Ideal bullet type and weight for .303 Enfields

Sonny.Frechette

Sonny.Frechette

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I'm sure this has been discussed here before, but I am new to using forums and was having trouble locating this topic. I'm about to start reloading .303 british ammo for my No.4 Enfield and am looking to build some rounds for plinking with at the range. I'm wondering what bullet types and weights guys have luck with in their Enfields. Also does anyone have any loads they've built to replicate old milsurp ammo?
 
Flat-base tend to universally shoot better than boat-tail in the old milsurps.
WW2 era sights would be graduated for 174gr at whatever velocity they used. Hornady makes a BT-FMJ bullets designed to replicate the WW2 era bullets.

Bullet diameter varies from .310" to .312" depending on manufacturer or specific bullet but I find bores vary from .309" to .317". I've seen a lot of rifles tumble and key-hole the Remington .303B factory ammo which is .3105" diameter. I find .311" or .312" to be the most useful for a wide range of rifles but I had a Martini-Enfield that slugged .317" and would key-hole even .312" jacketed bullets.
 
LUTNIT said:
Flat-base tend to universally shoot better than boat-tail in the old milsurps.
WW2 era sights would be graduated for 174gr at whatever velocity they used. Hornady makes a BT-FMJ bullets designed to replicate the WW2 era bullets.

Bullet diameter varies from .310" to .312" depending on manufacturer or specific bullet but I find bores vary from .309" to .317". I've seen a lot of rifles tumble and key-hole the Remington .303B factory ammo which is .3105" diameter. I find .311" or .312" to be the most useful for a wide range of rifles but I had a Martini-Enfield that slugged .317" and would key-hole even .312" jacketed bullets.
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I PC some .312 bullets up to .315 and although it's early in the process they are looking like the answer for a No1Mk3 with oversize bore.
 
If, and only If, your groove diameter is .313" or under, the Sierra 180 grain
Pro-Hunter [Spitzer, Flat base] is a great performer in the 303 British.
Best to slug your bore before ordering bullets. As mentioned, groove diameters
vary a lot. Dave.
 
I have several Lee Enfields. Only one (the Irish contract) shoots the Sierra match bullet better than a flat base hunting bullet.

For plinking I find a 200 + gn cast lead bullet over 10 to 15 gn of shotgun powder is very good.
 
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I'm not sure what moulding was used to create my bullets, but they're 183gr GC flat based with triple wax groove round nosed at .313

They shoot really well with 14 grains of that magnum pistol powder, I forget the name (herc 2400?), but it's the green canister (looks like monster blood)
 
Has anyone ever tried PCing jacketed bullets for .303"?

The .303 velocity range is perfect for powder coated bullets and is a fairly simple way to grow the bullet diameter by .002-.003" inches. I might have to try that.
 
The one thing to remember is the majority of 303 British ammo was loaded with cordite powder that had a higher nitroglycerine than many pistol powders have today. Meaning a well used Enfield rifle will have cordite throat and bore erosion. And Cordite ammunition was banned from machine gun use due to short barrel life and a fall of of accuracy.

This is why the flat base bullets work better because when fired and kicked in the seat of the pants they expand to bore diameter, and a boat tail bullet will not expand.

I have never used powder coated bullets but I have used reduced loads with Hornady .312 100 grain pistol bullets and SR 4759 and Trail Boss powders.

In the Number 9 Speer reloading manual they list the 100 grain half jacket .308 Plinker for reduced loads in the .303 British Enfield rifles. Meaning these bullets will also fill the bore if kicked in the seat of the pants hard enough.

HHDfGl9.jpg


Below 50 yard accuracy with the Hornady .312 100 grain bullets and the No.4 Enfield's peep sights. If I remember correctly I had to set the sights for 400 yards to hit center on a 6 inch target with a 6 o'clock hold. The funny part was you pulled the trigger heard the cartridge go bang and second later you could hear the bullet hit the target.

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Ganderite said:
I would like to hear about that.

PCing would also fatten up some cast bullets.
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I'm also looking to start experimenting with powder coat for pistol and rifle boolits. The question that need to be answered correctly before testing the process for real is: it is possible to coat the rifle boolits in a repeatable manner to get a similar coating from batch to batch? The key word here is repeatability. I already have good results with a lubrisizer and standard rifle lube, powder coating will have to add something before being adopted... BTW, my best plinking cast bullet so far for 303 is an old Ideal 311413 mold that drops at 174-176gr with wheelweights, sized at 0.314" with gas checks and loaded for 1200fps with shotgun powder.
 
Like others have had flat bottom works a little better. I have put 123,150,178gr through my No 4 and they all worked fine. for I diameters I have tried .310,.311,.3105-.312 All have worked great. I have tried .308 one day which also worked just as well. I have been told that I am very lucky to find an enfield that shoots .308 bullets though

I have only tried .310 123gr in my No1 and they work fantastic. They are right on at 100m with the sights set to 200
 
Kegcaissy said:
I'm also looking to start experimenting with powder coat for pistol and rifle boolits. The question that need to be answered correctly before testing the process for real is: it is possible to coat the rifle boolits in a repeatable manner to get a similar coating from batch to batch? The key word here is repeatability. I already have good results with a lubrisizer and standard rifle lube, powder coating will have to add something before being adopted... BTW, my best plinking cast bullet so far for 303 is an old Ideal 311413 mold that drops at 174-176gr with wheelweights, sized at 0.314" with gas checks and loaded for 1200fps with shotgun powder.
Click to expand...

My best results have always come from bullets that didn't ever see a sizing die. Size a bullet down a few thousandths and then measure concentricity. They are generally truer with better concentricity right out of the mold. I size a lot of bullets but we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking we are necessarily improving a bullet by pushing it through a sizing die.
 
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