Shooting 0.30 cal out of Lee enfield ?

M

Maruader666

New member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Location
Calgary
Hey guys i dont post much on here but I do like to read the threads. I have a question can you reload 30.cal bullets and shoot them out 0.303 bore rifles. I have two enfields and one is for hunting and theres a really pore bullet selection here in calgary for 0.303/0.311 dia bullets ? I have heard of people doing it ?
Can it hurt the rifling or be dangerous ?

Also i have only been reloading for two years and and reloaded for 30-30, 0.223, 0.303 br, and 30-06.
 
Maruader666 said:
Hey guys i dont post much on here but I do like to read the threads. I have a question can you reload 30.cal bullets and shoot them out 0.303 bore rifles. I have two enfields and one is for hunting and theres a really pore bullet selection here in calgary for 0.303/0.311 dia bullets ? I have heard of people doing it ?
Can it hurt the rifling or be dangerous ?

Also i have only been reloading for two years and and reloaded for 30-30, 0.223, 0.303 br, and 30-06.
Click to expand...

There is a good chance the .308" would expand enough on firing to make a good seal in the barrel and shoot normal. It may take a full load of powder to do it.
However, I could never figure out a way to get the smaller bullet into a cartridge. Meaning with standard 303 British dies, you can't get the case to tightly hold the bullet.
I think you would need some type of die that would squeeze the 303 case down to sub .308 diameter.
 
Hmmm..... could i use my 30-06 crimp die ? or even my 30-30 crimp die there basically the same are they not ?
There Lee crimp dies and i have also dies for 7.62x54R as well ?
 
H4831 said:
There is a good chance the .308" would expand enough on firing to make a good seal in the barrel and shoot normal. It may take a full load of powder to do it.
However, I could never figure out a way to get the smaller bullet into a cartridge. Meaning with standard 303 British dies, you can't get the case to tightly hold the bullet.
I think you would need some type of die that would squeeze the 303 case down to sub .308 diameter.
Click to expand...

Borrow the expander plug from your 308 dies and use it with the 303 dies.
 
OK, a lot of people just blast their surplus ammo down range and pray it heads for POA.

A long time ago, for many here anyway, I picked up a pallet of US manufactured 303 British ammo that was made up in 1944 dated cases. It was NOT Berdan primed. It WAS loaded with a ball powder that closely resembles BlC (Ball C) in appearance and loading density. The bullets if I recall correctly were 154 grain btfmj. The primers were NOT corrosive.

This stuff was shooting shotgun patterns at every range I shot it at. I finally tried it in a No4 MkII that I knew was a proven shooter with just about anything and it loved this stuff.

I finally broke down after storing this pallet of ammo for a couple of years and pulled several bullets, weighed the powder and checked out the primers. Lo and behold they were all single flash hole cases. That wouldn't be unusual for US made ammo. Likely it was cheaper and easier to just stay with their own system of priming.

I still have some of that brass on hand and still reload it.

I weighed and measured the dimensions of the bullets. All were as close to 154 grain as you could get and all were .308 diameter. The bore on the MkII measured out to .309. That explains why it shot this ammo so well. I sold that rifle to a fellow that was willing to pay a lot more than it was worth several years later and he also purchased a couple of crates of the surplus ammo. I have no idea where the fellow is or what happened to the rifle.

After I sold that rifle, I made up a No4 MkI* Savage with a .308 diameter barrel but without bayo lugs. It also shot that ammo well.

Now, I no longer have any of that ammo left. I traded off most of the brass as well. 60,000 pieces of brass that will reload several times is insane to have on hand.

It took a lot of gunshows to get rid of it but it also paid for a lot of motel rooms.

Back to the main topic.

A few years back I picked up a very nice Pakistan Ordnance Factory No4 MKII built on old British Maltby machinery. I could be wrong about the machinery. The Pakistanis I know are anything but wasteful. They used and issued a lot of Soviet Block designed firearms. The bores on these firearms measured from .309 to .313 diameter.

They made their ammo with corresponding diameters. I have used surplus POF 303 Brit and it all measured out to .310 diameter.

My POF No4 MkII has a .3095 bore that is pristine. It shoots .308 diameter 165 grain boat tails into 2 inches at 100 yards. It also shoots .311/.312/.314 bullets in a similar manner. It shoots pulled bullets from the 7.62x54R a bit tighter but they are bang on .310 diameter.

OP, if you are lucky enough to have a No4 with a tight bore .308 diameter bullets will be just fine. Some of the WWII built rifles had tight bores. Not many mind you but a few slipped through. I have never seen or heard of a No1 style rifle having a tight bore. Maybe some of the Pakistani or Indian rifles were produced that way but I haven't come across one.

Just so you don't get to excited, slug your bore with a lead plug at the muzzle and measure it. If it is in the .311+ range, look for proper dimensioned bullets.

The old CIL factory used to sell 303 bullets as components for reloading that measured from .310-.315. Now, that really dates me.
 
