I'm fairly new to the whole world of reloading so I have yet to do much experimenting with loads but what I'm wondering is, what are some .303 British loads that seem to work well with the old No.4's. A while ago I made up some cartridges with fire-formed Winchester super-x brass and some Remington umc brass, for primers I used CCI No.200 Lg rifle, powder was 35.3grains of Varget and the bullet is a 174gr Hornady FMJBT, I have yet to test these cartridges so their performance is still unknown.
Reloading for a No.4 MK1
- Thread starter Lucite
- Start date
Perhaps even before you buy that broken case extractor try neck sizing only.
You are onto something with the Hornady bullets. They are .312" diameter which helps with some Lee-Enfields because the manufacturing tolerances and wear means a lot of these rifles shoot the fatter bullet slightly more accurately than the .311" diameter Speers and Sierras. It is also said that the Enfield rifling works better for flat base bullets than for boat tails, so you might like Hornady's 174gr. Round Nose Interlock hunting bullet because of this. They have given me better results than the .311" diameter bullets from other makers. I have some of their 174gr FMJBTs as well but haven't tried them yet.
You are onto something with the Hornady bullets. They are .312" diameter which helps with some Lee-Enfields because the manufacturing tolerances and wear means a lot of these rifles shoot the fatter bullet slightly more accurately than the .311" diameter Speers and Sierras. It is also said that the Enfield rifling works better for flat base bullets than for boat tails, so you might like Hornady's 174gr. Round Nose Interlock hunting bullet because of this. They have given me better results than the .311" diameter bullets from other makers. I have some of their 174gr FMJBTs as well but haven't tried them yet.
The suggestion to neck size only is one to heed. Most of the time there is no need to full length resize and for sure it shortens case life.
Lots of good suggestions for reloading in Hornady books or check out Hodgdon data which is available online.
Start with lighter loads and work up slowly, say load 5 rounds with different powder weights then check each set for accuracy.
Again start LIGHT and work up slowly.
Lots of good suggestions for reloading in Hornady books or check out Hodgdon data which is available online.
Start with lighter loads and work up slowly, say load 5 rounds with different powder weights then check each set for accuracy.
Again start LIGHT and work up slowly.
