Over all length for .303 Br.

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windy

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Just setting up my Lee loader classic kit and the bullet seater was way out of wack. I now have 2 cartridges that are .150" too short in over all length. Can the bullet be too far into the brass? What are the results of too short a cartridge? should I just disasemble the cartridge and start over now that I have the bullet seater set up good.
Thanks.
 
"...bullet seater was way out of whack..." All dies need to be set up. They don't come from the factory set to give any particular OAL. Two rounds isn't something to panic about though. Usually takes at least that many to get the OAL right.
"...Can the bullet be too far into the brass..." Yep. Usually isn't a big deal, but the accuracy will be different. Pressures can get weird too. The kinetic puller can be used to pop 'em out enough to reseat.
 
I had a box of about 50 loaded mistakes to pull before I finally bought a puller. It's the cheapest way to fix any mistakes you catch. No reloading bench should ever be without one.
 
Trim brass to correct length place bullet in case no powder or priemer put in rifle close bolt. this will give you correct overall length for the rifle
 
Just setting up my Lee loader classic kit and the bullet seater was way out of wack. I now have 2 cartridges that are .150" too short in over all length. Can the bullet be too far into the brass? What are the results of too short a cartridge? should I just disasemble the cartridge and start over now that I have the bullet seater set up good.
Thanks.
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You can pull the bullets with a collet bullet puller or use the hamer type bullet remover. Either way the bullet will come out clean, as will the powder. The result of too short a cartridge are far less than too long a cartridge.

Usually a short cartridge will have the bullet sitting a bit off the lands. These are the grooves in the barrel. For best accuracy, shooters will try to seat bullets so that they are touching the lands, but not entering the lands. In a 303 Enfield going through that trouble is not worth it. The further the bullet seats away from entering the lands, the more "room" there is for the bullet to "wobble" as it tranverses the distance from the seating position in the case to being stabilized within the lands.

This distance is usually only thousands of an inch and will have a negligable effect upon your accuracy.

Once you have the bullet pulled, clean out the powder and resize the neck of the case. Once the bullet has been seated, the neck will have stretched and if you do not resize the neck before reloading the case, it will be a loose fit. This can cause the bullet to move in or out as the case gets transferred.

If the bullet moves out, it could get to a point where it sticks out so far that it would enter the lands in your barrel when you load the gun. This could cause excessive pressures to build in the case, with catastrophic results.

Bottomline, dis-assemble the case. Start over.
 
it depends on you powder charge and type and bullet length. For example: I just loaded a bunch of 303 british. bullet length with cast bullet and gas check after sizng is .985. with a 170gr bullet, hodgdon lists overall length at 3.075. I seated the bullets to 2.985 oal. Punched all the pertinent info into quick load, and since i'm shooting reduced loads for cast (41gr of BLC-2) i'm still in the clear.

what is the length of your bullets, weight, powder, etc? I'll punch in your info and see if they're ok to shoot.
 
Thanks for the info MWJones, I am using 150 gr sp spitzers by Sierra, the cartridge overall length is 2.985" and as I am just using a Lee loader classic, I am adding 1 level 2.8cc scoop of reloader 15 powder. My friends at work that reload think that using a measured scoop of powder instead of a scale is a little barbaric but I have just started reloading and this is fine by me. I took my first batch of ammo to the range yesterday and it went bang and I could hit paper at 100 yards, I'm just happy that I didnt blow myself up.
 
I can't find reloader 15 listed as a powder for .3030 brit anywhere, but with that load you're in little danger. It's crude, but by comparing sectional density, volume of an empty case, etc, your load is probably somewhere around 28-29 grains, though an actual weight measurement would be safest and best. More accurate than a scoop!

That looks like it might be a decent cast bullet load, around 1700fps, and only 13kpsi. Well below the safe threshhold and borderline on paranoid. Are your brass coming out all black and sooty? primers pushing out the back a little? Such low pressure can cause a few issues...Plus, you're only burning about 60% of your powder. Until you get a scale to measure by weight, though, i wouldn't reccommend try ing to load em up any hotter. UNLESS you have a ful set of scoops. Again, with quickload calculating the load from volume, a 3.0 cc scoop would e about 40 grains probably get you in the neighbourhood of a decent hunting load, pushing your 150 grainer about 2300fps and generting around 32kpsi.

Estimating with the scoop (like trying to use 1 and a half scoops, etc) is dangerous. I mostly use a cheap $20 chinese electronic scale. Only 20gram capacity, but it measures to .01 of a grain so i'm happy :)

oh, and 2.985 is not really that short :) not enough to make much difference unless you're loadign MAX loads.
 
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