.303 British questions......

D

Dantforth

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I have recently acquired a No.1 Mk.3 Lee Enfield which appears to be in great shape. It is all matching and the bore looks almost new (not like my other SMLE). I have been to the range. Using Remington core lokt 180 grain bullets it shoots as well as should be expected. I am going to reload for it. Question - I have measured the fired brass against unfired and wonder if this rifle will be a candidate for reloading. Measurements.....1/4" above the rim there is a bulge which is .454" as compared to new at .450". Half way up the wall of the case measures .435 for fired and .423 for unfired......at shoulder it is .405/.400 and the neck is .334/.342. Is there a problem here or are these within limits to be extected? Thanks....Dave
 
Most Enfields have oversized chambers, some are more generous than others. If you size only the neck of the case like David Doyle suggested, you will get much longer case life and a case that fits the chamber of that particular rifle better than factory ammo, so there is a good chance you will see an improvement in accuracy as well. The only downside, is that the neck sized only reloads may not be able to chamber in your other rifle.
 
.303 British questions....

Thanks guys. I guess I will get a neck size die then. I have one for my 577-450 brass and it works great. What I had hoped to get was an informed opinion regarding the size of the fired case.....is the chamber too large or is this on average with others? Thanks, Dave
 
I measured a few cases I have here to help set your mind at ease. I measured a factory Greek surplus round, IVI once fired in somebody elses rifle (now neck sized and loaded) and a Greek surplus case once fired in my No4 rifle (now neck sized and loaded). At approx 1/4" above the rim they measured: 0.448 Greek surplus, 0.455 IVI once fired, 0.455 Greek once fired. At an estimated 1/2 way up the case wall: 0.423 Greek surplus, 0.430 IVI once fired, 0.430 Greek once fired. At the shoulder: 0.396 Greek surplus, 0.404 IVI once fired, 0.404 Greek once fired. I don't have any unsized brass handy, so I can't give you a comparison on that. There are some differences between the once fire cases that these measurements don't show. The shoulder is a little further forward and more angled on the cases fired from my No4. Sounds like your good to go in my oppinion.
 
With Winchester brass,and a P-14,I have reloaded the same 40 cases fourteen times using a Lee collet die. Good brass,I'm using a 308 180gr max load.Yeah,I know, but with iron sights you're stuck with one load.
 
Dantforth said:
I have recently acquired a No.1 Mk.3 Lee Enfield which appears to be in great shape.
Click to expand...
The LE's, generally speaking, had generous chambers so that any cruddy or corroding ammuntion found in any third world hellhole of the British Empire would chamber and go "bang" reliably when Tommy found it necessary for his Lee Enfield to go "bang".

In short, LE chambers were not designed with the reloader in mind. Being late at night, suffice it to say, if you don't size your brass more than absolutely necessary after it has been fired, you won't repeat the excessive stretching issue each time you pull the trigger.

A Lee collet die will do it. So will a full length die set up to resize just enough for a light crush fit. Screwing the resizing die down so it bottoms out on the shellholder is definitely not the way to go...
 
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