Exercised the 1903A3 Yesterday ...

[Phineas Bluster]

Deleted

[Jack Stanley]

That's nice for sure !! Who says old military rifles won't shoot .

Jack

[Gunor]

Nice shooting. I am putting together a 2 groove rifle.

I see you have a 650 yard on elevation - Just wondering - if there is any change in windage from jacketed to cast?

Thanks

[Scharfschuetze]

Nice shooting! Those RCBS 30 calibre bullets do shoot well.

[Reverend Al]

There is always that one darn flyer!

(Nice group ...)

[Hardcast416taylor]

The excuse for any flier on a target with a very nice group going is to simply say "I had to do that since I can`t stand success"!Robert

[TenTea]

I appreciate the thorough and detailed rundown of *what you did* and *what happened* ...plus the pic.
Very nice work!

[mac1911]

Sweet...I'm,having fun with my 03a3 and cast. Few years now. Have a few trinkets prizes from Local CMP Springfield matches shooting my whimpy loads.

[guicksylver]

Nice shooting...obviously that boolit works great with that gun..as does the shooter especially with issue sights..

Two observations (maybe three) and a suggestion and a guestion...wow..

Your alloy..a good one ..but I believe the numbers should be 95-3-2..according to my math..

You seem to be going through a lot of work with that boolit and alloy..as I said .."good alloy" use it myself there's no need to heat treat...

Although you are getting good results with a .310 sized boolit ..I would strongly suggest at least trying some sized .311..

Your using a lot of powder and going through an extra step using 4895 and Dacron..17.8 grs of 2400 and 21.7 grs of RX7..will get you to the same place...and possibly with even better accuracy ... of course you will want to tweak those numbers to suit your rilfe..if you haven't got those 4198 and other similar powders work great too..

If you have a lot of 4895 you want to use 29 grs try it WITH OUT filler and the Lyman STYLE 311299 in your alloy sized .311 usually it produces a tack driver..out of any 03 or 03a3..at least it does in my six or eight...and others who have used it..

You don't mention whether you neck size or FL size ..but neck sizing will save the cases and produce a little better accuracy...generally speaking that is...

So as I said great shooting!!!...if you can shoot like that you should give the above a try..you will save yourself some work, powder and possibly end up doing even better....might even tame the fliers..!

[guicksylver]

Some here say it never happened wo pictures.. so not to steal the thunder... but rater back up with I say...here's some pictures of groups with a MK 1 Springfield using the battle ladder peep sight , off bags..with a 180 gr boolit ...about same alloy, using the above powders ..not HT'ed ..same target, just different impact point..( I save my targets instead of hitting them..)

[iron brigade]

Good shooting both of you. I shot my first sub moa 5 shot group at 100 yards with my 03 a3.
I do have a picture but am unable to load it on this site.
Measured .942.
The load. 13 grains of red dot with a 311334 boolit. Normally I get 1.5" groups with this rifle but everything came together, load, rifle and the nut behind the butt.

[guicksylver]

Good shooting both of you. I shot my first sub moa 5 shot group at 100 yards with my 03 a3.
I do have a picture but am unable to load it on this site.
Measured .942.
The load. 13 grains of red dot with a 311334 boolit. Normally I get 1.5" groups with this rifle but everything came together, load, rifle and the nut behind the butt.

Have you tried dropping the load to 12.7GRS...?

My two grooves love that bullet...actually the NOE 311332( half way between Lyman's 311332 and 311334) ...13 grs is good but 12.7 in mine REALLY shine...'course that's Old Red Dot..(if there is a difference)..

[mac1911]

slow fire prone in a local 200 yard match... the 160 grain ranch dogs and 16 grains of 2400 does well by me. I could not see my holes that good today so I had to hope after the 2 shots low and the one high my next elevation adjustment put me in the black.
I spotted one hole to the left on my 4th shot and took one click right. My 5th shot I could not pick up so I figured for the match in the black is good and just took my last 10 shots using all of the 10 minutes I had.
This match you get 5 sighters and 10 for score and because its walk and paste at 200 they score the 10 highest scores... I will take a 99....even a 97 !!!

[iron brigade]

Have you tried dropping the load to 12.7GRS...?

My two grooves love that bullet...actually the NOE 311332( half way between Lyman's 311332 and 311334) ...13 grs is good but 12.7 in mine REALLY shine...'course that's Old Red Dot..(if there is a difference)..

I haven't, just began to shoot ' the load' but I will have to try 12.7 grains. And there is a difference in the two red dot powders as far as metering goes.
M1 Garand arrives tomorrow, now to try cast loads in that, can't wait!

[iron brigade]

Btw, dang good shooting mac1911

[mac1911]

Btw, dang good shooting mac1911

Very good for me! In the black is a good day for me. Anything resembling a group is a plus.
I really don't think I would be shooting this well with out a lot of help from the forums.
Oh and feels good to fling a wheel weight 200 yards and shoot better than my jacketed match loads...and I can shoot 3 cast loads to my 1 "match" bullet loads.
Now if I can magically improve off hand with the little practice I get.

[Scharfschuetze]

Now if I can magically improve off hand with the little practice I get.

Oh yes, the offhand position. A common saying is that matches are won at the offhand stage and lost at the prone slow fire stage. Applies to me often.

[Dirty30]

What weight of bullet do you guys generally prefer in a 2 groove? GC or no?

[Scharfschuetze]

I like to shoot at longer than normal ranges so I opt for fairly heavy bullets. My favorites are bore riders like the 311299 and the 311334. With the 1 in 10" twist of the US Military rifles, best accuracy for me is on average around 1,850 fps. With the heavy bullets at that velocity, accuracy and resistance to wind deflection is very good at several hundred yards. I use these designs as well as the RCBS 30-180 (actually almost 190 grains from my mould) in both 2 and 4 groove barrels.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a 115 grain cast bullet is the cat's meow for youth shooters and for knocking down rabbits and vermin at closer ranges.

[mac1911]

I like to shoot at longer than normal ranges so I opt for fairly heavy bullets. My favorites are bore riders like the 311299 and the 311334. With the 1 in 10" twist of the US Military rifles, best accuracy for me is on average around 1,850 fps. With the heavy bullets at that velocity, accuracy and resistance to wind deflection is very good at several hundred yards. I use these designs as well as the RCBS 30-180 (actually almost 190 grains from my mould) in both 2 and 4 groove barrels.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a 115 grain cast bullet is the cat's meow for youth shooters and for knocking down rabbits and vermin at closer ranges.

I have a rcbs 130 grain plain base bullet I would like to try for that..