303 Brit Load for Lee 90gr SWC

[Andy_P]

Looking for a mild load for the tiny Lee 90311 32 cal pistol bullet to use in my 303 Brit. Cheap, fun, low, low recoil, 1200 fps or less from wheelweights.

Seems like 6.0gr of Unique or 8.0gr of Blue Dot might be a good place to start.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Looking for a mild load for the tiny Lee 90311 32 cal pistol bullet to use in my 303 Brit. Cheap, fun, low, low recoil, 1200 fps or less from wheelweights.

Seems like 6.0gr of Unique or 8.0gr of Blue Dot might be a good place to start.

I'd probably start with any rifle or pistol loads listed in your loading manual for the original cartridge and incrememnally increase it. I use 2400 in this sort of aplication as it does not seem to be too position sensitive.

Wait a day here though, someone has been bound to have tried it.

I have a 120Gn mould for my 32/20 ciming, I was thinking about trying this, but then realsied that my 32/20 has a 24" bbl and the 303 load won't do anything the 32/20 wouldn't do.

[Larry Gibson]

Looking for a mild load for the tiny Lee 90311 32 cal pistol bullet to use in my 303 Brit. Cheap, fun, low, low recoil, 1200 fps or less from wheelweights.

Seems like 6.0gr of Unique or 8.0gr of Blue Dot might be a good place to start.

I shoot an even milder load; 3 gr Bullseye. It will run 800-900 fps and give very good accuracy, fun and the pursuit of happiness.

Larry Gibson

[Buckshot]

...............Yup, with a slug that tiny you want some FAST and easy to ignite powder under it. I suspect even a LR primer by itself would move it up the barrel a couple inches. Bullseye, W231, Red Dot. Powders like that. Start with Larry's 3.0grs and work up. They're high energy powders and that booit is bitty so maybe 1/2gr increments?

...............Buckshot

[JeffinNZ]

I shoot Lyman's 311008 in my .303 Brit over 11gr of H4227 with a dacron style wad using LR primers for rimfire velocities. Shoots around an inch at 50. Good bunny load. Came across a bunch of 7 bunnies one day all at close range and got most of them with that 10 round mag. :drinks:

[Andy_P]

Well I just got back from the range. Tried the Lee 90 gr SWC cast bullet intended for the 32/20 in my 303 Brit. Sized to 314 and lubed with Alox, over 3.5 gr of IMR Trail Boss. Could only seat to 2.625", so the bullet had a sizeable jump to the rifling. Got a consistent (and not surprising) 750 fps. Was like shooting a 22 LR. Quiet, no recoil to speak of (could watch the target and not lose my site picture between shots). Pressure was so low, I won't even have to neck size next time out, just seat the bullet.

As for accuracy - I can't yet comment. It shoots about 3' high at 100 yds and as I use the gun for deer hunting I wasn't interested in buggering with the scope. I will try again with loads up to about 5.0 grs and report back.

[felix]

Andy, you can sight the gun in with only one shot, assuming a clear aiming point and a clear point of impact on the same plane (paper, white tree trunk, etc). Hold the gun steady on the aiming point (rock solid if possible) and turn the knobs so the crosshairs hit the point of impact. Job done. ... felix

[cropcirclewalker]

OK, I'll jump in.

A few months back I tried that boolit with Bluedot.

I use the Lee Auto Disk with the Micrometer knob, so my data lists the powder as in CCs not as in grains, but..........I weighed a few.

.7 micrometer disk (sort of weighs 8.3 grains Bluedot = 1286 fps
.6 md (sort of like 7.2 gr) = 1205 fps
.5 md (didn't weigh) = 1136 fps (probably transitional from sonic to subsonic)
.45 md (didn't weigh) = 1015 (subsonic)

I was looking for subsonic, so I loaded up a bunch at .45 md.

I didn't get exceptional accuracy and the boolit had to jump to the lands and my Enfields slug at .3145. My notes say to try Beagling the mould and sizing to .315.

I don't use fillers with my BlueDot loads, but I do hold the barrel up and thump the rifle a couple of times just to put the powder down near the primer.

I was looking for a cheap plinker and "Squirrel off the Bird Feeder load", hereinafter referred to as a SOTBFL and it further seems like I was getting unburned powder.

Too light a boolit for such a slow powder. In addition to Beagling the mould I think I will try something like Red Dot or Bullseye.

Hope this helps.

[MaxJon]

Yeah im thinking of this mould for my No.1 .303 practice rifle. Titan..... Im placing another order soon!!! LOL

[Lonegun1894]

I use this bullet in a No4Mk1 Longbranch for pest control over 2.7grs Unique. Nice and quiet, and effective.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I am not doing it in a 303 but I size them down and run them in a 30-30 and 30-06 , 2.5 gr tight wad is working well with the Lee 314-90swc

they make nice round holes in the paper at 25 yards

[Stoats]

Back in 2009 (which is almost as long ago as this thread started :D ) I worked up some loads in .303" with this boolit. Settled on 3.2gn Vectan Ba10 (which is bulkier and faster than Bullseye, despite what the Vectan burn rate chart says - if you don't believe me, compare their start and max loads with Bullseye data).

[303Guy]

I have tried 32 pistol boolits in 303 Brit but I was shooting them too fast for real accuracy. I did find an accurate light load but that was using a paper patched 141gr boolit that actually filled the throat and was close to the rifling. The paper patch stayed on the boolit and was needed for the rough bore. Not really worth the trouble.

[Eddie2002]

Been shooting a Lee 100 grain .312 bullet out of a 7.7 Arisaka using 5.5 grains of Bullseye, it's my fun plinker load at the 50 yd range. Worked down to 1.8 grains just to see what would happen, didn't stick any bullets but couldn't hit anything past 15 yds with that light a load, think slingshot trajectory. Neck tension is real important for consistant groups, took a while to figure it out when using mixed resized brass. Greendot works well but didn't give as good a group. Tried 8-9 grains of Bullseye and had all flyers, was pushing the bullet too fast. The bore on my 7.7 Arisaka is pretty worn so I don't expect real good groups but it is a lot of fun for cheap.
Been using the same load in a 30-06 with better results, the tighter bore tightens up the group while my Mosin 90/31 shoots worse the the Arisaka.

[Boolseye]

Lee TL90-314SWC with 3.2 grains of BE, courtesy of Larry.
1000 fps +/-. accurate as anything. In Mosin Nagant.

[zuke]

I like to use 5gr of 700X. Why? I picked up a 12lb keg for $50

[jr86]

I've got this mould but haven't cast any yet. I wanna use W231 or unique. 2.7gr of unique seems like a REALLY tiny charge lol

[BudRow]

I use that boolit in my Nagant Revolver with 2400 or WC-820.

[HABCAN]

My #5 loves it with 5.0grs. Red Dot.