Anyone ever converted .303 British to .44 Remington Magnum ?

[DoctorBill]

I ran into the darnedest thing I ever saw today.

Bought a bag of 100 mixed Headstamp .44 Remington Magnum Brass from someone.
He said he bought the cases in a gunshow several years ago and no longer has
a need for them.

I got home and started resizing and de-priming the cases to reload for my HENRY
.44 Magnum "Big Boy" lever rifle.

Halfway done, I glanced at the tray and about had a conniption fit !

I was looking at .44 Rem Mag stamps and my eye fell on 303 British !!!!!

Two of the cases were .303 Brit - this was after sizing and de-priming them.
One is W•W SUPER, the other is R - P as you can see in the two photos.

http://s19.postimg.org/hku6vhhur/303_British_amongst_44_Rem_Magnum.jpg

http://s19.postimg.org/eph3omdur/303_Brit_amongst_44_Rem_Mag.jpg

Here are my questions.....

Has anyone reading this ever heard of such a thing ?

Is this some Aussie's effort to make do with .303 British Enfield cases for a .44 Magnum
rifle or pistol ? I can understand this if there was a shortage in the outback.

The dimensions of the base of the .303 rifle brass is very close to .44 remington magnum.
A bit of base trimming (lathe?) and reforming (or fireforming) the annealed midportion.

I have "The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Converions" Fourth Edition by John and Judy Donnelly.
Nothing on using .303 British Cases for conversion to .44 Rem Magnum !

A new one for me !

DoctorBill

[runfiverun]

I have heard of them being used as pseudo 410 brass type shells.
and for the 44 auto-mag..

but I ain't gonna cut up .75 cent brass to make .25 cent brass.

[DoctorBill]

Well, runfive, if you were stuck out in the bush with a lot of .303 British cases,
no Cabellas or Gun Store with Brass close at hand, little or no .44 mag cases and a
hungry .44 Mag pistol or rifle, you might just do it !

Necessity is the mother of invention......

Seems rather clever, actually.

The .303 British case might be stronger than a .44 Magnum case, too. (?)

DoctorBill

[GRUMPA]

I've cut and trimmed them down to make 44mag shot loads with. The 303 brass itself is rather stout and robust and withstood many shot loadings. Only reason I did it was to see if it could be done, and it worked great in the revolver and lever gun....

[RED333]

Is the brass thicker, will it not swell when pushing the boolit in, or swag the boolit smaller?

[rmatchell]

I think BrassMagnet just spit coffee all over the place.

[texassako]

Maybe it was just an expedient use of split neck brass? I give a frugal (i.e.. cheap) friend of mine with a 10mm any split neck .25, .30, .32 Rem brass I end up with to cut down. He also has a bunch marked 6.8 SPC

[DoctorBill]

That is what I though might have happened - somebody who is as frugal
as I am who can't bring himself to throw anything away if it MIGHT have
a further use !

Old .303 British cases that have a worn out neck....walla - .44 Magnums....
You could probably use a file to trim down the bases from .540" to .514"
without much difficulty.

DoctorBill

[longbow]

I have been saving up old .303's for just such a purpose but I have so many .44 mags that I haven't gotten to it yet.

The .303 rim is slightly larger in diameter and a little thicker but they chamber in my Marlin 1894 when shortened appropriately.

The .303's certainly have a heavier/thicker head and probably would require reaming to take a .44 boolit but... I am betting they would work just fine.

Now the reverse may also be true. I have not really thought about .44 mag in a Lee Enfield but I have thought about .444 marlin in a Lee Enfield. That can be done as can .45-70.

Since Lee Enfields can be set up to shoot .45 ACP I have to guess that they would also handle .44 mag. Now on that note I have thought about heavy .44 mags like a Whisper round using about 350 to 400 gr. .44 boolits. That extra length might be just right in a Lee Enfield for something different.

One day maybe when I have more money and time. Well, more time I might have but unless I win a lottery I doubt I will have any more money.

Longbow

[DoctorBill]

"All things come to those who wait...."

"You have to pull the trigger."

DoctorBill

[leadman]

I read an article many years ago about a guy who converted a British Enfield rifle to 444 Marlin. He said it worked well.

