well, you've got bigger problems.

What you want to look at is the primer and case head. You can judge how much pressure the load is generating by how warped and flattened the primer gets.
If the primer still has noticable rounded edges like it originally did before firing it, you're fine.
If the primer appears to have gotten flattened, that shows pressure. If it's a little bit flat but still shows the roundedness, you're going to be ok.
If the primer looks perfectly flat, and there is no more rounding on the edges, then you are over pressure and in the danger area.

Another thing to look for is markings on the case head, where the name and info is written. If you can see features of your bolt face , like the ejector, imprinted on the brass, that's another high pressure sign that you are in the danger area.
 
a very stupid idea that surplus .303 will sell for more as a round then just go buy some modern ammo or new powder why #### around playing with something that could end up doing damage to the rifle and maybe to you
 
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