.303 Brit question

[selmerfan]

I have a colleague in town that has a .303 Brit, I assume a Lee-Enfield, I haven't gotten it in hand yet. He was wondering about less expensive ammunition options than factory for fun shooting and short range (<100 yds) deer hunting. I suggested cast boolits, but all of my .30 cal molds are for .30-06/.308 and sized to .311" I told him I'd have to slug his bore and get a diameter, but could probably acquire some boolits of the proper diameter for his needs. 200 boolits would last this guy quite a few years. I'd like to trade a member here for some boolits for his .303, what are some proven designs in the 180-200 gr. range? I have WW ingots to trade, or .311" boolits or .359" boolits of several varieties. I'll also post this request in the classifieds area, but I wanted to get some suggestions of good .303 Brit designs. Thanks all!

[Kraschenbirn]

Just for short-range plinking, I've had good results with the Lee 312-155-2R cast from straight WWs and loaded over 16.5 gr of 2400. After a bit of polishing, both cavities of my mould drop just under .315 so I just run 'em through a .315 sizer to seat the gas check and apply some good ol' 50/50. This works fine in my Longbranch #4Mk1 for busting popcans out to 75 yards or so.

For more serious work, I use Lee's 185 grainer, cast from 3 parts Lyman #2 to 1 part Lino, sized .315, and loaded over 33.5 gr of H4895. From my gun, off the bench, on a calm day, this will shoot, consistently, into 5"-6" @ 200M.

Bill

[higgins]

If he'd consider less expensive factory loads for hunting, check the Prvi Partizan (PPU) ammo at Aimsurplus.com or Wideners.com. It's about $14 a box for SP loads, and it's good brass for reloading. It's about the best thing going for commercial loads in the military calibers now. I've seen a lot of people shooting it at the range who seem to like it and I know from experience the brass is good.

[462]

If he wants to shoot boolits, the barrel will need slugging, for sure. I've a Fazakerly and a Savage and their grooves measure .316".

[runfiverun]

314299 and an old walt nei loverign have done well in my 3 and 4.
lyman done a similar loverign some time back.
anyways you are gonna have to measure the thing.
one of mine is 312 and the other is 313, my buddy has one thats 308.

[303Guy]

The bore and groove diameters are not really that important - well, they are if the boolit is too small - it's the throat dimensions that matter. Is his a two-groove of five-groove? The throats seem to be different. My two two-grooves have a 1° throat taper from groove (or a little above) down to bore making the throat and leade taper the same. I have a custom mold I made with a .318 seating shank and tapering down to .314 before the ogive (after patching). It's a 185gr with no bore-ride section. The five-groove throat is different with a slightly tapered throat followed by a 3° leade. Thenif they get worn from cordite rounds they take on a different shape again AND develop a taper bore. So, if you measure the bore/groove dimensions at the muzzle you will be too small.

[avan47]

How do you measure the groove diameter of the slug from a 5-groove rifle bore?

[303Guy]

I turned a brass rod with a set of incremental stepped diameters and inserted that into the bore. It doesn't work for the chamber end. There I relieved an area behind a band and skimmed that band down until it fit the bore. I determined the throat shape like that by measuring the depth the rod went in at each diameter. As for groove diameter? Well, it's nice to know because everone asks but all I want is the throat entry diameter or at least the diameter in front of the start of the rifling so that I can keep the boolit larger than groove diameter. Knowing the bore diameter is useful because one doesn't want to much unsuported boolit nose at the throat end.