awful performance of 303 british cast and powder coated

[PAT303]

Mate you have more than one problem.First,have you fire formed your cases?,do you neck size or FL?,what is the dia of the boolits noses?,what is the throat dia of your rifle?,do the boolits drop easily into the neck of a fired case?.Lets start from the beginning,my S&B cases have fired dozens of times without issue,it's not the cases fault. Pat

[Stearns]

Mate you have more than one problem.First,have you fire formed your cases?,do you neck size or FL?,what is the dia of the boolits noses?,what is the throat dia of your rifle?,do the boolits drop easily into the neck of a fired case?.Lets start from the beginning,my S&B cases have fired dozens of times without issue,it's not the cases fault. Pat

I buy new boxes of ammo. Shoot then reload. When reloading i was fl sizing but have changed to neck sizing. My bore sluged at .312 / .302 i do not know the throat diameter. Not sure how to get that. I have reloaded these cases a few times. Not sure how many. I think that is my problem. Just statted having seperatiin problems after probably 3-5 reloads.
my bulleta were casting at .314-.315 with pwder coat. I have now found some measuring as large as .317. I think the one that was shot that the case got stuck may have been one close to the .317. I wasnt measuring everyone.
Another thing i did not mentikn before because i didnt thing it was relavent is right after this shot i could not get the bolt all the way open. I beloeve my friend may have forced the bolt closed with a bullet to large to chamber. I had to use a rubber maller to get the bolt to slide open. I then had to use a bench grinder ans lightley grind the side of the bolt to get it to go in and out easily.

Could an oversized bullet forxed to chamber cause the bolt to bend in some way when it was fired?

[1johnlb]

DWas the bolt head screwed all the way down on the bolt before it was installed? If there's a gap between the bolt and bolt head it's not on all the way.

Oversized bullets can cause over pressure. If your already shooting max loads this could very well be a problem and you are risking life and limb. This can also be the very reason your splitting cases. Please stop and find you a qualified gun Smith.

[Stearns]

DWas the bolt head screwed all the way down on the bolt before it was installed? If there's a gap between the bolt and bolt head it's not on all the way.

Oversized bullets can cause over pressure. If your already shooting max loads this could very well be a problem and you are risking life and limb. This can also be the very reason your splitting cases. Please stop and find you a qualified gun Smith.

Bolt head was screwed on tight. No gap. Gun has performed flawlessly until just recent. Was shooting jacketed bullets at 38 grains of 3031. Not even close to max load. I then started casting and have shot 4 cast bullets from it. First one was as cast and tumble lubed. 16 grains of 2400. Shot great. Then heard about powder coat. First 3 powdercoated i shot at jacketed loads. Someone told me you could shoot powdercoated cast like jacketed. I have since gone back to the 2400 loads. Which is one that the case got stuck...none of the otger cadt bullets was a problem chambering. I read on hear if it chambers its ok to shoot. My buddy forced the bolt closed when he shot the one that got stuck. I then started measuring the cast diameters of all the casted bullets and found some were larger and would be a problem chambering. All the ones measur3d before and that i tested had no problem chambering. Before this one shot action worked as it should and only got head seperation on the last loadof the s&b brass that probably were reloaded one to many times.

[Stearns]

Still have not got tge case out. Once i get it out i will investigate the problem with the action.

[1johnlb]

Would you please post pictures of the split cases and the primers. Also of the bolt, the area you grinded. Then maybe someone could help you better.

[1johnlb]

The Hogdon site shows 38.3 grs of 3031 to be a max load for a 180 jacketed bullet. Your original post states you were shooting lee's 185 gr., this load is unsafe with a oversized bullet or even the correct sized boolit. Your 2400 load is safe. Is it possible that you may have double charged the case or done the damage before changing powder?

[Stearns]

Here are some photos. You can barely tell where i used the grinder. Its the sides of bolt that are showing on the rounded part.
the photo with the bolt entering the action is showing where it starts to bind up. Hard to slide on. Its like that with or with out the bolt head on the bolt. And its hard to slide all the way till its closed. Every other head seperation i hqve had has been during reloading the case not in the gun when it was shot. Basically when i would resize decap when i was pulling the case out of the die it would seperate.

Would you please post pictures of the split cases and the primers. Also of the bolt, the area you grinded. Then maybe someone could help you better.

[Stearns]

The Hogdon site shows 38.3 grs of 3031 to be a max load for a 180 jacketed bullet. Your original post states you were shooting lee's 185 gr., this load is unsafe with a oversized bullet or even the correct sized boolit. Your 2400 load is safe. Is it possible that you may have double charged the case or done the damage before changing powder?

When this happendd it was the 2400 load. 38 g of 3031 was used on 150 grain jacketed bullet which acording to my lyman manual is starting load. Your right my calculation was off for the 185 grain bullet and the load of 3031 i used.

[Stearns]

How can i tell if the gun is damaged? Its a sportered 303 that i paid $120 thats why i am hesitant to pay a gunsmith to checkit out. I would rather just buy another if i can find one. I dont want to discard a good shooting rifle either

[1johnlb]

My advice, gunsmith. Your life is worth more than $120. Looks like headspace problems to me and now possibly a bent bolt. Use it as a crouch, a boat Paddle, a baseball bat ,but I wouldn't shoot it. Just my 2cents.

[PAT303]

Not head space but over sized chamber. Pat

[Stearns]

Not head space but over sized chamber. Pat

I thought oversized chamber was normal on these? I do i tell if its too big?

[Stearns]

My advice, gunsmith. Your life is worth more than $120. Looks like headspace problems to me and now possibly a bent bolt. Use it as a crouch, a boat Paddle, a baseball bat ,but I wouldn't shoot it. Just my 2cents.

I have no intention of shooting this gun until i confirm its safe.

[Eddie1971]

I find S&B cases the worst. I've been shooting 303 for years and the best are PPU and Winchester. Neck sizing is way to go. Regarding heads I use Lymans 314299 sized to .314, powder coated, gas checked, over 35-36.5 grains of IMR4350. Shoots great at 100 yards like jacketed with sights at lowest setting. I went up to 40 grains in tests and at 37 accuracy went south and kick went way up. I use a 1916 vintage SMLE. 32-33 grains of IMR4895 worked well too.

[JWFilips]

10 Grains Unique!

[Tigrr]

Lubed versus powder coated and you have to increase the powder to get the same velocity. That is why the accuracy went south.
PC is slipperier.
Same deal with lubed versus molly coated.

[Kraschenbirn]

Lubed versus powder coated and you have to increase the powder to get the same velocity. That is why the accuracy went south.
PC is slipperier.
Same deal with lubed versus molly coated.

Huh? Haven't tried PC in my .303s yet but have consistently picked up a 5%-6% INCREASE in MV using the same powder charge when switching from lubed to PC in other calibers. Actually, backed off powder in my .30-40 Krags by 5% and still gained 26 fps avg. (10-shot string). Ditto with the 7.5 Swiss: same powder/boolit combination with PC chronos just over 100 fps faster (with a slightly lower SD!) than conventional lube.

Bill

[Bama]

I have had several separations. Using a correct sized easy out made short work of removal as long as you don’t get over aggressive. The old school way of using a sharpened paper clip will help prevent loading of cases near. Separation.