Reloading .303 British with cast bullets

[krallstar]

Check a fired case. Use your inside caliper and get a rough idea of how big a bullet you can fit. My #4 mkII cases measure around .318. I size to .316 w/check. Use the biggest bullet that you can.

[leebuilder]

Not the best pic, the rear sight is removed and would sit just forward the markings. The rust has the foot print of the sight
Be well

[303Guy]

I have one trumpet muzzle barrel. It measures something like .308 (bore) at it's narrowest point about mid barrel. If it won't shoot I'll chop it down to a carbine like my pig gun. Or I'll attempt to lap it parallel. The oversize bore is actually good because there is less case sizing required (none actually) but custom boolits are required (which is fine for paper patching).

I must look for the HV stamp. I'm sure I've seen it on more than one of my guns.

On the topic of fillers, an appropriate filler might solve the trumpet barrel problem by forming a wad behind the boolit. Do the research on fillers before going that route. I favor wheat germ. It's oily and flows well.

[725]

miker19,

Welcome aboard. This site is where you want to be. The shooters, casters, & loaders here are the best around and you will get good advice and eager assistance in your search for loads, molds and such. I caution you to always refer to a reputable load manual like the Lee, & Lyman as has already been recommended. Check and double check recommended loads before you jump and have a good experience with our hobby. Good luck.

[flint45]

Slug your barrel. I shoot two over- eample .312 bore .314 boolit. 18.5 2400 good easy load 185 gr. LEE boolit.

[leebuilder]

They back lapped no1 barrels for mk8 ammo. Between the rear sight and the barrel Knox there will be an HV stamp, this is a back lapped barrel.

Correction : I passed.false info
HV stamp is used on the new rifles (1910) fitted with new mags and new sights, sighted in for the then new mk7 round I said mk8.
SC stamp was for barrels with the new short cone, to improve accuracy with the new pointed mk7 round
Note at the same time circa.1910, 1911 they produced the second variation No1mk3 barrel with the back lap to relieve over pressure from the new mk7 round.
Not all HV stamped barrels have the SC stamp, mostly on post WW2 barrels and comercial barrels.

Toot, toot
Be safe

[Mr_yeti]

Keep at it with cast size. I had a enfield I used to size down .324 mauser cast bullets to .320. Worked in that particular rifle.

[Blue2]

Away from cast for a moment but I loaded up some Hornady .310 diameter 123gr. Meant for the 7.62x39 one time to use them up for a close range tactical 3 gun shoot and they worked very well. Against any sensible expectations on my part out to 100 yards giving 1.5 inch grouping.goes to show that you can be surprised at times but results that defy wha you know should happen.

[longbow]

I am a little late in seeing this resurrected thread...

Engineer1911 if you are getting keyholes I suspect you need a larger boolit and/or filler.

I have been using COW filler for several years with nothing but good results. I started on the advice of David Southall who wrote an article on .303British.com many years ago. He found similar issues with I believe a 2 groove Enfiled and found that filler solved the problem. We e-mailed back and forth a few times so I have kept his e-mails and recommendations and found they worked for me.

I have not had the keyholing issue but did have other things plaguing accuracy so tried COW filler and found it worked well for me. Having said that you can't just drop filler into the cartridge, you have to work up loads using the filler.

I am loading down to 130 gr. boolits in my .303's with good results so keep at it and I am sure you will find a combination that works. Also, I use light to moderate loads with my cast boolits for the most part. I found that when I pushed velocity I was getting skidding of the ACWW boolits in the bore along with gas cutting so had to oven heat treat and quench the boolits to make them hard enough to resist skidding. That worked.

I am usually loading an NOE 216299 sized to 0.315" over 22 grs. of IMR4227 with good results. This is a quite moderate load. if you are trying to reproduce "J" bullet loads and velocities with cast it is much harder to get good results.

Keep trying and good luck.

Longbow

[blixen]

Welcome original poster! You picked a challenging cartridge to begin casting. I've had five so-called .303s that shot jacketed phenomenally well and cast awful. I hogged out the Lee "Enfield" mold to about .315-.316 and got deer-hunting accuracy. I've always wanted to get a new .303 chambered .311 barrel on a good receiver to see how well it would shoot.

[Tedly]

I had a Dutch M95 Mannlicher rebarreled to 30/40 Krag....I opened it up to .303 and it was a shooter. Had a 2 groove 03A3 bbl.....Shot Lee C312-185-1R @ .311 dia w/ 20.5 gr AA5744 under 2" at 100yds . with iron sights.

[Firearm Nut]

I am new to reloading. I have some cast .303 bullets I want to reload but I'm not sure how much powder, what type powder, do I use fillers ect. Any information will help me. Thank you! The bullets are 160 grain and they have gas checks crimped on.

It is sometime useful to know the model of the .303 British you have and if it may have been rebarreled at some point. The later models tend to have truer barrel specs. In the older models the barrel specs can be all over the map. Probably has something to do with a war going on, and they were manufactured all over the map. The P-1914 were manufacture by US firms, and their groove diameters run beyond .311, somewhere between .312 and .314. The older Mk III can vary a fair amount as well. The #4 - Mk I were manufactured later and probably run closest to the .311 diameter, but there is no guarantees. I have and Eddystone P 1914 that I run .314 size 200 gr GC bullets through and it shoots great. I picked up a Winchester P 1914 and it would send the same bullet all over the place, I eventually sized down a .321 PB to .314 and finally got some consistency. To start you certainly set yourself up with a challenge.

