Lee Enfield small game load

[Richard B]

My loaner and rainy day hunting rifle is a Lee Enfield No4 Mk2 Longbranch made in 1942 with a nice set of Williams open sights. It is not my main hunting rifle but I usually like to take it for a walk during deer season. Where I hunt there is a good population of ruffed grouse (legal to shoot with a rifle in Alberta) and snow shoe hares so I am not above ending my day with some small game.

Several years ago I tried some fancy shooting with a .30-06 on a ruffed grouse and the results are were spectacular but less than satisfactory in the meat eating department. So I realized that if I was going to shoot small game with a center fire rifle then I needed a small game load like they used to sell around the turn of the last century.

I have some 115grn Laser cast FN bullets (.314) that I bought for my .32-20 and thought that they would make a good small game load in the .303. I wanted to keep this project as simple as possible as I do not spend much time with this rifle.

Things do not usualy work out this well for me but the first load I tried of 7 grns of Unique in a virgin Winchester case and CCI primer shot a 1 1/4" group at 25 yards 2 1/2" lower than my hunting load of a Hornady 150grn spitzer bullet at 2600 fps. This is accurate enough for body shots on grouse or rabbits and should leave something for the pot.

[JeffinNZ]

Basically my .303 small game load. 311008 over 6gr Unique. I once reach the top of a ridge and came on a multitude of rabbits. With the 10 round mag I dropped 7 of them.

[Nobade]

Many years ago, I had a no4 Mk1 with the nice peep sight. I lived in an RV right next to where I worked, and needed something to supplement the food budget. I didn't have any reloading tools for this rifle, but did manage to pick up one fired case off the ground at the range. I used my little Sherline lathe to drill out the berdan primed case to take a shotgun primer. Using a 22 short case as a dipper, I would load about 1.5gr. Bullseye powder and thumb press a #4 buckshot into the case mouth. I had it sighted dead on at 25 yards, and almost every morning I could collect a rabbit or two, or some doves for the crock pot. It was quieter than an air rifle, and quite accurate at across the parking lot distances.

[Larry Gibson]

Try 3 to 3.5 gr of Bullseye. That works very well in my .303 and most other .30/.31 cal rifles with PB cast bullets of 90 - 115 gr. Velocity will be 800 fps or so and I get 1" accuracy at 50 yards. If you run out of those bullets and aren't able to cast more then try the Hornady 90 gr swaged lead .32 cal bullets, they work great. The 90 gr swaged lead .32 cal WCs from Speer and Hornady also work very well but are single feed propositions. Again, just 3 to 3.5 gr of Bullseye is entirely sufficient.

Larry Gibson

[PAT303]

I use 311291 boolits that I hollow point over 10grns of red dot,cast in 10-1 alloy they drop fox's stone dead at 100mtrs. Pat

[rmaster14145]

richard, i think i loaded up some of the same boolits you tried. were they flat base without GC? i tested them in a .303 a couple of years ago. i was shooting at a 2ltr bottle @ about 25 yards. i could hit the bottle. i also use ths same boolit in 30-30,7.5X55, .308. the powder charge is 6gn to 10gn of unique.

rm

[Multigunner]

I saw an add for chamber adapters to fire the .32 ACP in a .303 chamber.
Since I already have .32 S&W and S&W Long pistols, and have reloaded for these before, I figure on getting one of those adapters and rechambering it for .32 S&W Long. The smaller case would allow greater efficiency in burning, which should offset the longer jump to Origin of Rifling.

[45 2.1]

I saw an add for chamber adapters to fire the .32 ACP in a .303 chamber.
Since I already have .32 S&W and S&W Long pistols, and have reloaded for these before, I figure on getting one of those adapters and rechambering it for .32 S&W Long. The smaller case would allow greater efficiency in burning, which should offset the longer jump to Origin of Rifling.

I have a .32 ACP in the 30-06 adaptor. It has the boolit in the proper place and the 32 ACP case is the actual neck. Not all of these adaptors are like that. Some are placed at the base.

[dnepr]

Grouse seem to be easy to destroy meat on and easy to kill , I have a 32 acp in 303 adapter I haven't taken any grouse with it yet . I am considering using some pulled 7.62x39 FMJ's loaded at a moderate velocity to try to minimze the meat damage ,

[NickSS]

I always carry small game loads when I hunt. I mostly use either a 30-30 or a 45-70 rifle. For the 30-30 I load a 31108 115 gr cast flat point over 5 gr of Unique. This load shoots right on at 25 yards and will make one hole groups at that range. I have potted a lot of grouse with it over the years. I always say a grouse in the hand is worth several deer in the bush. For the 45-70 I load a 457 round ball with 8 gr of red dot. This load shoots very well out to 25 yards and has also taken quite a few grouse and a few rabbits when elk hunting. Neither load is destructive of meat so the eating is good.

[Multigunner]

I have considered making a reduced capacity case for the .303, by soldering a short piece of tubing inside the case. Holding the tube in with accraglass might work for very light charges.
With this sort of specialized case with a soft annealed neck, already fire formed by several firings of full power loads, the .314-5 round ball used for the .31 pocket pistols could be seated by hand over a light charge of bullseye.

I bought a box of the round balls years ago, intending to make up some light loads for my .32 S&W, never got around to using them. I used a .375 round ball forced through a hole in a steel slab with a mallet to size it to .312 instead, this gave good bearing surface and flattened the base.

There are .32 rimfire adapters that use a .22 rimfire blank offset to allow the .32 firing pin ti impact the rime, and these use a round ball for the projectile.
A similar set up with the .22 blank chamber offset to allow the centerfire striker to impact the rim, a method used for some .22 conversions, could allow this to work with the .303. Nail gun blanks have a pretty stout load.


Since I got my .25-20 I haven't given the reduced .303 loads much thought. Though I have also considered a .25 ACP adapter for the .25-20.

[KCSO]

The Lee soupcan and 4 grains of bullseye works nicely for me. I simply tip the muzzle up before firing and don't use a filler.

[Pioneer2]

No#4 bucksot or AAA is .25 caliber? Surely you meant double ought buck? Lee's .311/93gr mold for the .30 mauser/7.62x25 casts bullets at .314 so these should work with 4gr of Unique .The only problem with taking small game while hunting big game is you won't see any of the later.Around camp or away from the hunting area is no problem........good for finishing large animals in traps or plugging beavers........Harold

[herbert buckland]

I have found the Lee 303B C312-185R boolit pushed by 9gr Trail Boss to be avery acurate light load,but you have to set your sights on about 500yd to get point of aim at 50 meters

[jimb16]

I'm a 00 buck and bullseye shooter myself. Been using it on squirrels for 40 years.

[Nobade]

You're right there Pioneer, 00 buck. #4 gets shot through the Hornet after sizing.

[BerdanIII]

Speer 100-gr WC (and older 100-gr Hornady's if you got'em) and 4.0 grs. Unique. No real muzzle blast, just a ripping sound.

[Thumbcocker]

For .30-40 Krag I have had great luck with a size "0" buckshot lubed with liquid alox over 3 grns of red dot. Very accurate at 30 yards or so. Soupcan over 3 grns of red dot also good. Full sized boolit 180-200 grns sans chack with 6 of red dot also works. Let us know how it works out for you.