Old .303 ammo, hold on to it or shoot it?

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I was looking at some old .303 British that came with my dads Enfield, some CIL Sabertip 180gr. Dominion head stamped. Looks top be in nice shape and still in the paper box, then there's a bit of Finnish head stamp VPT 41 as well as a bit of Yugoslav Privi Partisan head stamped PP 60 VIII. Both of which look in half decent shape, the collector in me says keep it but then again I'd like to shoot it as well. Any opinions? The dominion I'll most likely shoot, there's a bit of corrosion on a couple of the VPT rounds. Thought about taking a brass brush or some steel wool and clean them up and see what they look like. I don't want to risk damage to the Lithgow I just restored with unknown old rounds, have a bunch of new PPU .303 to shoot in the meantime anyways.

Also have a box of CIL 30-30 blue and yellow tipped rounds, that came with the .303. Guess I have to pick up a 30-30 now lol.
 
I'm not really up on used cartridge collecting values...but most of what you described sounds like postwar ammo is it not?

Main thing is trying to avoid corrosive ammo and not cleaning your rifle right after shooting it.
Lots of barrels have been ruined by corrosive ammo...treat it all as if it was corrosive.

I have an Enfield funnel and put boiling water down the bore after shooting.
 
@cantom, from what I gather the 41 & 60 are the date stamp which would be a ww2 and post war mix. I'll have to look for one on the box of CIL saber tips, nothing on the shells, maybe someone will chime in with a year range on those for me.

@diopter, thanks for that link. I think I'll just keep the VPT & PP on the shelf, I don't think it was stored all that well by my old man over the years. Defiantly shows some signs of corrosion on some of the brass, my safety and my Enfield are more important than firing some unknown rounds. The CIL is in very nice condition, I'll have to do more digging before I make a decision to shoot it. I've got a bunch of boxes of new .303 rounds to keep me ocupied with in the meantime.
 
Well, there you have it, right from the mouth of one of the few remaining Masters.

Sabre Tip was also a truly AWESOME game-getter cartridge, known for flattening almost anything on the planet and VERY useful when used on North American game.

The Dominion ammunition of that period, and for some years previous, was ALL non-corrosive and non-mercuric. It was also damned accurate and the brass is EXCELLENT for reloading.

The PP VIII 60 is Yugoslavian Prvi Partizan ammunition originally made for export. It was made in 1960, is Berdan-primed and it is CORROSIVE. It is also a very heavy load. Proper Mark VIII .303 ammunition uses a 174-grain Rebated Boat-tailed bullet at 2550 ft/sec MV. I don't know how fast that Yugo slug is moving, but it is 192 grains by my scale and heavy-recoiling by my shoulder.

The VPT 41 is indeed rebulleted Finnish military ammunition and the original brown paper boxes (I have one on the table as I write this) were marked "Loaded in Finland" and "174 grs. Pointed Soft Point Bullet". The box also says that the stuff was "Made exclusively for and distributed by INTERARMCO, Alexandria, Virginia, USA". Problem is that many of the boxes arrived in the stores loaded with ammunition made in 1940 for Mussolini's .303 machine-guns which he inherited from the First World War. That ammunition was headstamped BPD 40: Bombrini Parodi Delfino. The BPD stuff was definitely corrosive AND mercuric, using a copy of the British Berdan primer, the Finnish ammo used a standard-sized Berdan primer and also was corrosive, at least going by my experience.

Personally, I would hang onto all of it. It's all history.... and they ain't makin' no more.

Prvi Partizan ammo, as made today, is non-corrosive, non-mercuric, loaded heavy and the brass is excellent for reloading. Wrap a pony-tail tie around the base of the rounds, fire them in your rifle, then start reloading, neck-sizing only, and you will soon see just HOW accurate you can make that rifle!
 
The Sabretip bullet was quite an innovation and was an accurate bullet to boot. I found it a bit on the tender side having shot several deer with the 180 gr bullet in the .303. Nowadays you can get both the Nosler ballistic tip and Hornady SST bullets which have a polycarbonate point similar to the Sabretip. About 20 yrs ago I was talking with one of the sales people at Nosler and suggested that their "new" ballistic tip was pretty much a copy of the sabretip. he wouldn't really admit to this.
 
Thanks for the info everybody, much appreciated. I think I'll keep it on the shelf and appreciate it for what it is and just stick to the new PPU till I look into hand loading my used brass. Seems that's the most cost effective way to regularly shoot the old gal. I need to start doing some research on loading my own it seems.

Any recommendations on good introductory reading material and what do you mean smellie by the pony tail elastic trick? Could you elaborate or do you have a link to a forum thread I could read through?
 
Lee manual was my introduction and so was their kit. I'm still using the press and a few other parts from the kit.

Smellie's go to load is the answer in Lee-Enfield rifles, if you can find the 180gr Sierra Pro hunter bullets it requires.
 
Personally, I use fine steel wool to clean any surface corrosion off old ammo. If it looks OK after that, I'll fire it off. If it's badly corroded, I just use the kinetic bullet puller to break it down into it's component parts, burn off the powder, pop the primers, keep the bullets for reloading and chuck the brass into the scrap bin for eventual sale for scrap value. I have some "Mastercraft" labelled soft point ammo that I assume was made for Sears by either Dominion or Imperial (if anyone knows for sure feel free to chime in) that came in 10 rnd. cardboard boxes. I also have some old Kynoch soft point ammo that I looks like re-purposed military ball. I don't know if Kynoch changed the powder as well as the bullets when they converted the military ammo into soft point. It also comes in 10 rnd. cardboard ammo. Oddball .303 ammo is interesting and it's always a question of whether to burn it off or keep it for curiosity's sake.
 
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