Hardware store mistake good for me?

[fightinghamster]

Local hardware store ordered these bullets for reloading by mistake, can I use them for my 303brit ? My book says 303brit is 0.313 and these are 0.311 so I’m assuming they’re good, I usually only shoot 180gr soft points in my 303 so this would be great

 

[Snider shooter]

They work.

 

[Potashminer]

I have been using Speer HotCor bullets in 308 Win for perhaps 30 years - many dozen head of game dead now due to those - so the brand of bullet used to work well.

Older milsurp 303 British and other milsurp rifles might have some variation in groove diameter - I have read of 303 British that shot fine with bullets as small as .308" versus some that wanted bullets with at least .314" diameters. I had also read that some of them slugged much larger - to 0.318" groove diameter. All were meant to fire military ammo which was more or less .313" diameter bullets - but there was some "slop" involved - they were not meant to be precision target rifles, nor precision target bullets - just had to be cheap and good enough for "government work".

I have a BSA rifle chambered in 270 Win - seems to be about correct and nearly perfect chamber, based on cerrosafe casts of it - however, the groove diameter in that barrel slugs to 0.282" - so about 0.005" larger than one would expect for a 270 Win. Most bullets should "obturate" when they are fired - to seal that bore, but that might not be happening in this rifle with "normal" jacketed bullets - Speer, Sierra, Hornady, etc. - or maybe is too much for the bullet to expand and stay concentric. Accuracy, if you can call it that, is perhaps size of palm of your hand, at 25 yards, for five shots from sandbags.

I suppose that I would slug your bore first - if you are close to .311", then I would probably try some - if the bore slugged 0.316" for groove diameter, I would not be expecting much from it, other than a "bang" when the round fired - which might be enough for some people.

 

[fightinghamster]

I have been using Speer HotCor bullets in 308 Win for perhaps 30 years - many dozen head of game dead now due to those - so the brand of bullet used to work well.

Older milsurp 303 British and other milsurp rifles might have some variation in groove diameter - I have read of 303 British that shot fine with bullets as small as .308" versus some that wanted bullets with at least .314" diameters. I had also read that some of them slugged much larger - to 0.318" groove diameter. All were meant to fire military ammo which was more or less .313" diameter bullets - but there was some "slop" involved - they were not meant to be precision target rifles, nor precision target bullets - just had to be cheap and good enough for "government work".

I have a BSA rifle chambered in 270 Win - seems to be about correct and nearly perfect chamber, based on cerrosafe casts of it - however, the groove diameter in that barrel slugs to 0.282" - so about 0.005" larger than one would expect for a 270 Win. Most bullets should "obturate" when they are fired - to seal that bore, but that might not be happening in this rifle with "normal" jacketed bullets - Speer, Sierra, Hornady, etc. - or maybe is too much for the bullet to expand and stay concentric. Accuracy, if you can call it that, is perhaps size of palm of your hand, at 25 yards, for five shots from sandbags.

I suppose that I would slug your bore first - if you are close to .311", then I would probably try some - if the bore slugged 0.316" for groove diameter, I would not be expecting much from it, other than a "bang" when the round fired - which might be enough for some people.

I haven’t reloaded for my endfield yet as I’ve been focusing on pistol reloading and truth be told I’ve never shot it at anything that wasn’t a moose so I’ve no idea it’s practical accuracy but I’ve never missed a lung or heart within 150 yards so I’m guessing this stuff should work fine, I’ll buy a box anyway and do some grouping before I hunt with it

 

[woodchopper]

for that price I would buy a few boxes

those should work just fine in any 303 that is not shot out

 

[Evanguy]

That's a pretty good price. They could also be sized to 308 pretty easy for all the 30 cals

 

[bearhunter]

That's a pretty good price. They could also be sized to 308 pretty easy for all the 30 cals

Depending on how old the stock is, that's very close to most of the places which sell the Speer Hot Core bullets.

I bought 500 of those from Cdn Tire, just before Christmas and they were the same price.

 

[tigrr]

Nice score!

 

[Licensed to kill]

Buy them, shoot them. If they do not shoot well, powder coat them to bump up the diameter and try again. If that fails, like Evenguy suggested, you can size them to .308.

 

[bearhunter]

You don't even have to "size" them. They will shoot just fine down any .308 diameter CF bore using intermediate size cases.

 

[Evanguy]

You don't even have to "size" them. They will shoot just fine down any .308 diameter CF bore using intermediate size cases.

I was going to say that and it should be fine as long as you don't encounter a tight chamber or thick neck brass. Before I gave a blanket statement like "they will work" I'd want them to do a "plunk test" first. But yes if there is clearance to release the bullet there won't be any issues with pressure or the bullet fitting.

Even easier test is to try and insert the bullet into a fired case, if it slides in it's good to shoot

 

[Suther]

Buy them, shoot them. If they do not shoot well, powder coat them to bump up the diameter and try again. If that fails, like Evenguy suggested, you can size them to .308.

Powdercoat a jacketed bullet? Can't say I've heard of doing that before. Do you have any experience in doing this?


OP, they *should* work. It is the "correct" diameter bullet, but the manufacturers of the rifles weren't exactly super-precise when churning out Enfields by the thousands during wartime, so some enfields are more like .314cal, with some well used examples being even worse. Only one way to know for sure...

 

[Licensed to kill]

Powdercoat a jacketed bullet? Can't say I've heard of doing that before. Do you have any experience in doing this?

I do not have any experience powder coating any bullets but was shooting in a lever action shoot a couple weeks ago and the guy I was shooting with was shooting PC bullets so I was quizzing him on his process ( I do quite a bit of PC on car parts and such but have never done bullets). He mentioned that in the particular gun he was using that day, he was shooting PC jacketed bullets. If one can PC a cast bullet, there is no reason (that I can think of) that PC would not work just as well (for increasing the diameter) on a jacketed bullet and he was proof that at least ONE guy in the world is doing it with success

 

[Hmatt]

Send it, this is what I load in my .303br

 

[Suther]

I do not have any experience powder coating any bullets but was shooting in a lever action shoot a couple weeks ago and the guy I was shooting with was shooting PC bullets so I was quizzing him on his process ( I do quite a bit of PC on car parts and such but have never done bullets). He mentioned that in the particular gun he was using that day, he was shooting PC jacketed bullets. If one can PC a cast bullet, there is no reason (that I can think of) that PC would not work just as well (for increasing the diameter) on a jacketed bullet and he was proof that at least ONE guy in the world is doing it with success

Fair enough. Thanks.

 

[fightinghamster]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I got all 3 boxes they had in stock

My local store doesn’t stock any reloading supplies at all, these were bought completely by accident and looking around online and finding the same ones for almost 10$ more I decided it was a good opportunity to grab something, I love my 303s and even if they don’t work as hunting ammo I’ll use em for plinking