.303 brit brass life q's

ampegor

ampegor

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Hi all,
I have a couple of questions for those of you in the know about the .303 brit. First off I have never reloaded rifle calibers - but lots of pistol so i have alot to learn. I have read about a short life span in the .303 brass when used in the rear locking SMLE action. My question is if I were to make reduced power reloads for plinking say lighter 150ish grain bullets at 1200-1500fps would this lower pressure increase brass life or would it still only get 2-5 reloads. I would like to use a No4 for hunting but practice will get expensive if i have to buy brass every 2-5 reloads. I would like to find an accurate low vel load for practice and then sight in and use full power for hunting. Any ideas???

Andy
 
If you full length resize, you will probably get 4-5 loads per casing before case head separation happens. A broken case remover (from Brownells) should be with you every trip to the range if you shoot .303.
 
If you don't have head space problems you should be able to load quite a few more times just neck sizing.
manitou
 
I shoot a lot of cast bullet loads out of several 303's. These loads are in the1600-1800fps range. I use a Lee collet die or just neck size with RCBS FL resizer die. Have some cases that have been loaded 20 times without a loss or problem. I have also had a couple complete case separations with factory equivalent loads with jacketed bullets in a No 5 after two or three reloads. For long case life go easy on the pressure/velocity and neck size only.
 
Thnaks for the responses so far. I have heard to neck size only to maintain length and headspace on the neck instead of the rim. Anyone else care to enlighten me.

Andy
 
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