I have an old Lee Enfield No.1 MkIII that is intended for use with straight walled .303 British brass. After reading about doing this and that to arrive at a straight wall empty brass, I put this matter on hold some years ago. The recent thread on .410 brass got me inspired again. (Oh oh!)
This one won't take .410 hulls, nor will it take 444 Marlin, like the one I have that is chambered for 3" .410. I've got that one perking now.
I have a fair few .303 brass of various brands, so I thought, well, I'll skip the annealing, skip the corn meal and toilet paper filler. I picked out an orphan .303 WW, primed it with a rifle primer, resized the neck to accept a .323 gas checked 175 gr. Lee cast bullet,dumped in 11 gr. of 700X, seated the bullet after belling the mouth out a wee bit, crimped it a bit with a .303 collet crimp die. I took rifle and cartridge out of town a ways, loaded up and let 'er off into the snow bank.
A nice straight wall brass came out of the chamber! Did I get lucky? Well, probably, but I am going to do up four Federal brass and try it again. My .395 squashed and sized to .410 ww balls fit in nicely after belling the mouth out a wee bit. If the Federals behave, I will reload the five and try them with wads and two squashed balls, just to see if they shoot as good as the 3" one does. I haven't tried the .410 squashed lead in that one yet.
Stay tuned for a progress report.
** I'm not recommending this method. Posted for info. **
This one won't take .410 hulls, nor will it take 444 Marlin, like the one I have that is chambered for 3" .410. I've got that one perking now.
I have a fair few .303 brass of various brands, so I thought, well, I'll skip the annealing, skip the corn meal and toilet paper filler. I picked out an orphan .303 WW, primed it with a rifle primer, resized the neck to accept a .323 gas checked 175 gr. Lee cast bullet,dumped in 11 gr. of 700X, seated the bullet after belling the mouth out a wee bit, crimped it a bit with a .303 collet crimp die. I took rifle and cartridge out of town a ways, loaded up and let 'er off into the snow bank.
A nice straight wall brass came out of the chamber! Did I get lucky? Well, probably, but I am going to do up four Federal brass and try it again. My .395 squashed and sized to .410 ww balls fit in nicely after belling the mouth out a wee bit. If the Federals behave, I will reload the five and try them with wads and two squashed balls, just to see if they shoot as good as the 3" one does. I haven't tried the .410 squashed lead in that one yet.
Stay tuned for a progress report.
** I'm not recommending this method. Posted for info. **
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