.303 British Brass

old enfields

old enfields

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In your experience. Who makes the best .303 British brass.

I find that the diameter of winchester and federal at the base are slightly undersized. I have not tried Remington yet.

Is there any better makers or is it all slightly undersized.
 
old enfields said:
In your experience. Who makes the best .303 British brass.

I find that the diameter of winchester and federal at the base are slightly undersized. I have not tried Remington yet.

Is there any better makers or is it all slightly undersized.
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Hey just bought some Herters cases from Higginson Powders $16.50 -50 not tried them yet but they must be strong (reduce charge by 5%)
 
HIGHLANDBEAGLES said:
Hey just bought some Herters cases from Higginson Powders $16.50 -50 not tried them yet but they must be strong (reduce charge by 5%)
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Herter's ! That is old stock. They have been out of business for nearly 30 years. The internet forum I just checked was uncomplementary about Herter's quality control. Inconsistent bullet diameters, and wonky pressures on their factory loaded pistol ammo.
 
.303 brass

I've heard and have yet to try the best brass to use in smle action is 30/40 crag as it has a slightly thicker rim negating some persistant headspacing issues . After running thru a f/l die of course .
 
I have one unopened can and one partial can of Herters #100 powder. It is OK, just a hair faster than 4350.
The Herters bullets I had in 270 and 6mm were good, average bullets. Still have some of the 6mm.
 
To start with, the SMLE action isn't one of the strongest around. There are, however, a number of things that can be done to minimize case stretch and prolong brass life, a few of which are;
  • Minimize the headspace by using an appropiate size/numbered bolt head.
  • Keep your reloads to less than what may be suggested as maximum.
  • Neck size.
One of the sizeable quantities of brass I was able to obtain to use in reloads for my Jungle Carbines is Herter's. Don't know how long they've been out of business, but I have some and it seems as durable as any other I have such as IVI.
 
What I was really asking was does anyone know if any manufactuer makes their brass with the .454 diameter at the base instead of the average of .452. Brass that is .452 swells a bit at the base when fired.

I had done a bit of research before I made up my first 100 rounds. so I used a mild load and had great results.

I figured if i was buying commercial ammo and reloading the brass I would try for the best cases I could get to start with.
 
I agree with Bruce, H4831. Herters was as good as any other stuff and better than some back in the day. I just sold my last 3 boxes of 275 grn round nose 338 bullets at the Vernon gunshow this summer. I didn't sell them because of accuracy or performance issues either. I sold them because I am getting more and more recoil shy. The fellow that bought them thought he had stumbled on a gold mine. As for Herters brass, it's top quality stuff and I believe it was produced for them in Yugoslavia. I'm still shooting the 30-30, 30-06 and 8x57 brass I aquired 35 years ago. Some of them have at least 20 reloadings on them. They came packaged in neat silver boxes with the Herter's crest and logo on them in 250/pkg packages. I bought them at "Ed Karrers Gunatorium in Milhaven". Now that was a gunshop to die for. Out in the country and if you were interested in a pistol or rifle, they would hand you a few rounds and lead you out of the back door to an improvised range to "give her a try".

They wouldn't do it with an new rifle but a used or surplus firearm wasn't a problem. As old Ed used to say, "You don't ever want to buy a pig in a poke. Do you boy?"

Ed sold Herter's stuff by the truck load. He sold other stuff as well but he liked dealing with Herter's and they gave him good prices that he could pass on to his customers. I had been under the impression that Herter's was a mail order house only but I guess I was wrong. Their other equipment, such as fishing gear, clothing, rifles, pistols, archery equipment and reloading supplies were all fully guranteed, no questions asked and they would pay for the shipping both ways as well as either giving you a credit voucher, cash or replacement item. Herter's was a class act that was shut down by the gun control act of 68. To bad, because they were eager to ship to Canada as well. I bought a lot of stuff from them that was unavailable here otherwise. I did have one problem though, the box of 338 win Mag cases had small flash holes that I had to drill out to standard size.
 
Yes, they had their headquarters at a huge store in South Dakota, may have been Mitchell. In the 1960s and earlier 1970s they had a store on Interstate 5, near Olympia Washington. I was at that store a few times. Was sure sorry when it closed.
They had no end of inletted walnut stocks. I had a Mauser 98 rebarrelled to 243, and was looking for a stock. An older gentleman was at thet department and I told him what I wanted, from the mid price range. He led me to them, but I told him I didn't know anything about stocks and I bet he could find me a good one.
He looked everyone over and about fifteen minutes later came up with a beautiful stock, with a really nice pattern. It took minimal work to complete the inletting and bedding, oil finish with Linspeed and for a very few dollars I had a great 243 target rifle. At that time our dollar was either par, or a bit better than the US dollar.
I got 70 grain 243 hollow point bullets for $3.30 a hundred, which was less than half price for similar bullets at that time.
 
I have 3x 303's

Jungle carbine with #1 bolt head
Lithgow No.1 Mk.3 #2 bolt head
Parker Hale BSA Sporter No.4 mk. 2 #2 bolt head

I've been using the dental floss trick to stop my case heads from separating. I find that I can get the loads up to maximum like this. I'm going start playing with the 150 grain bullets and venture into some compressed loads to see if I can get an SMLE up to 3000FPS~ territory
 
If you are hoping to find a particular make of brass that meets your specifications for diameter just forward of the rim, you may be out of luck. You get what you get, and some lots might be larger, and some not. Not sure why you are worried. Case life is reduced by stretching of the shoulder forward in long chambered barrels, and resizing pushing the shoulder back.
 
When I first started into reloading, a couple of the first sets of dies I bought were 303Br. and 308 Norma Mag. For some reason, I also bought neck sizing dies for those calibers. Kinda' glad I did now:).
 
chise said:
I want a .303 neck sizing die :(

They're like $35.00!
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You've gotta' remember, I'm from the pre metric era :p and when I got that set of dies, the set plus neck sizer probably cost me that, total;). The Lee Enfield action isn't the strongest so to get any life out of the brass, I thought it was a good investment at the time. Also, going for accuracy I thought it might prove useful.
 
303 british whit larger base

old enfields said:
What I was really asking was does anyone know if any manufactuer makes their brass with the .454 diameter at the base instead of the average of .452. Brass that is .452 swells a bit at the base when fired.

I had done a bit of research before I made up my first 100 rounds. so I used a mild load and had great results.

I figured if i was buying commercial ammo and reloading the brass I would try for the best cases I could get to start with.
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I have a bunch of new brass by PMC that the base portion of the casing is 454 , Klondike Bob
 
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