Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Deep Curl 303

I’m down to less than 1/2 a box of Speer Deep Curl 165gr. Funny as it sounds, I’ve been using these in a 303 Brit for the last 7 or 8 years. They just happen to be the most accurate bullets I’ve tried in the Brit. Come to think of it they were very accurate in an 06.

Anyway, does anyone know of an alternative 308 bullet that is just a bit tougher than a cup and core and will shoot well in the Brit. I’ve tried almost all the 311 diameter bullets out there and nothing has shot as well as the Deep Curl.

I need to start looking for an alternative as they are no longer made.

I got the only box of 180s that appears to have ever made it to market. I always wondered who got the box of 165s.

Edit: This old fool was thinking Deep Shoks rather than Deep Curls, which would make the comment accurate.

akaSawDoctor;
Good evening to you sir, I hope that this finds you well despite current circumstances.

If memory serves, John Barsness has had good results shooting .308" Partitions in at least a couple .303 British rifles. His theory if I'm recalling correctly is that the soft rear portion of a Partition might "bump up" enough to give decent accuracy.

That said, one of the many .303 rifles I played with over the years gave absolutely stupid good accuracy using .308" 173gr Lake City Match BT bullets which I had a pile of at the time, so I'd also suggest it can't hurt anything to try some .308" bullets just to see what happens.

Hopefully that was useful to you or some other .303 shooter out there. Good luck with your project and stay well.

Dwayne

Thanks Dwayne.

That sounds like good logic. Now that I think about it, the concave portion of the deep curl may bump up a bit as well.

I think the 165 SGK hollow point is known for being a tougher bullet than the standard Gameking. What are you hunting with the Brit? The 165 Gameking is a good deer/pig bullet, especially at 30/06 velocities and lower.

What I have noticed over the years about "undersize" bullets in .303s is that the diameter and width of the grooves seems to affect accuracy more than bore diameter. Have owned .303s with bore diameters of .301 to .304, and some would shoot. .308" bullets and some would not. But all that had relatively "tight" groove diameters would shoot .308s well, sometimes very well. My latest is a Ross 1910, which has a bore almost .304 in diameter, but grooves only a little over .310". I tried it with three .311-diameter bullets and it shot OK, but shot noticeably better with 220-grain Nosler Partitions!

On the other hand a 7.7 Arisaka, which supposedly shoots the same bullets as .303s, has a .301 bore and very wide grooves .314-.315 in diameter. All of the .308 bullets grouped poorly, at 75-100 fps lower velocity than the same weight of .311-.312 bullets using the same powder charges.

On another hand (if somebody has a third one to spare), Savage .22 High Powers usually shoot .224" diameter bullets pretty well, even though the grooves are a nominal .227". Some of the finest accuracy I've gotten with the two .22 High Powers I've handloaded for came with 60-grain Nosler Partitions, which again may be due to the rear core "bumping up."

John - I'm always ready to "lend a hand" for such good information.

Thanks for all the input fellas. I’m gonna try the 165gr partition. I will be moose hunting with it this fall.