Golden State Arms

[Okie73]

I thought I would share my pleasant range trip I had today with a new to me Santa Fe Mountaineer.
So here is the run down:
Winchester brass fl sized
CCI 200 primers
Throat slugged at .312 and the bore at .309
I took some Lee C312-155's that had been sized at .314 w/gc and pushed them through a .312 sizer. This has quickly become my favorite plus sized boolit!
I went with the time tested "Loads"
16 grs 2400 Avg velocity 1595
10 grs Unique 1389
13 grs RedDot 1655
11 rounds for each powder type. All of these except the first five shots of the Rd loads were fired at 25 yds.
The Rd loads showed signs of instability on the paper and the Unique loads had spatterings of lube.
Thoughts and comments are welcome.

[leebuilder]

Nice groupings Okie75.

[Okie73]

Nice groupings Okie75.
Thank you Sir!
I was very surprised that I did that good with the open sights on this rifle. This was my first time loading and shooting the .303 and I have to say I've really enjoyed it.

[leebuilder]

Okie75 had to look up SantaFe Mountaineer, niffty rifle really like the rear sight and butt stock. Very similar to the EAL rifles we see up here from time to time. I have started threads earlier here with some of my targets from 303s i own. You have a tack driver and a good eye with a steady aim. It shows

[gpidaho]

Okie75: I got lucky and found a Golden States Santa Fe 303Brit at a friends pawn shop. Very nice old sporter and may be the most accurate open site rifle I own. At the price ($125) I'm glad I found it before it sold. GP

[madsenshooter]

It's going to be hard to beat that 16gr 2400 load!

[Okie73]

It's going to be hard to beat that 16gr 2400 load!
Agreed!

[W.R.Buchanan]

I just loaded 50 .314299's over 16 gr of 2400 and I am going to shoot all of them up this Saturday at Short Range Silhouette.

I have been anxious to try the magic load for some time. These will get shot in my Enfield #4 Mk1.

Randy

[Okie73]

Do you have a range report Randy?

[nekshot]

in 5 years I wonder how many of these you might have if this is your first one? Nice gun and shootin!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Okie: I shot 18/40 and had to give away the first 5 shots to bucking in the elevation. I ended up at +18 MOA @150M from my 100 yard "Mechanical Zero" with PPU Factory Ammo with 150 gr bullets.

I was at +12 at 100 M and +9 at 50M and this was all to be expected as all of my cast boolit loads have been significant Elevation changes from that mechanical zero due to the significant difference in velocities between the Factory loads which should be around 2600 fps and the Cast loads which are around 1600 fps.

I bought this neato little book from Brownell's for documenting all your sight settings so you don't forget them. This way after you have established a load that works for you, you can keep the settings for future use.

What you do is establish a "Mechanical Zero" for the gun. This zero is done with the fastest shooting load you will use in that gun. In my case PPU 150gr Factory is the fastest load that will ever be shot in this gun and I chose to zero at 100 yards. Therefore the rear sight will be at it's lowest position for that load, and the scale is set to 0 MOA.

From there all subsequent loads will be slower and therefore result in + elevation changes. You simply dial in the change for any given distance and you're right back on target.

In my case I will go back to the range one afternoon and refine those offsets off a bench rest to get them exact, and also document exact "sight pictures" for each type of target that work with those offsets.

This way if you miss you know immediately that it was in fact you that missed and not the sights.

I have found this system to work perfectly with good quality receiver sights and optics, and I do it with all my target type guns and this carries over to hunting rifles as well.

Not knowing where the bullets should be going is exactly the same as wasting ammo. Any hits you get will be strictly at the mercy of blind luck. It doesn't have to be that way, and understanding how these sights work and having the gun sighted in at the various distances you will shoot,,, is the key to more success.

I was high shooter last Saturday with 18/40, and I can easily get into the 30's/40 with this gun and load.

Incidentally that gun you have is perfect for shooting Short Range Silhouette!

Randy

[MtGun44]

I have yet to find a milsurp that doesn't do well with either 16 gr 2400 or 10 gr of
Unique, or both. I know the Harris has a huge following, but in my experience 13 gr
of RDot hasn't been even remotely as reliable a load.

The one thing that may prove to be important as the range increases is that the
Unique group is very round, where the 2400 has a bit of vertical stringing. Not sure
exactly what they predict for 50 and 100 but it will be interesting to see how it
goes.

Also, I recommend you run the test again with the boolit at .314. There are two
reasons for this. Good recommendations are:

1) size to the throat (which is .314)
2) size .002 over groove diam (which is also .314)

Good luck, and aren't these light, accurate and CHEAP loads just a lot of
fun to shoot? :-)

Bill

[gpidaho]

Just picked up 200 pieces of new PPU brass from Graf's, now I can join in the 303 fun in earnest. GP

[Brett Ross]

I use the 13gr of RD but do not find it accurate as 16 gr of 2400. I use it because the accuracy is acceptable and I pickup up 5 lbs of it last year at a auction, likely 30-40 years old, for $9 a lbs.
Tony

[Okie73]

Thanks for the info Randy. I've never shot in any formal matches but have recently looked into service rifle matches at a range near me.

[Okie73]

I have yet to find a milsurp that doesn't do well with either 16 gr 2400 or 10 gr of
Unique, or both. I know the Harris has a huge following, but in my experience 13 gr
of RDot hasn't been even remotely as reliable a load.

The one thing that may prove to be important as the range increases is that the
Unique group is very round, where the 2400 has a bit of vertical stringing. Not sure
exactly what they predict for 50 and 100 but it will be interesting to see how it
goes.

Also, I recommend you run the test again with the boolit at .314. There are two
reasons for this. Good recommendations are:

1) size to the throat (which is .314)
2) size .002 over groove diam (which is also .314)

Good luck, and aren't these light, accurate and CHEAP loads just a lot of
fun to shoot? :-)

Bill

The throat in this particular rifle is .312 and the bore is .309 because of the new barrels that Golden State put on these. I was very surprised at how tight it slugged.
This was my first time out with this rifle and to say I was impressed would be an understatement.

I have a MN 91/30 that actually shoots better with the RedDot load than the 2400 but I believe thats because it does indeed need a fatter boolit and more development with 2400.

I have a LOT of fun shooting these "budget" minded loads.

[Ben]

I've shot the 13 grs. of R Dot in several 06' rifles that were accurate rifles.

Not a single one of my 30-06 rifles shot the Red dot load very well.

The red dot load isn't even close to the 10.0 gr. Unique load in the accuracy dept.

Ben