[blaser.306]

I think that I heard or read that Elgin Gates used trimmed and modified 303 Brit brass for the trial run of 445 supermag cartriges?

[NoZombies]

I had a bunch of berdan primers, and a bunch of berdan primed .303 brass, so I converted a bunch to make short .410 shells using the .303 brass. when I say short, I mean 1.6". They were used in a revolver that they would just fit the cylinder of. They held more lead and shot better than actual .410 shells trimmed to the same length.

[Artful]

I used 30-40 or 303 Brit shortened to cylinder length for shotshells.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

There should be nothing wrong with brass prepared in this way, although it lacks point unless you are on some remote island or you have some .303 with split necks. The trouble is that case thickness is held tightly to specification at the neck and just in front of the solid head, where separation may occur. There is no reason for it to be so tightly specified a .44 Magnum's length down its length. So you may find your case is a loose fit on the bullet or, more likely, requires reaming. This doesn't apply with shotshells or blanks.

[EDG]

I have a batch of new WW .30-40 Krag cases that someone cut off to use for .445 Supermag brass.
I have no .445 so some day I will cut them off for use in a .44 mag.

[colonelsanders]

My brother made up a 44 mag on an enfield action using desert eagle magazine. Downright sweet rifle.

He a rather paranoind fella and he doesnt send out pics, but its a doable project.

[longbow]

.30-40 Krag brass was used for the .44 Rhino as well. Offhand I cannot recall whether .44 Rhino is longer than .445 Supermag or not but I think so. .303 British has a slightly smaller head than .30-40 Krag but not much and .30-40 Krag can be used to form .303 brass so they should be interchangeable for .44 mag, .445 Supermag, .44 Rhino or whatever.

Is it worth the effort? Well depends on your circumstances and desires. One day I will get around to reaming some for the .44 boolits and try them out.

Back to the conversion issue, it certainly should be doable though feeding may present a problem or two. Not insurmountable but a consideration.

Colonelsanders ~ did your brother have any feeding issues? Or did proper installation of the Desert Eagle magazine solve that?

Longbow

[MakeMineA10mm]

I've made a dozen or so cylinder-length 44Mag shotshells out of 303 brass I have on hand for my SMLE. I would NOT convert them for full house 44 Mag loads, as the diameter of the 303 just above the rim is quite a bit narrower (.015"-.020"?) and the brass walls are so thick, the case never swelled up across the bottom 1" or so of the case. Of course, my shot loads were not very heavy pressure-wise either, but I still wouldn't try it without making a couple wraps of tape around the base of the case wall to center the round in the chamber. My shot loads were about 5.0grs of Red Dot with a cut-off 410 wad, filled with about a 1/2oz. of #9. (I should go pull my load notes...). Anyway, with cheap, proper 44 brass available, I wouldn't recommend using converted 303 brass for full power loads.

[colonelsanders]

My brothers rifle is still a work in progress, and he is still working on the magazine catch.

It cycled fine when I visited him last, with the magazine clamped in.

[bedbugbilly]

Boy . . . I've sure enjoyed my morning coffee reading this thread . . . interesting.

[doc1876]

the .44 mag is one of the cases used in making 5in1 blanks. I have an issue with the price of throwing blanks away while on horseback from my Henry, so with a lot of research, I found that the .303 Brit. will work in in place. However the rims are .520, and the 5in1s are .508. this makes a feeding issue for the Henry tube, so I am spending today with the drill and file running them down. I do know they feed in the 44-40, and the .45 pistols without any issues. Having no intention of a hijack, I am just saying that it really does not surprise me that someone would do this, and as they are a real stout case, as has been mentioned, so I would think you might be able to push your load (??)
I do have some .375 Winchester that some one cut down, and for that they need to be pounded. I can't for the life of me figure out why they would do that!! They are going to become 5in1s also.

[Deputy Dog]

rebarreled a falling block action short story had a reamer made by dave kiff call it a 44/60 take a 303 or 30/40 case expand it to take a 44 slug and fireform the end result is long 44 case that holds60grs of bp shoots good with bp or smokless guess you could call it a rimmed 444