Who has slugged their .303?

migrant hunter

migrant hunter

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I slugged my no 4 yesterday, it's like a badger hole.
.308 on the lands and .318 in the grooves(2 groove)
For those who have slugged their bores, what did you find?
I'm asking because it would be cheaper to pick up another sporter and swap my full lenght wood than try to have it rebarreled. What size of bore could I hope to find in a sporter? I have a lyman .314299 and a lee .312/185 mold, hopelessly undersized for my gun.
 
.318" means it's shot out. Needs to be between .311" and .315" to be considered ok. Closest to .311" as possible though. Factory ammo and bullets come in .311" or .312".
How's the headspace? If that's bad too, you have a money based decision to make.
Changing the barrel(assuming you can find a decent one) will require either a smithy who has the tools(barrel vice with bushing, a proper action wrench and a full set of headspace guages) or buying 'em and doing it yourself. Buying 'em will be expensive for a one time job. Requires a solid work bench too.
 
I slugged a 1918 BSA SMLE the other day and it was .309" Tighter than I would have expected, but good info nonetheless as I shoot mostly cast.
 
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Pardon my ignorance here...

I've been wanting to do this on my Enfields and P-14 for a while, but have no idea where to buy slugs or even how the process works. Not wanting to hijack thread, but where do you guys buy your slugs?
 
sunray said:
.318" means it's shot out. Needs to be between .311" and .315" to be considered ok. Closest to .311" as possible though. Factory ammo and bullets come in .311" or .312".
How's the headspace? If that's bad too, you have a money based decision to make.
Changing the barrel(assuming you can find a decent one) will require either a smithy who has the tools(barrel vice with bushing, a proper action wrench and a full set of headspace guages) or buying 'em and doing it yourself. Buying 'em will be expensive for a one time job. Requires a solid work bench too.
Click to expand...

What are you on about? He has a two groove barrel. I have shot many, many Enfields and it will shoot just fine with a .311-.314 bullet. I have seen them ever deeper than that and the rifle still shoots fine. The proof is in the holes in the target. If the rifle doesn't shoot well, I would suspect bedding or maybe the crown.
 
migrant hunter said:
I slugged my no 4 yesterday, it's like a badger hole.
.308 on the lands and .318 in the grooves(2 groove)
For those who have slugged their bores, what did you find?
I'm asking because it would be cheaper to pick up another sporter and swap my full lenght wood than try to have it rebarreled. What size of bore could I hope to find in a sporter? I have a lyman .314299 and a lee .312/185 mold, hopelessly undersized for my gun.
Click to expand...

How does this rifle actually shoot? If you remove the upper handguards from the stock how tight is the barrelled action to the lower stock? Are there any gaps between the rear of the stock and the butt socket of the action?
 
ok, seeing how we've gone off on a tangent...
The rifle is bedded under the action and trigger guard. It is shimmed under the end of the barrel for forend pressure. It is shimmed in the socket for forend/metal contact. It groups about 4" with .312 jacketed bullets, but .3105 bullets tumble out of the barrel and keyhole. I replaced the bolt head to take up the excess headspace.
All the cast I have tried, inc .314299(.303 nose,.313 bands) tumble right away. It stabilises jacketed, so it is the bullets, not the gun.
 
migrant hunter said:
ok, seeing how we've gone off on a tangent...
The rifle is bedded under the action and trigger guard. It is shimmed under the end of the barrel for forend pressure. It is shimmed in the socket for forend/metal contact. It groups about 4" with .312 jacketed bullets, but .3105 bullets tumble out of the barrel and keyhole. I replaced the bolt head to take up the excess headspace.
All the cast I have tried, inc .314299(.303 nose,.313 bands) tumble right away. It stabilises jacketed, so it is the bullets, not the gun.
Click to expand...

Is this a flat base bullet or a boattail? Have you tried the 180 grain Sierra flat base bullets? I take it you are shooting irons?
 
Have you tried shooting it yet? it may be good, a mint tight barrel is no garantee of a tack driver, you chances are greater but you may go backwards.
 
Siggy Stardust said:
Pardon my ignorance here...
I've been wanting to do this on my Enfields and P-14 for a while, but have no idea where to buy slugs or even how the process works. Not wanting to hijack thread, but where do you guys buy your slugs?
Click to expand...

Order "Cerrosafe Chamber Casting Alloy" from Canada Ammo. Lots of usage info via YouTube. Other approaches will be via pounding a slightly oversized chunk of lead through it. In either case, you will need an outside micrometer to measure the results.
 
sunray said:
.318" means it's shot out. Needs to be between .311" and .315" to be considered ok. Closest to .311" as possible though.
Click to expand...

What does it matter how deep the grooves are? Obviously you don't want them protruding through to the outside of the barrel (ha!). Just curious about your comment, not being critical.
 
Slugged my #4 mk1 Maltby. 2 groove's at .314 and the bore at .304. Yes, I slugged it 3 times as I didn't believe the reading's either. Bore is mirror shinny and the groove's are very crisp. A little leary of firing it with .311 factory loads, so am doing up a mild load with Speer 110 gr FMJ RN as a test run.

Ken
 
You said barrel is .308 on the lands and .318 in the grooves. So if you shoot a .312 diameter bullet, it will be swaged during firing down to .308. Of the excess .004 of copper and lead, some of it will be forced into the grooves filling up the gap in the grooves. This works best with a flat based bullet.

The lead alone is probably to soft to work correctly, but you also said that you got a 4" group using jacketed bullets. So why not just use jacketed bullets?

FWIW I have slugged all my guns. I have barrels ranging from 0.311 to .0317 in the grooves. Most are 5 groove, one is two groove (.315), and my '43 No1mk3 is a four groove.
 
I want to use cast as jacketed are expensive and hard to get. I am using cast in almost everything else I have. The problem with all the molds available is the .303 bore riding nose. Even if your mold actually throws .303, the lands are usually way bigger. The bands are undersized as well for most .303 barrels. With my lands at .308 a .303 nose rider is hopeless, and the .314 driving bands are just starting to engage. My Mosin is doing 6" at 200 yds with iron sights using the same cast bullet, and with load development and some work on the sights it will do better. I can load cast for my .308,7.62x39,.30-30,32ws,38-55,9.3x62,7.62x54, all for 10-20 cents a shot(or less).
I can't get jacketed for .303 for less than $40x100 for bullets alone.
 
Nearly all my early No.4 Mk1's have grooves on the larger sizes but still shoot well, but most of my No.4 Mk2's have noticeably tighter bores and grooves and shoot on average much better than the Mk1's. You can really feel the difference when running a patch the same size down the Mk.1's compared to the much tighter Mk.2's. Most of my Mk.2's are so tight I use .308 flat base bullets in them instead of .311 ones and get very good groups.
 
I don't even know what mark this is, it has most of the markings ground off. I just wanted a full length wood no4 shooter.
I have a .312-160gr lee mold that works great in my sks and my wife's .30-30 that has a body of about .310.
I might try sizing it at .309 and patching it out. Long term, I'm going to look for a no 4 with a better bore to desporterize.
 
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