Well the .303B expander in Lee dies measures .3085" for about 2 thou neck tension after some spring back with .310" bullets. I bet if you size without the expander you will end up close to 1 thou neck tension with .308 bullets. Maybe a hair more. The downside is the die won't fix dented necks without expanding then resizing without expander.
 
supernova said:
Well the .303B expander in Lee dies measures .3085" for about 2 thou neck tension after some spring back with .310" bullets. I bet if you size without the expander you will end up close to 1 thou neck tension with .308 bullets. Maybe a hair more. The downside is the die won't fix dented necks without expanding then resizing without expander.
Click to expand...

Nope, won't work. The first thing I tried was taking the expander plug out. .308 bullet drops right in.
 
Hmm i have thought about slugging the bore but i am unsure of how to go about it with out possibly damaging the rifle. I love the feed back though. Its a number 4 as far as i can figure and has been to a nice refurbishing outfit due to its beautiful walnut raised cheek piece stock. Im eager to hunt with this rifle because it is a family heirloom and is priceless to myself. I will try and post some pics.
 
Maruader666 said:
Hmmm..... could i use my 30-06 crimp die ? or even my 30-30 crimp die there basically the same are they not ?
There Lee crimp dies and i have also dies for 7.62x54R as well ?
Click to expand...

That's your best chance. I am not a fan of the so called Lee factory crimp dies, so I didn't have any to try.
Other than that it would take a seating/crimping die for some 308 calibre that could be reworked to accept the 303 British case.
 
After depriming and sizing all your brass, remove the decapper rod/expander and neck size the brass about 3/4 of the way down the neck. Then see if the neck will hold a bullet.

If not, see if you can touch some of the the neck with your 3006 sizer.

If you want to shoot 308 bullets, use a flat base, not a boat tail.

let us know how it goes.
 
I shot a box of 220 gr hornady RN out of a jungle carbine, with dominion brass and no expander plug, I did crimp the bullets with a lee crimping die, but they worked just fine, I would not hesitate to do it again. they had some neck tension before I crimped them. This was a long time ago, and a friend of my father's cast dispersions on my rifle, and said that his 270 was so much more. I challenged him to shooting through the most tree, and I can tell you that those 220 grain hornadys rn bullets loaded backwards will shoot through a lot of tree at about 2000 fps.
 
Today I am older and wiser, and I loaded up some 220 grain hornady rn for the 303. now I shoot a sporter ross, and I will be shooting them over the weekend and will report how they group. I am kind of a heavy bullet fanatic, and if they group ok, I will just use them to shoot moose with. I have lots of other rifles to play with. I did have two cases that would not hold a bullet, but I crimped in the rest. I am using IVI brass. and no expander plug
 
Ya sorry its a fun round to shoot and for what ever reason the 0.303 british is finiky lol . Not to mention in inheritedd all my grandfathers rifles and one is a nicley restored/sporterised Mk II no.4 Lee Enfield.
 
Karl said:
Borrow the expander plug from your 308 dies and use it with the 303 dies.
Click to expand...

This is the simplest solution guys, I borrowed the expander from my .30-06 dies and was off to the races when I would load .308 bullets for my .303! Plus they shot very well in my #4-MK 2!
 
I shoot .308 bullets out of my Enfield... My Ellwood Epps 30-303 Sportorized Enfield. And only because it has been re-barelled for .308!
Would you load .303 bullets into your .308? Maybe apply the answer to that question here. If .308 into .303 casing has been done and shoots fine, I'm very suprised. I know someone who did it by accident and it was tumbling / keyholing all over the target.
 
I loaded the 220 grain hornadys in the ross with 46.5 grains of 50H powder, and got reasonably low pressure loads by the look of the primers, and 2050 fps, It has a 22 inch barrel, and that is lots of velocity for hunting as far as I am concerned. I shot one 1.5" group and a few 3 inch groups, I have a red dot sight, it is a bit of a pain to adjust, but it did hold zero once I got it there. This was a case full of powder, I could go to a bit faster powder, but the 200-300 ft per second are not that big of a deal to me. These were perfect round holes. these bullets have a long bearing surface I expect they upset to fill the rifling. I will not shoot a lot of them, but I would be perfectly confident feeding the family with it.
 
It's not exactly unsafe, but your barrel may be anywhere from .311" to .315"(the accepted range of Lee-Enfield barrel diameters). A .308" bullet will rattle down the barrel, possibly literally, and go anywhere down range. .308" is the wrong bullet diameter.
.303 Brit case won't work in .30-30 or .30-06 seater dies. Case length is too short for the '06 and the case head is too big for a .30-30.
 
Sunray, I am shooting 3 inch groups, with a sight without magnification. just so you know, .003" is not very big, and the bullets are not keyholing at range. Also, this is a test, it is not theory. I tried it, I got good velocity with no fliers outside my group. When you consider what happens to a bullet when it is forced into the rifling, and how quickly that happens, and that at some point the bullet is caught in the grooves and pushed by the powder, there is the chance that a slightly undersized bullet will upset and fill the grooves. With the groove range you quote as being up to .315, I may not have got success with my test at a barrel with that large of a diameter. It worked, it shot as well as I do. I suspect that there is very little Rattling going on. I do have a 303 P14 that I had rechambered to 300 win mag, I have always shot .311 bullets in it, with very good success, but I am tempted to try some 308 bullets some day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom