and now... .303 for moose??
- Thread starter sametwinnie
- Start date
Like Canada, the .303 has a large following in South Africa, lots of hunters still use .303' and many cut their hunting teeth with LE's. Some of the nicest .303 sporters I have ever seen have been customized there. Of course bubba lives there too!
In fact PMP was one of the largest producers of .303 ammo in the world ever. PMP still sells lots of .303 annually and may be one of the only companies that commercially loads 6mm/.303, called the 6mm Musgrave there. Lots of Lee Enfields were rebarreled to the 6mm musgrave.
About 25 years ago I decided to cut off the front sight from one of my 303's as it was snagging everything. Then I did a great barrel chamfer with a round grinding ball on the end of a drill. Then I mounted one of those Kaharsky mounts with adjustments and put in one those older Balvar Bausch and Lomb 2.5x8 scope in the mount. I loaded some 150 grain bullets with 4064 powder and proceeded to get .75 MOA. It still shoots the same today. I tried it with another 303 but no such luck. The 303 is one of those rifles I will always have and probably the only one i would ever need. However being a total unrepentant gun nut I have enjoyed hundreds of others and in the end like Solomon said, it is all vanity. Whats not to like about a gun that functions in all kinds of weather and carries 10 shots. And I no longer cares if it doesn't have stainless steel, X/Accu-trigger, Aluminum bedded, carbon fibre stock, fluted, etc. I would trust my life to a 303. My favourite is still the Jungle carbine.
Fixed it for you. No such cartridge as .303 lee enfield.
Your setup is fine if you can shoot it well enough to hit a moose in the right spot. I'm no fan of the LER scopes but if it works for YOU, then it's good.
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Oh no, a .303 british is far too underpowered, gotta get a Lazzeroniultramagrocketlauncher and never mind the millions of moose that have fallen over and promptly expired since surplus enfields started coming back after 1918 - if only someone had told them that they were only hit with a lowly .303, they all would have just walked it off and gone back to whatever they were doing before they were shot....
As for range, if you can be 100% sure that you are going to deliver an ethical, well placed shot into a moose's vitals at that distance, considering the Lee Enfield iron sights then you will probably have plenty of energy to put the animal on the ground.
PS, yes, I am a sarcastic bastard, thank you very much!
Please don't call your bit of fun, sarcasim.
What I question in other posts, is the amount of 303 British rifles in the hunting field. The great depression years prior to, and during WW2, were the hay-day of homesteaders shooting elk and moose any and all months of the year. I happen to have first hand knowledge of many of the rifles used. Probably 50%, or close to it, were 30-30s. The 250 and 300 Savages were there, as were 32 Specials, 32-40s, 35 Remingtons, the Remington pumps, 44-40s, 38-40s, 6.5s, 8mms. 33 Winchester ( I knew of one) 45-90, (a school friend went hunting with one,) 38-55s, even a 38-56, a 30-06, and oh yes, I knew of two or three 303 rifles.
This talk of the soldiers coming home from WW2 and using 303s, is from what I have seen, just talk. I knew many soldiers who came home and they didn't even want to look at a 303. One fellow I knew did use his dads 303 from WW1 and got an elk with it. But generally, no.
Soldiers didn't bring their rifles home with them. They brought loot, sometimes enemy pistols, but a 303? Never. It was actually a few years after WW2 before Lee Enfields came on the market in great numbers. By this time new Winchesters, Remingtons, Savages, etal, were well established, and great numbers of imported bolt actions also, were soon on the market.
Let's face it. A 303 Lee Enfield looked pretty homely beside this array of new rifles and the hunters were now sport hunters, not meat hunters like their dad's had been so they wanted more spiffy looking firearms.
Yes, in the 50s and 60s there were lots of dirt cheap 303s in the hunting fields, used by once a year hunters, but I think their numbers are being exagerated. Until the mid 1960s, in BC, at least, there was more 30-30 ammunition sold, than any other calibre.
I have heard pretty much the same thing from those that were hunting during the time period you mention. In fact I have met a few old timers around the area that still fill their freezers every season using just the humble 30/30, which lends itself well to the type of brush and hilly terrain we have here on the island.
As the lotto slogan goes, know your limits play within it.
A neighbour near Parry Sound, who as a kid did help feed his family year around on game tells me lots of stories of that time. He tells of asking an old hand they had around at one time about how great the deer hunting must have been when the old timer first arrived in the area - apparently they guy could actually remember the time when elk were Ontario's dominant ungulate! But on topic (though still off the op), this neighbour says .303s didn't really come on the scene until once a year hunters started coming up from Toronto in the 70s or so.
RG
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RG
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- Location
- Newfoundland
Here in Newfoundland there are literally thousands of moose killed every year with 303 British. Its probably the most used rifle here for moose . Has always been and will be for a long time.
Back in the 80s at a gun auction, I bought a nearly new winchester m-70 featherweight 270 for $185.00 while lee enfields were selling in same auction for over $300..!!!
Back in the 80s at a gun auction, I bought a nearly new winchester m-70 featherweight 270 for $185.00 while lee enfields were selling in same auction for over $300..!!!
I remember a few 303's in the field when I first started hunting, [late 50's] but as H4831 said, many more 30-30's and 30-06's were out there. In the group I hunted with there was a 303, 2 - 30-06, 3 - 30-30 and a 7x57 Mauser. I recollect the 303 owner once losing a deer because he had loaded the detachable magazine carelessly, hooking a rim over the next cartridge down. He shot, missed, and then when he tried to work the action, the cartridge would not feed.....he was plenty upset!! Eagleye.
Thanks folks!
I really taught it was not enough for this type of game. I will probably limit my shot to 200 yards since I want a clean kill and maybe that the ''moose fever'' exist
Thanks
I was taught some of the same logic growing up. I think that logic is born from open sight shooting and not understandiing what bullets are being used( weight and powder).
With good optics, premium bullets and practise, the effective distance for mid-range rifles like the .303 has significantly increased.
That said, all of those things don't mean a hill of beans if the fella behind the trigger doesn't have the practise in.
Don't settle for 200 yds. Choose the distance you can confidently shoot at through practicing all four shooting positions ( ya just never know what you'll have to use)
The .303 will be a great moose gun. Give'er.
Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
I started out at about the same period of time with basically the same LE except that mine was a Simpson-Sears 'special'. With it I got my first two Deer just north of Quesnel and my first Moose, SE of PG. Back then Dad & I used 150gr & 180gr which were fine for Deer
but when it came to Moose, C.I.L./Dominion 215gr were the order of the day. The comment in your post brings back memories. In memory of those first early days of Moose hunting and for playing with in the two LE's I have now have I lucked into four boxes of Woodleigh 215gr bullets.
Suka
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
If you look at ballistics tables a 303 is VERY close to a 30-06 in some circumstances (loads)
You can also if desired get some heavier hunting bullets out of the states which would make the 303 in my opinion an excellent short range heavy hitter abeit a bolt action, and I was always going to buy some and try them, but just never got around to it.
You can also if desired get some heavier hunting bullets out of the states which would make the 303 in my opinion an excellent short range heavy hitter abeit a bolt action, and I was always going to buy some and try them, but just never got around to it.
