What would a safe low recoil load be for a .303 British SMLE using a 171 gr. cast bullet?
What would a safe low recoil load be for a .303 British SMLE using a 171 gr. cast bullet?
Assuming your rifle is safe to shoot, the universal load of 16 grains of 2400 powder should be more than good enough for your Enfield.
That's what I shoot out of my Enfield and it shoots pretty well.
HollowPoint
What powders might you have on hand?
More "This is what happened when I,,,,," and less "What would happen if I,,,,"
Last of the original Group Buy Honcho's.
"Dueling should have never been made illegal in this country. It settled lots of issues between folks."- Char-Gar
I lean toward IMR4227 because I usually have it and it works well for me.
Loads are somewhere between 18 and 22 grs. under boolits to 200 grs. 10 to 12 grs. Unique also worked well for me. That is another powder I tend to have around.
You might get some good ideas here:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...Rifles-Article
Longbow
I have on hand IMR 4227 Unique and 4759
I fire form my new brass with 7 gr of Red Dot. Very mild load that groups surprisingly well with the Lee 185 gr boolit.
What loading manuals do you have?
Horace
I have Speer,Lyman 43 & 44, Sierra, and Lyman cast bullet book.
Some don't list anything for cast and some have such a descrepancy I don't know where to start.
4227 and 4759 have nearly identical burn rates at the same powder charges.
Start at 14 gr of either and work your way up to about 20 - 22 gr in 1/2 gr increments. I have so far had reasonable accuracy with 18.5 gr 4759 and the 311413 (173 gr) bullet in my P14. The 311413 isn't known for giving the best accuracy but, I like the design. It had excellent balistics @ 1850 fps, 10.6 SD and 28 ES and shot a 3" group @ 100. Not match accuracy but good enough for hunting. Make sure the groove isn't to big for the bullet.
A maximum safe load should be in the 24 gr area.
Frank
The first thing you do with a 303 british when you want to shoot a cast bullet is slug your bore.
Some bores are 0.314 or larger.
You mention you have Unique - great powder for 303 - there is a load in most Lyman books for cast bullets with Unique
I use a .314 diameter bullet with 303 - the barrel does the resizing. If I get bullets key holing I go to a larger diameter
Go now and pour yourself a hot one...
Simply stop what you're doing. Pick a manual for the task at hand. Go forward from there. You want cast boolit information, so use the Lymann cast boolit manual.
There are no discrepancies between manuals, just your failure to understand the data given. Each manual has specific information pertaining to the processes, procedures and materials listed in accordance to the manufacturer, and author of said manual.
The information given isn't readily interchangeable with other manuals. The whole purpose of a reloading manual battery, is to expound upon the collective knowledge obtained through experience. It would appear that you're just starting out in the realm of cast boolit activities and simply asking the world to give you load data without first understanding the basics is a recipe for disaster.
"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face!" - Mike Tyson
"Don't let my fears become yours." - Me, talking to my children
That look on your face, when you shift into 6th gear, but it's not there.
I've found "Modern Reloading" by Richard Lee to be quite invaluable, as it covers the use of powders and their reductions in cast boolits. Plus there is much more information given in regards to metallic cartridge reloading.
"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face!" - Mike Tyson
"Don't let my fears become yours." - Me, talking to my children
That look on your face, when you shift into 6th gear, but it's not there.
Not sure what your cast boolit knowledge database is so...
You will see a lot of discrepancies between jacket load data and cast load data. Depending on caliber and cartridge size, jacketed load data tends to favour slower powders, higher pressures and so higher velocities than cast data. Small bore rifles with bottleneck cases are a good example of that. Large bore rifles and handguns, not so much.
Cast boolit load data tends to lean towards smaller powder charges of fastish powders producing low to moderate velocities. Where you might reasonably expect a .303 jacketed bullet load to produce 2500 FPS that same boolit weight in cast will more likely produce best results at under 1800 FPS. You can achieve higher velocities with cast but it can be work. Different bullet/boolit, different powders for the task.
Look for .303 cast boolit data here:
http://www.castpics.net/project2/CastDatalist.php
http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/Cla...tBullets-s.pdf
http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/Cla...ast%20Sup1.pdf
http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/OM/IdealHandbook38.pdf
http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/OM/Lyman44.pdf
Also not that any load data for .30-40 Krag can be used in .303 British as well.
Something else is that most .303's or at least Lee Enfields have mucho oversize bores. While 0.311"/0.312" is nominal groove diameter spec'd my .303's all have ~ 0.314" groove diameter and like boolits sized to 0.315" or even 0.316" so you may need a "fat" boolit. Not just any .30 cal. mould will do and not even any .303 mould. For instance, my Lyman 314299 casts at 0.312" which is too small for my 0.314" groove diameter so useless. NOE makes "fat" boolit moulds and you can get whatever diameter you need from Accurate Molds too.
You will not run into safety issues using Jacketed load data under same weight cast boolits but... accuracy will likely be poor and bore leading will likely be a problem.
Conversely, you could run into safety issues using cast boolit load data under a jacketed bullet due to harder jacket/more bore friction and fast powder.
WILCO is right, having a selection of reference material is always a good thing. There is seldom one best answer or any magic bullet (no pun intended) solution.
I hope that helps.
Longbow
Allegedly 12 grains of Unique in a .303 Martini Henry
Note that it was proof tested, but the stamps on it show the test was a black powder proof test, NOT a smokeless powder test.
Last edited by superc; 06-13-2018 at 03:56 PM.
314299 sized .314 and 20g of 4759 in my 1918 SMLE
You will also note that the Martini is Belgian,and that the split seems to involve the rearsight base......This was a noted problem.....Quote"The brazing of the sight base spoils the steel in the barrel"...Especially if brass spelter was used instead of silver for economy......There is nothing brazed to the barrel of a smelly,with good reason.
My orig. Winchester '95 likes the 185 gr. gc and 28 grs. of 5744.
Rest In Peace My Son (01/06/1986 - 14/01/2014)
''Assume everything that moves is a human before identifying as otherwise''
I use a 190gn CBE boolit sized to 0.314" with 26.5gns 3031 for approx 1650fps
Hold Still Varmint; while I plugs Yer!
A double load,24 gns would do it .Loads go about 16gn Unique/175gn cast for 40,000psi,so 24gn would be up there.
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