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Thread: Concave ring 303

  1. #1
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Eastern Kentucky
    Posts
    37

    Concave ring 303

    Hey all, I have a question needing answered from someone more knowledgeable than me. I have been reloading short while now for a 303brit. I have noticed a concave ring at the base of the neck on my brass after several loadings (6 or 7) of light to medium power. Could someone help me understand what is going on and how to remedy the problem? Not sure if it is unsafe or not.

  2. #2
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Eastern Kentucky
    Posts
    37
    No comments yet,but I may have figured it out. I loaded a 314299 at 37grs. IMR4064. in my 303Brit after I had annealed the brass and it seemed to help blast the ring out. I think by neck sizing I had pushed the neck brass down and formed the ring at the junction of the neck and shoulder. Shooting at low pressure was not enough to blow it back out. I may need to ream my FL die to not not squeeze so tight.

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master

    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Castlegar, B.C., Canada
    Posts
    7,932
    Can't help with the concave ring but I will offer what I learned after shooting the .303's for a while.

    I went to neck sizing early on to avoid working the brass so much due to large milsurp chambers but even then the neck was being squeezed down to SAAMI specs by my RCBS die and I found the tight neck was resizing boolits at seating so accuracy was not great. Next change was to make a new expander button to resize the necks to 0.313" inside as I am using 0.315" boolits. That stopped the resizing at seating and accuracy improved but the necks were being squeezed down to about 0.310" I.D. then being expanded to 0.313" so still a lot of working of necks.

    In the end I bought a Lee collet sizer and it works great. I made a 0.313" mandrel for it so no more overworking necks. I found out later that the Lee collet dies will work with no mandrel so just remove it then set the die to close down the neck to your desired I.D.

    Annealing the brass regularly also helps but if you are not overworking the brass then annealing often is not required.

    Longbow

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    eastern Iowa
    Posts
    472
    Longbow Has it right. The lee Collet die will work just fine without the mandrel and you don't need it for anything. If you give this a try you will have to decap some other way,not a big deal. Every FL 303 die I have seen sets the shoulder back about .050" every time you FL resize. That's very bad for case life.
    n.h.schmidt

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Posts
    4,612
    That is a problem with the British chambers.
    The British chambers vary tremendously. The British chamber shoulder does not remotely resemble the shoulder on the ammo.

    If you want proof try to get a completely dimensioned and toleranced British drawing for the .303 British cartridge and the same drawing for the chamber. These drawings must be produced by the British military. The fact is you cannot get these drawings from the Brits and I don't think they ever had any standardization similar to SAAMI.
    If you ever run into a large pile of once fired .303 brass you will find that the chamber does NOT look like loaded ammo at the shoulder. In fact the shoulders sometimes have a full radius that runs into the neck at a right angle. I call these "clown" chambers because only a fool and clown would design a chamber with that shape.

    Quote Originally Posted by n.h.schmidt View Post
    Longbow Has it right. The lee Collet die will work just fine without the mandrel and you don't need it for anything. If you give this a try you will have to decap some other way,not a big deal. Every FL 303 die I have seen sets the shoulder back about .050" every time you FL resize. That's very bad for case life.
    n.h.schmidt
    EDG

  6. #6
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Adelaide SOUTH AUSTRALIA
    Posts
    110
    G,day,Handy tip,I neck size only,I use a 32 sw Long carbide full length sizing die to do the necks,no lube requied ID is .311.5 my pills are .312.I also found the same die works on my .308 cases as well,the thicker wall necks to the size I req.I never sell any of my die sets ,have found other uses than they were designed for.

    Cheers Mal.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check