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Posted: 8/31/2022 6:00:55 PM EDT
[#1]
The cartridge is difficult simply because the rifles themselves are genuinely of poor quality, and the barrels and chambers are different from one to another. I recommend slugging your bore to see what the true size is, as well as finding the lands with an OAL gauge, then backing up until you hit magazine length. The chambers on those I've tried reloading for have been far longer than the magazine length, so I typically loaded to get the base of the bullet close to the bottom of the case neck.
I would just load those bullets to the cannelure and call it good. It's not worth the time nor component expenditure to chase seating depths on rifles that at their very best do 2" groups at 100 yards over five shots. Grab a Lee Collet neck sizing die and be sure to anneal your brass. With rather normal loads I've achieved nearly a dozen loads so far on my PPU brass. |
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Posted: 8/31/2022 9:14:54 PM EDT
[#2]
Prvi makes 174 grain and 180 grain bullets for 303 British, but their 150 grain, 170 grain and 182 grain bullets are mainly for 7.62x54R.
That is likely the reason for the placement of the cannelure. It should still work alright. |
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Posted: 8/31/2022 10:01:35 PM EDT
[#3]
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Posted: 9/4/2022 6:09:19 AM EDT
[#4]
Got them both on the bench yesterday. One holds about 2 inches at 50 yards. The other holds about 5 inches
Fun guns to shoot. |
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Posted: 9/4/2022 10:10:38 AM EDT
[#5]
I have a couple tidbits to offer.
First, if either of them keyhole, try a flat based bullet. Some Enfields just don’t get along with BTs. Since you have 2 rifles, segregate your brass as you shoot it from each one. Then neck-size going forward. The rather “generous” chamber sizes in .303s don’t do you any favors for brass life. Neck sizing mitigates that somewhat. There are some other tricks, but I haven’t tried them. I’ll recommend BLC-2 powder for .303. You have to look a little for data because for some reason they don’t publish a lot. But starting loads hit factory velocity with 174gr. Apparently it was the powder they used when they replaced cordite in .303 service ammo. So it’s not some oddball idea either. |
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Posted: 9/6/2022 10:01:00 AM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have a couple tidbits to offer. First, if either of them keyhole, try a flat based bullet. Some Enfields just don’t get along with BTs. Since you have 2 rifles, segregate your brass as you shoot it from each one. Then neck-size going forward. The rather “generous” chamber sizes in .303s don’t do you any favors for brass life. Neck sizing mitigates that somewhat. There are some other tricks, but I haven’t tried them. I’ll recommend BLC-2 powder for .303. You have to look a little for data because for some reason they don’t publish a lot. But starting loads hit factory velocity with 174gr. Apparently it was the powder they used when they replaced cordite in .303 service ammo. So it’s not some oddball idea either. Good points! +1 The Enfield don’t seem to gain any thing from boat tails and do better with a basic square heeled bullet. My personal load uses Winchester brass, Sierra Pro Hunter 150s and IMR 4064. Works good in both my Long Branch and Fazakerly. |
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Posted: 9/9/2022 6:42:52 AM EDT
[#7]
Thanks for the tips. I'll need to gather some powder and bullets for future loads.
Probably the 50 I loaded will last a while. I hadn't fired them in over 30+ years.?? |
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Posted: 9/11/2022 5:53:12 PM EDT
[#8]
Stay away from ball powders. Unless you use a mag primer and seat the bullet to what the book shows and crimp. Ball powders can and will have a flashover where the graphite will get burned off the powder and not ignite the powder itself. You will end up with clumps of green yellow looking powder. You will also get hangfires when this happens.
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Posted: 9/12/2022 1:20:06 AM EDT
[#9]
Hornady makes a .312” 150gr sp and Grafs sells a special Hornady 150gr SST bullet at .312”
Wish someone would make .313-.314” jacketed pills. Sent an email to Nosler as there is no market for oversized jacketed bullets and many old surplus rifle bores are getting bigger. You can and I’d recommend cast bullets. Slug your bore first and find a mold that will fit. Bonus if 1 mold will fit both. |
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Posted: 9/12/2022 7:14:19 AM EDT
[#10]
Noe.314” 200 gr , powder coated over h4895. 2” 10 shot groups in my grandfathers pre ww1 mkiii. It was ftr in 57. So “new” barrel. My grandfather bought it in 69. He Shot about 100 rounds of factory 180 sps out of it. He kept his brass in the drawer below the gun cabinet.. he was a history buff not much of a shooter or hunter. I decided to play with it so new ppu brass and mould. I tried paper patching a lee 30 cal 170 fp. Worked but way too much time consuming.
