Speer hot-cor or Hornady for 303Brit?

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I want to start working up some loads for my No4 Enfield for this falls Black bear hunt. The range is likely going to be 50yds or closer, so I'm thinking 174gr Hornady roundnose or 180gr Speer Hot-Cor roundnose would be a good choice vs 150gr spitzer or spire point. Is there any advantage to the Hot-Cor construction over the Hornady? Any other bullets you would recommend? I'd love to try Steve Ridgewell's 200gr bullets, but I don't think he's selling them anymore.
 
It's this simple, shoot the ones that group best in your rifle. Enfields have quite a bit of bore dimension variation, and the Speer Vs. Hornady they too have different diameters, so match up with the most accurate shooting slug in your gun. both bullets will kill a black bear at the ranges you state no problem. BTW the 150's will do it too, I have done it 3 times with ranges from 15yds. to 150yds.
 
Slug the bore to find its exact diameter and use the bullet that's closest. Check the headspace before you do anything though.
Any good 150 grain hunting bullet will do nicely. They'll give you less felt recoil too.
 
I shot the Hornady 150gr SP for years and had no issue on hammering my game. Didn't have as much success with shooting the Speers. Might have been a larger bore (?).

h335 (would choose Benchmark today), CCI BR2, collet neck sized brass, Hornady 150gr SP molied (big help) and I was shooting MOA or better in a couple orig no4's.

Jerry
 
I loaded the 180gr Speer Hot-Core roundnose bullets for one of my moose hunting partners. May be a fluke but I've never seen a Lee Enfield group so well with one shot kills as well.

I wouldn't hesitate to use them.
 
another good one to consider is the Remington CorLokt 180 gr. RNSP

saw them in action on a good sized bear at 30 yards, impressive!
​
 
Hornady 312 diameter 303 bullets

I seem to get better accuracy with 150 grain Hornady Spire Points in .312 diameter. Maybe they fit the barrel dimensions better.
45 grains of IMR 4895 and the 150 Hornady work just fine from moose to deer and even a few blackies.:cool:
 
Flat-based bullets

After trying many bullets, I came to one conclusion: Enfields' rifling takes well to flat-based bullets. Any flatbased bullet of 180gr. either round nosed or spitzer shot remarkably well.
I even found a Federal factory load using Sierra's 180gr. Pro-Hunter bullet that gave me sub-moa consistently in my Enfield No.4MkI sporter!
PP.
 
Thanks for all the replies. As far as recoil, I have been shooting some Greek 174gr milsurp and find it mild compare to my 12ga with goose loads. Headspace is good and bore measures 0.313", measured with calipers, not slugged (its a 2 groove barrel so this is possible). I may be wrong, but I suspect that there is more accuracy to be gained in neck sizing than in a thousandth of an inch or two in bullet diameter,. This is the only reason I'm not considering the Rem Cor-lokt, unless somebody knows where I can get it as a component, not factory ammo. My reasoning on using 174/180gr as opposed to 150gr is based on the roundnose design with more exposed lead. In theory this should open up quicker and deliver more of its energy to the target (bear) at such a short range. Am I out to lunch on this?
 
303

Being that your bore measures .313 then the better the fit to the bore and along with good loading practices should bring good results. Hornady bullets measure.312 and in many rifles this improves accuracy. With cast bullets the tighter the bullet to the bore the better the accuracy.:cool: Most of the time when I load cast bullets the best results are when the bullets are 2 thou bigger.:D
 
Makes sense to me.:) I tried the 180 Sierra spitzer,the 180 Remington cor-lok RN,the 180 Speer RN and Winchester factory 180 PPs.The rifle was P-14 with orginal sights .The Remington grouped well at 2200 but when I tried to push them to 2500 they opened up.Both the Sierra and the Speer grouped about the same at 2500,as well as I can see and hold.I am going with the Speer.The Sierra claims a impact window of 2400-2800.RN noses have wider impact velocities.Even with a caseful of 4064,I am only getting 2500.I think it maybe a bit loose down that bore;)

The factory ammo did only 2200+,but grouped well.

Hey,it's a Winchester late contract P-14,so I can use pre-war M-70 pressures.
 
At the range you mention in your opening post it hardly matters what you load, smokey's takin' a dirt nap. As you mention recoil isn't much so big bullet is better. Russell's sells bulk Remington bullets, I don't know if they are the Cor-lokt, would be nice as they make excellent Enfield factory loads.
 
Well - I've generally found the Hornady Interlocks to be more accurate than Speers in 303, and other calibres. The extra thou Hornady has cant hurt...
Round noses offer tremendous thumping power, in a low velocity, low tech way (which is somewhat unfashionable these days!) - I've seen large game knocked right off its feet using the venerable 303 with RN's! Pundits will argue that there is little chance of an exit wound, and a blood trail, making tracking difficult. I doubt this is a major consideration for bear hunting.
The Remington product is also very good. If you have a buddy that shoots 303, you can buy several bullet types. Each rifle will tune differently to a specific bullet/weight. Then you can divvy up at the end of the exercise...
 
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Because the Remingtons RNs are a low volume production, they should be made like the cor-lok use to be,heavy in the jacket.If you ever looked at the 180gr 308 bullet test chart,those 180RN worked great. But they only mike .3105",too loose for my rifle at the higher velocity.
 
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