anyone reload .303 British?
- Thread starter jonyork
- Start date
you will find that bullets vary from .310-.313, one of which may work better for you then the other.
What factory ammo have you shot out of it and what were your results? That might give us a better idea of what bullet weight and brand you might want to persue.............I bet it shoots cloverleafs with factory federal blue box 150 grainers..........
What factory ammo have you shot out of it and what were your results? That might give us a better idea of what bullet weight and brand you might want to persue.............I bet it shoots cloverleafs with factory federal blue box 150 grainers..........
lowridersvt
CGN Regular
- Location
- Niagara Falls ont
I use 42.5 grains of imr 4895 with 174 grain match king best results in my number 4 mk1 311 bullets. Stay away from federal brass never been able to get more than one full power reload out of them. Best results with privi brass or s&b brass for me
Ive only ever used factory bought ammo in mine, with groupings of about 6-8" @ 100yds. I switched to Norma ammo and the groups got much better about 1.5" @ 100yds. Its expensive ammo, and I'm not even sure if its still available in Canada anymore, but it sure does shoot well in my gun.
Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
I've had,shot and reloaded for about seven differert 303s, and presently I'm on my 4th 'Jungle Carbine'.
I've used a fairly wide variety of jacketed bullets and have 'played' with a couple with a couple of cast bullets and most have performed acceptably. Most of what's available, primarily for the 303Br. are 0.311" in diameter. In almost all the 303s I've loaded for and shot, accuracy seems to be a little better, using bullets 0.312" in diameter
, such as those made by Hornady most noteably the 174gr RN and the 215gr Weldcore RN SN made by Woodleigh.
For powders, the two main ones I've used are IMR 4064 and IMR 4320 and if I had to go with just one it would quite likely be the 4320.
An added note, my wife had relatives visiting from England two years ago so I took my wifes cousins husband out for something he's never done in England. We spent the day at the range shooting, but with an english 'touch'. I had him shooting my 455 Webley, 12ga. English SxS and, the 303Br. 'Jungle Carbine'.
I've used a fairly wide variety of jacketed bullets and have 'played' with a couple with a couple of cast bullets and most have performed acceptably. Most of what's available, primarily for the 303Br. are 0.311" in diameter. In almost all the 303s I've loaded for and shot, accuracy seems to be a little better, using bullets 0.312" in diameter
, such as those made by Hornady most noteably the 174gr RN and the 215gr Weldcore RN SN made by Woodleigh.For powders, the two main ones I've used are IMR 4064 and IMR 4320 and if I had to go with just one it would quite likely be the 4320.
An added note, my wife had relatives visiting from England two years ago so I took my wifes cousins husband out for something he's never done in England
. We spent the day at the range shooting, but with an english 'touch'. I had him shooting my 455 Webley, 12ga. English SxS and, the 303Br. 'Jungle Carbine'.
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+1
The .303 is a great round; I took mine hunting this fall, but the round itself is not necessarily the easiest to reload. Not that there's anything wrong with the round per se, but the Lee-Enfield rifles were often made with oversize chambers, leading to grossly excess headspacing. Cases fired in such rifles (especially multiply-reloaded cases) tend to stretch a lot, sometimes with the head coming right off, leaving a nasty sleeve of brass wedged in your chamber. Have that happen just once and you'll be inventing new words on the way home.
There are things you can do to mitigate that. First off, you can get your rifle checked for excess headspace by a gunsmith. If there is excess headspace, you can sometimes swap bolt heads (which came in different lengths) to fix the problem.
Prvi Partisan brand ammo (which you will have to look for, but is available in Canada) has a rather thicker rim than commercial North American stuff, so the headspace problem is reduced. Another way is to slip an O-ring over the round, up against the rim, the first time you fire it. That holds the head tight against the bolt face, so the stretching happens in the forward part of the case, not nearly so serious.
The third one is to reuse cases in the same rifle you fired them in and neck-size only vs full-length resizing. The case is already stretched to fit the chamber, so neck sizing doesn't push it back to the 'book' size which will, on firing, cause more stretching. This is where redryder's suggestion comes in.
Lastly, monitor your cases for how many times you reload them. When you find the average 'fail' level, toss them all just short of that.
Good luck.
Boolitcaster
CGN Regular
- Location
- Vancouver Island
The Lyman mould is undersized these days and after fighting with their customer service for 7 months, I got the mould back still undersized. They said it was within their tolerences while casting at .3125". The old Lyman .314" moulds were good but the new ones along with Lyman's "new" quality control is crap.
An added note, my wife had relatives visiting from England two years ago so I took my wifes cousins husband out for something he's never done in England
Good info John. Your wifes cousins husband even looks so english. If there is a look about it.
In my no 4 and a no 1 mk 3 i used to have, both shoot well with lee c312-155-2r and ctl312-160-2r , sized .312, gas checked, and lubed. 40 grains of BL-C(2) seemed to be the sweet spot around 2350fps. Powerful enough to nearly put a hole through 3/8 inch mild steel at 50 yards and break the welds on the flipper plates, but won't kill you with recoil.
We've also had some success with the lee 309-120-r and 309-150-f moulds using 25.5 grains of 4227.
We've also had some success with the lee 309-120-r and 309-150-f moulds using 25.5 grains of 4227.
Awesome great info!
I am just getting into reloading, and just getting a lee enfield No4 Mk1/3 Long branch and I was thinking I might start reloading 303 Brit as there seems to not be much commercial ammo available (ottawa area).
Good call on the size expansion, I will keep all my bass and will only have to resize the collar.
Thanks!
I am just getting into reloading, and just getting a lee enfield No4 Mk1/3 Long branch and I was thinking I might start reloading 303 Brit as there seems to not be much commercial ammo available (ottawa area).
Good call on the size expansion, I will keep all my bass and will only have to resize the collar.
Thanks!
Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
After I've fired a round in my rifle, for reloads after that I just neck size. Also, I beleive there is a selection of three different size bolt heads available and with the correct or best suited size for your rifle, you virtually eliminate or at the least, minimize the head space problem.
+1
I never bring a 303 rifle to the range without mine. So far I've had to use it 3 or 4 times in maybe a half dozen range trips. I haven't had to use it since starting to do the o-ring trick yet (see ATOM's post above). I find I have to use the o-ring for the first 2-3 firings though before it starts to headspace off the shoulder. Also recently got a P14 which I thought didn't need the o-ring trick but alas, even a Mauser 98 based action requires it with the 303 British cartridge.
