Hi picked up a 1941 golden state 303 bolt action, my question does anyone know what size the bore runs in these guns?I tried a .308 bullet in the muzzle fits same as my 3006 if the 303 is suppose to be .311 or .312 shouldn't the .308 bullet drop in?
Drive a soft lead slug through the bore and measure. Then you will know for sure.
Shew me thy ways, O LORD: teach me thy paths. "there are few better cartridges on Earth than the 7 x 57mm Mauser" "the .30 Springfield is light, accurate, penetrating, and has surprising stopping power"
It's not clear what rifle you have and such not the best situation for advice. Your description suggests to me you're relating a GSA Model number. For instance I have a a 1917 Enfield GSA sporter converson reflecting the obtuse: "Santa Fe Model 1945". If you're unable/unsure about the actual original nomenclature of the rifle itself PHOTOS please! Good place to start is insuring we're all on the same channel concerning the rifle under consideration. I'm no expert on SMLE rifles - if that's what it is - but the most competent advice, from point of understanding exactly the subject matter!
As the owner of 1941 Golden State. I do not see what the problem is. Your rifle is chambered in .303 British. The .303 metric dimensions are 7.7 * 56. The .308 is 7.62 * 51. Unless the .308 of fatter than the .303 it it should be able to drop into the chamber though I would not even dream of trying to fire it.
Trigger1963; Good morning, I hope that the day's looking to be a fine one in your part of the world and all who matter to you are well.
While I'm not really familiar with Golden State Arms, I am reasonably familiar with the various types of .303 British military rifles.
Before going further, I'll suggest that if you PM Steve Redgwell who's often in the Canada section, he might be able to better assist you as he's forgotten more about these arms than I'll ever know.
That said then, regarding your question of projectiles, the difference between a .308 projectile and a .311 or .312 is about the thickness of a sheet of typing paper correct? Then when we consider that the bullet is riding down in the bottom of the bore, not on the tops of the lands, it'll make more sense.
We'd have to have a projectile smaller than the tops of the lands to have it drop down freely.
Lastly before leaving this, I'll say that as I recall ingwe here actually loaded .308" 180gr Nosler Partitions in a customized .303 British he took to Africa and it worked fine. I want to say that John Barsness has written about shooting .308" bullets in .312" bored .303 British rifles and his thought was that some will "bump up" enough to shoot accurately.
We've loaded 173gr .308" Lake City Match bullets in the .303 British - a sporterized No 4 Mk 1 and as I recall it shot better than some of the modern sporting rifles we had with us that day.
None of this is meant to suggest that any other handloader should follow my suggestion and vary even a wee bit from a tried and tested recipe, merely to report what was done for the sake of conversation and nothing more.
Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there. All the best to you folks this year.
Golden State "sporterized" many military surplus rifles utilizing original barrels and one was the Lee Enfield #4 mk1. You say that your rifle is a 303. A .308 bullet should not drop into the muzzle, even with a groove diameter of .312. Remember, the lands should be .303.
NE, I think you misread the OP. He was concerned about the muzzle, not the chamber.
Trigger1963; Good evening to you sir, I hope the day was a decent one for you and those you care about are well.
While it's never a bad idea to slug the barrel on an unmarked military rifle I suppose, if it was me and I didn't believe that the rifle had been rebarreled and was original, then I'd absolutely load the Hornady 150gr bullets.
We've had good luck with decent accuracy in a couple .303 rifles. It's about the same velocity as a .300 Savage or .308 Carbine. all of which is to say not that bad at all really.
Good luck whichever way you decide and all the best to you this year.
Looks like an ok conversion of a no.4 Lee-Enfield into a sporting rifle. It's the original barrel just shortened. Nominal groove diameter would be 311-312.
There is 1 on ebay right now looks the same but does not have piece that mounts to gun u can prob get it no problem it's under weaver sidemount on ebay
