303 british brass question

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A guy at the range gave me his 303 brass today. He had the rifle from his grandfather and this brass is old. Most was Imperial make but some of the brass had different markings. Help identify and can I reload?
" GB 45 7" "GB 50 7" "RG 50 7"
I belive this is surplus brass but it has been so many years since I have seen any I don't remember.
Thanks
 
points said:
A guy at the range gave me his 303 brass today. He had the rifle from his grandfather and this brass is old. Most was Imperial make but some of the brass had different markings. Help identify and can I reload?
" GB 45 7" "GB 50 7" "RG 50 7"
I belive this is surplus brass but it has been so many years since I have seen any I don't remember.
Thanks
Click to expand...

GB 45 7 = Greenwood & Batley Ltd, Leeds, Yorks, 1945, Mk 7 (loading)

GB 50 7 = Greenwood & Batley Ltd, Leeds, Yorks, 1950, Mk 7 (loading)

RG 50 7 = Radway Green, Cheshire, 1950, Mk 7 (loading)

Berdan primed... so not reloadable.
 
dont toss the berdan stuff if you dont want it i'll take it :) mk 7 ball brass is good stuff

it is reloadable all brass is but berdan is just harder to reload
 
It's reloadable, just a pain in the butte.

You will need a special tool to deprime it and primers are very expensive. $100+/1000.

I had some that would take standard large rifle primers but I don't remember their origins.

Most of the milsurp stuff made in North America, was Boxer primed.

Give it to someone that is willing to play with it or sell it for for scrap.

By the way, you can reload those surplus steel cases as well. Just as much a pain in the butt as they have Berdan primers as well.
 
Thanks guys. I'll just set these in the window sill. and reload the rest.
Had I seen the stuff befor he fired it I would have told him to hang onto it.
 
Not only is that GB & RG brass Berdan primed, in addition to being corrosive, the primers might have been mercuric as well. This is not a good thing if brass is to be reloaded.
I have several hundred RWS 1/4" Berdan primers squirrelled away, but wouldn't waste them on .303, which is readily available in Boxer format. I've reloaded a lot of Berdan primed brass, both 1/4" and smaller - 6.5x55. No big deal, a bit slower to decap than Boxer, but once the cap is out there isn't much difference.
Inspect .303 brass carefully before reloading, looking for incipient separations. There are a lot of loose Lee Enfields out there.
 
tiriaq i toss more .303 pick up then anything i dont like the big 3(rem,win,fed,) for one reason the groove in the case head

the reason the lee enfield is lose is to help out in the battle field when your ammo gets dirt on it military brass does not separate as easy as the new crap only stuff close to it is prvi all military brass has no groove and prvi is the same way
 
I have a couple of sandbags full of recent production brass fired in currently issued rifles. That is, the rifles are in issue condition, major maintenance and inspection being done by CF gunplumbers. I expect to cull about 20% when I inspect them, because of incipient separations.
This past summer, I was able to inspect some clean, fresh brass fired in competition by Cdn. Rangers. Probably that same percentage would be in the reject category, because of incipient separations.
 
I noticed that the Imperial casings also had the grove at the case head while the surplus ones didn't. It seems a bit odd to weaken the casing that way
 
points said:
I noticed that the Imperial casings also had the grove at the case head while the surplus ones didn't. It seems a bit odd to weaken the casing that way
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the slight machined undercut just in front of the rim? This has nothing to do with case strength.
The groove that is important is the one that forms inside the case, about 3/8" - 7/16" up. If this groove forms (caused by generous headspace) the situation is an incipient case separation.
 
tiriaq said:
Are you referring to the slight machined undercut just in front of the rim? This has nothing to do with case strength.
The groove that is important is the one that forms inside the case, about 3/8" - 7/16" up. If this groove forms (caused by generous headspace) the situation is an incipient case separation.
Click to expand...

a oring stops that problem i use this to fire form my brass with anealing and neck sizing i can get 30 reload loads out of my brass(full lentgh resizing now and then)

i use my lee loader in .303 more then my dies as it neck sizes only
 
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