[Alferd Packer]

Think about paper patching
Try that before you cut off the barrel.
Paper patching is easy, cheap and it works.
If you never tried it before, please give it a chance.
You can try any type of paper.
I have used printer paper and even the envelopes from junk mail cut up to size.

[Flygrimm]

Think about paper patching
Try that before you cut off the barrel.
Paper patching is easy, cheap and it works.
If you never tried it before, please give it a chance.
You can try any type of paper.
I have used printer paper and even the envelopes from junk mail cut up to size.

AP

I have been considering PPing for the 303. Since I can't get any 4064 for the Garand project for now I might play with the 303 some.

I have a Lee C309-180-R double cavity mold. I'm planning on using some .003" tracing paper to wrap with. It'll be about .321" then sized to .314". I also have a bunch of once fired HXP and PPU brass.

First shots will be out of my N0.4 with a tight barrel or my P14 with a new Criterion barrel.

My questions for you are for paper patching should I use WW or just plain lead with a tiny bit of tin? And what powder could I use? I have plenty of H4895, and N320 with about a pound of IMR 4350 and AA N0. 2. I have a smattering of other powders but there's not really enough of each to play with. Maybe there are some other suitable powders that are actually available that you could recommend.

Stuart

[Jlucas45]

I am new to reloading. I have some cast .303 bullets I want to reload but I'm not sure how much powder, what type powder, do I use fillers ect. Any information will help me. Thank you! The bullets are 160 grain and they have gas checks crimped on.

Welcome to the interesting of cast bullets in th 303...I have been working for a couple of years on a couple of Enfield rifles. I had almost given up on them several times, but a day at the range is better than mowing the grass, so...
Anyway, I have come up with a couple of things that might be of interest. One of my 303's is a "sporterized" Lithgow ,but it has a larger bore and I found that the Lyman 314299, and the Lee 160 molds will throw a .314" bullet. Along the way, and a lot! of testing, I found out that BLC-2 is an amazing 303 powder, with a discernible lower resonance. When I started, I was having difficulty keeping 5 rounds on an 8.5x11 target at 100 yards, and now, with much testing, I am getting around 2" on a good day. Other powders that I got fair results were IMR 4895, ACC 2520. I'm not trying to max velocity, and I have always gotten best results at around 1800fps. These are, by observing cases and primers, low pressure loads at around 32.5 gr. and are safe in MY rifes, but use at your own risk.

Have fun!! I did.

[Vonllamawitz]

Cast some .312 using a Lee Mould 155gr with a spire point. I sent Lee a request for 303 load data and hoping to have this to share with the group. Most of the 303 load data is for 180gr and above for boolit weight. I have been considering Longbow's recommendation about 30-40 Krag data and I think it's very sound. I have some Krag data for 160 gr from Lyman that could correspond. I've been a 4064 and 3031 guy with this rifle. Haven't used 4227 or 4198 yet.

[john.k]

Any cast with sharp points need very hard alloy or they will collapse on firing....and collapse unevenly....Ive found if bullets are undersize ,a bit of filler on top of the powder will seal gas leakage ....I use wheat bran as its very light..........undersize bullets will be gas cut and lead the barrel ,and a filler prevents this.

[Vonllamawitz]

John, how fast are you shooting and how did you find out your bullets were collapsing?

[Vonllamawitz]

Longbow, have you used gas checks in 303? If so, how were the results regarding skidding and cutting?

[longbow]

I am lazy and cheap so normally shoot PB Boolits in all guns unless I have to use gas checks or paper patch. I found that in large bore .44 magnum and .45-70 I didn't need gas checks even with hefty loads but with my .308 I did. I tried the Lyman 31141 170 gr. GC boolit barefoot and gas cutting was impressive! I shot boolits in heavy snow so recovered some. Accuracy was non-existant! Gas checks solved that and I got very good accuracy using IMR4227 and cast boolit load data. I didn't push those terribly hard. Rifling twist is 1:12"

When I got the .303's I made a couple of smooth moulds for 200 and 215 gr. boolits which were shot PB over mild powder charges and that worked fine but if I pushed the velocity I got bad gas cutting. So, I bought an NOE 316299 GC mould and made a gas check maker. That helped but if I pushed loads to upper end cast boolit loads I found that I got "skidding" where the grooves in the boolits were wider than the rifling lands in the gun so wide grooves and narrow lands on the boolits and gas cutting. I decided a harder boolit was the next step so oven heat treated and that solved the problem for me.

The rifling twist is 1:10" in the .303's so I figured the faster twist and heavier boolit than .308 was resulting in rotational interia causing the skidding with softer lead. The gas check did not stop that but the gas check and harder boolit did. WQith low to mid range cast boolit loads there is no problem, only when pushing velocity a bit. For me anyway.

Longbow