.303 British

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peterdobson

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We are loading for a match with 600m distance and are trying Hornady 174 grain FMJBT which are .3105", Brass is new Hornady with N540. Sierra match bullets are not available at this time. Rifle is no 4 MK1. Can anyone advise as to best COAL or other tips/information?

Regards,

Peter
 
Until you know how far the throat has been advanced from previous use, you can't get an answer to your question.

If the match you're shooting only requires single loading, you can load your cartridges so that the bullet's ogive gets quite close to the leade. This should help to improve accuracy.

Otherwise, seat out as far as your magazine will allow and still function properly.
 
Hornady does make a match grade boat-tail for 303's, but I dont think the one you have is it. I tried some of those years ago, didnt have much luck compared to flat-based bullets with 0.312 dia.
 
A flat base bullet will shoot better than a boat tail match, unless it is a very new rifle.

Load the bullet to about 20 thou off the rifling. Try several powder charges and see what the rifle likes.
 
I dug into some records here for some info that may be of use.

Tried N540 and Fed 215 match primers in two mk 4’s and 180 gr Speer hotcor and older issue Winchester brass. (boat tails just didn’t work at all.) Load was very promising in one Enfield but just didn’t finish the load before selling the rifles. 41.4 to 41.7 gr @ 100 m was less than ½ inch for both vertical and horizontal in a ladder test. Wish I would have tuned that load up. Would have been interesting.

Never had luck determining a solid value for COAL, too much wear is what I attributed that to. Never have those issues with contemporary hunting rifles.

Myself, I would fire form some cases before starting load development. One chamber was really long and the shoulders were noticeably taller after firing. Talk about a change in case shape/volume…

Hope this is of value. Have fun and good luck Peter!

Regards
Ron
 
Hornady manual has this bullet with a COL of 2.980 and 3.550 as max OAL for cartridge. OAL of IVI MK8Z is right in the middle at 3.020.
After watching our Rangers in action I can attest to the feeding of the IVI load.
N540 is working very nicely with Speer 180 for myself as well.
 
peterdobson said:
We are loading for a match with 600m distance and are trying Hornady 174 grain FMJBT which are .3105", Brass is new Hornady with N540. Sierra match bullets are not available at this time. Rifle is no 4 MK1. Can anyone advise as to best COAL or other tips/information?

Regards,

Peter
Click to expand...

Kinda depends if you are loading specifically for one rifle, or if those loads need to feed multiple rifles. For example, used to be how PALMA competitions were done - all the shooters drew their ammo from same source. As mentioned - fire-formed brass (O-ring or otherwise) and some trial and error work to fine tune the "jump" to lands probably gets the best results from a particular rifle. But then will want to be on top of bedding, barrel clearance or packing, compensation, muzzle (crown) condition and all those other things that go into a match rifle in the first place. I suspect it also makes a difference if the rifle to be "single fed", or if there are "rapid fire" stages that require feeding from magazine.
 
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