Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rebarreling an old war horse - lots of pix, improving the cartridge

Steve,
I'm curious what you use for dies.
Custom or 303brit with neck bushings?

I use two dies. A Redding body die and a 303 British Redding neck sizing die bith with a replacement .308 decapping rod assy. Out with the .311 assy. In with the .308 assy.



You want to reduce the neck a few thou, but leave everything else the same.

My 303 British dies (Hornady, Echo, and Lyman) will size enough to hold thirty cal bullets (substitute a 308 expander)but the Epps die (RCBS)will not. This is why I ended up making a bushing die for it. By the way, in the 30-03 Epps, in the Ruger No. 1, 150's do 3000fps easily. !65's are doing 2850 and 180's, 2750.
I used some levrevolution powder with the 150 grain and it seemed to work well enough but the same powder gave me some erratic behavior in the 35 Whelen to the extent that I am a bit leery of it but that's another story. GD

That's a very cool rifle

Thanks. Still waiting for the rifle to return home.

Steve : Do you have any surplus .303 Epps dies available?

Thinking about a #1, or a '95
- Just idle dreamin really ;-)

Sad what politicians can do. Canada with all its prime hunting and its politics.

Steve

Have you considered heat treated cast bullets or paper patched bullets?

I have an RCBS 3 die set. It has a FL and Neck sizing die, and seating die.



I shoot cast bullets in a couple of my 303s, but not heat treated ones.

I never got around to paper patching for the 303. Not enough time for many years. They kept sending places when I was in the service.

greydog actually put a .30-303 together for me a few years ago, built on a Lithgow #1 Mark III action and a .30-06 take-off barrel. It has been a challenge to get it shooting well because of the complex bedding dynamics of the SMLE action. I finally got some decent results, though it is nowhere as accurate or consistent as a similar rifle built around a P14 Enfield action would be.

I had originally thought that 155 and 165-grain boattail bullets would be amazing, but I could never get any of them to shoot worth a darn out of this .30-303. greydog suggested to me that one of the problems might be the throat of the chamber in combination with the shorter bearing surface of the BT bullets. Remember, the chamber is cut with a .303 British reamer and this keeps the throat diameter appropriate for bullets of .311 or .312. If you try running a .308 bullet in that chamber, it will have absolute freebore until the rifling begins enough to stop the skinnier bullet from wobbling. This freebore effect, coupled with the shorter bearing surface of the BT bullets, is a challenge to accuracy which is only worsened by the action flex you get from an SMLE.

In the end, I found that plain old 180-grain Horandy SP flat base and Nosler Partition bullets worked pretty well and generated a few genuine 1-inch groups at 100 metres with velocities averaging 2,475.

As to resizing the brass, I use a Lee Collet sizer die for this job and I substitute my .308 collet (from my .308 collet die) for the one that came with the .303 die. It works great.

This is exactly why I removed the throat on my chambering reamer and started cutting the throat as a separate operation. I use a .3085 throater for 30 calibre barrels andd a .3125 for 311-312 barrels.
Your throat is .3115 which is, as you mentioned, problematic with the boat tails. Early 300 Weatherby rifles featured a long freebore which was also well oversized (about .311). These rifles usually showed a real dislike for Sierra boat tail bullets. Flat base bullets usually worked well. GD.

Okay, here are a couple of pix of the rifle taken by the gunsmith. I will post detailed pix when I receive it - specifically, the butt plate, action and mount, bolt and muzzle.

The metal parts have been cerakoted, as I posted previously. It looks pretty much as one would expect an OEM No 4 rifle to look except for the foresight. Gone!

I have an angle iron scope mount and Warne Maxima rings sitting on my work bench.Over the holidaze, I will put a scope on and get it zeroed.

Steve, I have to tell you that I think that is a really neat setup you have there! I love the looks of the 303 Epps cartridge, but can definitely see the usefulness of the 30-303.

Congratulations on your creation, and may you slay many head of game with it.

Thanks.

As long as it feeds properly and keeps groups under 2 inches at 100 yd, I'll be happy. The bullet does most of the work. I just tell it when to go.

I love projects like this!

What scope did you settle on?

Ed

I have an older 4 power Leupold, that one of the members here offered earlier this year. I also have a 2-7 Nikon. I prefer a fixed power scope, but may go with the Nikon for testing.

I can use the 303 British data for 150, 180 and 200 gr. bullets, but for the 140, 165 gr. and some others, I will work up new loads. For this, I am curious to try Nikon's Spot On software program.

I've ordered one to have a look. The price, delivered to Canada from the UK, is $85 Canuckian dollars. About $60 US dollars.

10 rd mags cost the same.

Steve,a most enjoyable thread.Huntz

Thanks. I'm anxious to get the rifle back.

I received the rifle this afternoon and took a few pix. The Cerakoting is great. It makes the metal look almost new.

The wood needs refinishing, but that is the least of my worries. The metal is all cleaned up.

Not having a front site will take some getting used to, but I will know at a glance that it is my 30-303 and not one of my regular 303s.



You can see the cleaned up action and flush fitting, 5 rd magazine. This is the one I ordered from the UK. It snapped into place with no difficulty, but I don't know how it feeds yet. Range day after the holidaze.



A close up of the flush fitting angle mount. I snapped this to show hw smooth the Cerakoting came out.





The bolt and the 5 rd mag I made. Cerakoted.





The business end, sans sight.

Very nice, Steve!