Got on brit rifles forum and got good info. Used a soft lead slug and pound cast the throat and rifling ordered NOE appropriate sized mould from that. Fun stuff lots of history with it. |
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Posted: 9/15/2022 10:20:50 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Got them both on the bench yesterday. One holds about 2 inches at 50 yards. The other holds about 5 inches Fun guns to shoot. FYI one of my reloading manuals recommended only using the brass twice in total. |
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Posted: 9/16/2022 1:59:31 AM EDT
[#12]
Just because a bullet has a cannalure doesn't mean the bullet has to be seated to cannalure depth. If you want to seat the bullet out farther, so be it just as long as the bullet will seat deep enough to reach where the neck/shoulder meet.
Jon |
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Posted: 9/21/2022 6:44:36 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Stay away from ball powders. Unless you use a mag primer and seat the bullet to what the book shows and crimp. Ball powders can and will have a flashover where the graphite will get burned off the powder and not ignite the powder itself. You will end up with clumps of green yellow looking powder. You will also get hangfires when this happens. This explains something....I had 1 round I loaded squib and not fire. Bullet entered barrel but was easy to push out. The brass had a 1 inch long clump of this Yellow/green looking stuff inside it as well as unburnt powder. Never even heard of this before. Never too old to learn |
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Posted: 9/23/2022 11:33:58 AM EDT
[#14]
My experience with 303 reloading has been pretty much the same as mentioned above.
If you FL size, expect to get only 3-4 reuses of brass. I started seeing early signs of case head separation around my second reload. Also, have realistic expectations of accuracy. If you can get 3-4 MOA then I'd say that's good. Call it a 100 yard "hunting load" and be done with it. I wasted time and money trying to get it better and just couldn't do it in my Jungle carbine. |
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Posted: 9/25/2022 4:03:57 AM EDT
[#15]
Try to find any European or British brass to reload. All of the USA made brass is made too small in the web area. Look at that nice shiny ring at the web after firing and you will know what I am talking about. And get a neck sizer. Let the brass be blown out. All bottle neck cart. can be head spaced off the shoulder. They shoot way better too. When they will not chamber or are tight then you want to just push the shoulder back 0.002". If you do a FL sizing then I have seen some 303 brass get the shoulder pushed back 0.04" And that is why these 303 eat brass if you FL size don't do it. Size to your chamber.
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Posted: 9/26/2022 2:31:25 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Try to find any European or British brass to reload. All of the USA made brass is made too small in the web area. Look at that nice shiny ring at the web after firing and you will know what I am talking about. And get a neck sizer. Let the brass be blown out. All bottle neck cart. can be head spaced off the shoulder. They shoot way better too. When they will not chamber or are tight then you want to just push the shoulder back 0.002". If you do a FL sizing then I have seen some 303 brass get the shoulder pushed back 0.04" And that is why these 303 eat brass if you FL size don't do it. Size to your chamber. The Czech S&B 303 British cases are weak. Prvi / PPU is likely the best choice these days. |
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Posted: 9/26/2022 4:17:40 PM EDT
[#17]
One of the peculiar things about reloading for the 303 I learned quite a number of years ago was due to the size of the chamber, the rimmed cartridge and the excessive headspace, upon first firing, they stretch excessively in the head area because somehow they stretch rearward more than most cartridges. One trick to mitigate this is to run an o ring around the cartridge against the rim on first firing. This forces the cartridge against the bolt face and causes it to stretch the shoulder forward, lessening the head stretching. From then on neck size only so that it head spaces off the shoulder, and anneal when necessary and you will get typical brass life as with any other bottle neck cartridge.
It's a bit of a chore as the oring causes it to be a little difficult to chamber and it doesn't allow loading from clips with the oring, but after this foreforming step, you don't have to do it again. |
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Posted: 9/30/2022 3:55:30 AM EDT
[#18]
Similar but I put a light spritz of Hornady one shot case lube on my ammo before firing.
Brass fully seats against the bolt and blows forward. No stretching at the web. Have 5+ reloads doing it this way. Will get more as there is zero sight of web stretching. |
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