Fired First Batch of Reloaded Ammo

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Norinco45

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Santa arrived early and brought my son and I a Lee Anniversary reloading kit. As he had been saving all his .303 British brass from his Lee Enfield Longbranch No 4 we decided to tackle that first. It took a number of squashed and mashed brass to get everything working right alas.

Soon we were off the the local range with 15 shiney, newly loaded rounds. After a bit of trepidation squeezing off the first round, we were amazed with the excellent accuracy of the reloads, the next 4 holes were touching each other. He was shooting at 25 yards from a bench so this was no great feat but we had never experienced this kind oftight group with any of the surplus or commercial ammo we shot before.

A great start to reloading and I hope the results are typical of future results.
 
I have the Lee Anniversary Reloading kit too. I don't have any dies yet, but I am anxious to get started. I have only reloaded shotgun shells before. I see you guys are already up and running. Good going!
 
Im not sure what I enjoy more, reloading or shooting:) The Lee kits are great for beginers and should serve you well for many years. That .303 is a great round to reload with brass pretty much free and small case capacity you should be able to shoot alot more now.

Cheers!!
 
The Lee should do you fine as you will not be loading hundreds of rifle rounds. Nothing like the satisfaction of getting better results than commercial ammo.
 
scott_r said:
That .303 is a great round to reload with brass pretty much free and small case capacity you should be able to shoot alot more now.
Click to expand...

Check the headspace on your enfield, most of the ones I've seen result
in streached cases. I don't reload my .303 yet, I'd like to know how many
times I can "use" each case.
What do you guys get in .303 British in a Lee Enfield?
Do you get the streached cases?
 
Your brass will last much longer if you just neck size your fire-formed brass with the Lee collet die, and don't go crazy trimming your brass overdoing that shortens case life a lot. But hey if you have tons of .303 brass who cares?
 
I necksize and keep different batches of brass for each of my Enfields and also keep my loads under max--easily get 5 to 10 reloads from each case--I usually discard the cases after the 3rd trimming.

44Bore
 
Enfields will stretch brass regardless of headspace... As a rimmed cartridge, they were designed with oversize chambers - you can see it when comparing new brass to fired brass - the shoulder is pushed forward about 1/16 in.
To maximize brass life (and benefit accuracy), you can neck size, which forces you to dedicate brass to each rifle. Or you can partially resize the brass using your FL sizing die. Start by leaving a "loonie" gap between die and shell holder - size one brass. check to see if it chambers in your rifles. Adjust die in or out, one flat at a time, until brass chambers in all your rifles. (You'll find out which rifle has the tightest chamber, and this one can have a SLIGHT interference when closing the bolt.) Record the die setting for future use. If you use different brass, some slight adjustment may be needed.
This method allows you to use the same brass in all rifles, and should give you 4-5 reloadings, depending upon ductility of the brass, load strentgh, etc.
 
Norinco45 said:
Santa arrived early and brought my son and I a Lee Anniversary reloading kit. As he had been saving all his .303 British brass from his Lee Enfield Longbranch No 4 we decided to tackle that first. It took a number of squashed and mashed brass to get everything working right alas.

Soon we were off the the local range with 15 shiney, newly loaded rounds. After a bit of trepidation squeezing off the first round, we were amazed with the excellent accuracy of the reloads, the next 4 holes were touching each other. He was shooting at 25 yards from a bench so this was no great feat but we had never experienced this kind oftight group with any of the surplus or commercial ammo we shot before.

A great start to reloading and I hope the results are typical of future results.
Click to expand...

and it,s a good feeling to know that you made these up..:D i cant wait for the fall to try and get a deer or a moose with a load that i made up:D
 
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