Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Shot the .303 today...

You guys are doing some nice handloading and shooting with these .303's. Interesting stuff here.
Amphibious: Uhhh, the girlfriend. The rifle isn't going anywhere!
Tom

I'm a little too young to remember the barrels of Mk 5s at the Army and Navy discount department store in New Westminster,but I remember the nicely sporterized ones on the column. In '67,a deluxe sporterized 303,a box of Dominion shells and a hunting licence would give you change from a fifty.

My load for my P-14 is 44.5 grs of IMR 4064 and either a 180 or 150 Speer.

Hey, I want one of those 303 #1s! Can we yanks get-'um?

Here's a search on GunsAmerica for Ruger No 1's in .303 British:
http://www.gunsamerica.com/Search/C...e=&distance=0&limittostate=&

-Bob F.

I remember the old lee-enfield I had as a teenager.I remember buying a box of Imperial ammo loaded with 215 gr round nose. If i were to get another 303 this is the weight bullet I would want. I know they are made,but wish someone like Hornady would make them.But I guess a 174 gr would do to.

That was the 215 KKSP (klingkor soft point). I have a hundred I've been hoarding. A few years ago, I got a sample of some real nice 225 grain bullets but I lost the contact info. GD

That sounds familiar,KKSP, going back 25ish years,yikes.

Unfortunately my Ruger is only on its way now!:>(
However, the brass life from these Rugers will be much higher than an old N0.1 or No.4 Enfield, simply because of the action.
I fully expect to get the same case life from this rifle as I would from any of my rimmed cased guns, and with the tighter chamber, even more so than some of them.
Mule Deer has seen this rifle apparently, and Bill told me that he gave it his approval!:>)
First thing I will have to do of course, is work up loads, the load that Bill used when he tested the rifle is pretty warm, but there were no pressure signs, and everything is fine.
Sadly, however, Ol' Bill's eyes could not focus on the front sight properly with only a 24" sight plane and he did not file the rear express sights ( my job!) , so 100 yard groups were not spectacular, but still "minute of deer"!
Cat

When it comes to brass life, there are a lot of qualifiers. I will say, if the headspace is minimum, if the cases are partial sized or neck sized, I see no reason not to expect the same kind of brass life as from any other cartridge. In other words, I would expect a dozen loadings or better before seeing the occasional failure due to neck splits. Anneal the neck/shoulder area after ten loadings and I see no reason not to expect twenty. Case stretching should be minimal and trimming infrequent. I would expect this to be the case with loads at 308 Winchester pressure levels.
Now, if the rifle is chambered with a couple thou headspace, if the brass is on the minimum side in rim thickness, it would not be outside the realm of possibility to have .006" head clearance on new brass. In this situation, if brass was full length resized and the shoulder set back, separations would occur in about 4 or 5 firings.
What I'm trying to say is, in a rifle like the Number One or a P14, brass life is what you make it by your reloading technique. There is nothing about the cartridge which would limit case life in any way. GD

I'm a little jealous

Thanks for the link, Bob. Dang, they are proud of them, aren't they? $1130!

BR,

I picked up my .303 today... Hold your mouth right and I just might let you fondle it... or maybe even shoot it.

Awe jeez, that would be sweet. Shoot me a PM. I'll bring tea and crumpets (Heineken and chips).

Anybody know the barrel lenght?

rifle,

Bbl length is 22".

How's the Foot?

Getting better, Hope to be able to get into a shoe next week... Once I can get a shoe on, then it's back on the Harley. I'm not walking too good, tho'...

take care man...we'll get together soon..!

Good Morning all, Just a short note, I put together a Springfield made No4 SMLE many years ago but used a 308 barrel chambered for the 303 case, It gives me many options in choosing the best projectile, The best has been the 150g Sierra SPBT. It is still my favourite pig rifle some 30 years later

Regards all
Bravo

Mule Deer...what's the latest "do all load" you've worked up? I hope to be getting mine soon...rifle