Quick Answer on .303 powder

Recce21

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I'm not having any luck with H335 (leaving lots of unburnt powder on casings no matter the charge load). Can anybody recommend a powder I should try out next? Thanks in advance.
 
A good stick powder of most any kind tends to be the cleanest burning. I'd recommend Varget or Reloader 15 for the 303 Brit -- and load em a little on the light side, will make your brass last a long longer in an Enfield (which I presume, given your sig).
 
Have my brass last longer? Sounds good to me. I usually lose around 20% of my brass when I fire form it for the first time to head seperation. I know the quick fix is a #2 bolt head but my list of prioritized gun parts is a mile long and it is near the bottom.
 
Full house/heavy loads in an Enfield, even if the headspace is good, are a sure recipe for short brass life (sometimes, VERY short). I load mine down to around 2200-ish FPS with a 180 grain bullet and a slow-ish powder (H4350 comes to mind as being a great idea; though I do mine with Win760, just because I have a pile of it already on-hand), and I routinely get 4 or 5 firings instead of 2 or 3.

Not that I shoot my 303's much anymore since I discovered that with slightly toned down loads and a neck sizing die, I can apparently reload 308 Winchester brass for a modern rifle indefinitely (I haven't worn any out yet, and I shoot quite a bit!)

So anyway -- I revise my advise above; get you something like H4350, and load it kind of mild (46-ish grains with 180 grain bullets ought to be about right, according to QuickLoad -- though as with all things reloading, field observations should take precidence over anything QuickLoad or some book tells us!)
 
In my two Jungle Carbines, with the heavier loads I've had good results using;
  • MR 4320
  • IMR 4064
  • IMR 4350
And using jacketed bullets of 150gr, 174gr, 180gr and 215gr weights.
With a couple of cast bullets, I'm trying to work up some lighter loads using Trail Boss.
 
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