.303 British: Reeellly light gallery type loads?

[Rich/WIS]

Not 303 but 30/40 Krag, 5 grs of Bullseye under any weight cast (122-173 gr) is subsonic and recoils if non-existent. In non rimmed cases such as 30/06 same load works but enlarge the flash holes to prevent the case from shortening. Rimmed cases headspace on the rim and case shortening is not an issue.

[racepres]

Sorry if this is too late... But

With the current state of price, vs availability of 22rf ammo. I need to keep my young Grandson shooting.. Reactive 22RF targets.. Welp. by Accident.. I have a 1916/m93 Mauser with a short 300 Savage barrel on it. Essentially useless, for me, and since I shoot 99% cast projectiles... this one is little used. Revelation!!! Prime and charge with 3.0 gr of Red Dot [still available at our Sporting goods stores at about $26 to $30, a pound, and cheaper as "Promo"] a then stick a 0 Buckshot Ball in the neck. Hint, if you seat with something "flat" like a 44 Mag seater stem, you can get very Consistent Loads. Dip the exposed ball end, in LLA, and have more fun than I have had, in a very long time!!! Best Part.. my particular buckshot weighs up at 43Grains...and out of My Mauser... achieves 1200 FPS even!!! Prints very nice Groups Indeed... a Plus!!!

Pretty much... 22RF NO?

Yes... Bigger Hole in Paper, and very satisfying "slap" on Steel

HTH someone... I am having a blast!!!!

FWIW
For some time after my Broken Body Episode, I had similar Issues... plus couldn't (still can't very well) put my head in the Position for Rifle Shooting... let alone handle Any recoil.
My solution.. Handguns... YMMV

[Outpost75]

Having fun with this thread. Some years ago Sportsman's Guide had .303 chamber adapters for .32 H&R Magnum or .32 S&W Long as well as for .32 ACP. I tried them briefly, but none were as accurate as light gallery handloads in .303 brass. I was most interested in a 100 and 200-yard load for offhand and rapid-fire practice and so favored the heavier bullets which fed well. Larry's suggestion to use .32 pistol bullets is absolutely most economical choice for short range shooting and the Hornady swaged lead bullets given a light overcoat of Lee Liquid Alox with a minimum charge of Bullseye, TiteGroup, etc. will shoot ragged hole groups at 50 ft. to 25 yards.

[Mk42gunner]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...Rifles-Article

Lots of food for thought in the posted article. It really helped me when I was developing light loads for cf rifles.

Hope your brother gets better.

Robert

[iomskp]

Short explanation: my younger brother suffered a whiplash injury bad enough he was designated 100% disabled for work and sent into early retirement. Amongst the other stuff, his specialist told him his days of shooting his centerfire rifles are over. Even the hand shock from shooting his recurves aggravates the injury, but he built himself a 45 lb long bow for hunting and finds that tolerable. His rimfire rifles he can still shoot with no problems.

So... one of his rifles is a No. 4 Mk1 Lee Enfield I gave him a few decades ago. He's heading over here in a few days, and I want to put together a REALLY light load that he can try and see if he can shoot it without irritation. Something below "The Load" levels of velocity and resulting recoil. I'm hoping that something with a velocity of about 700 - 800 fps with either one of my 175/185 grain moulds will be something that doesn't aggravate his neck injury. At least that would allow him to shoot targets/gophers, etc out to hopefully 50 yards at least.

I'm thinking/guessing of starting with 5 grains of Bullseye, W231, Clays, 700-X, Red Dot, Unique, C-300 (some of what I have on hand) to see how that goes and what the chronograph tells me. I'll be checking the bore after every shot for a bit to ensure I haven't stuck a bullet in the bore before the next round goes in the chamber.

Before I start assembling loads... anybody out there who's already done something similar in .303 British with similar weights of cast bullets? How did it go and what kind of velocities and accuracy did you get?

My reply has nothing to do with loads, I was involved in a 100 kilm head on and suffered whiplash and spinal fractures and was left unable to shoot my 12 bore rifles or even my 300 H & H, what works for me at the range is shooting off a standing bench that way I don't support the full weight of the rifle and I can roll with the recoil, I hope this helps him

[charlie b]

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

Here are some other ideas for gallery loads.

[303Guy]

I have recently played some with light loads in my Lee Enfield (sporterized) and I can say it's more fun than full power loads. Even lighter 'full power' loads are more fun. My first attempts were not accurate enough to satisfy me although I'm seeing hunters sighting in their rifles with less accuracy and precision, saying it's good enough for deer. I won't be hunting deer - my quarry is smaller and requires minute of beer can at 100 yds but does not require full power 303 loads, although they do work. One can imagine what a 180gr bullet does to a turkey! I just don't need the muzzle blast and the recoil. Admittedly, being able to nail 'em out to 200 yds is great but I don't expect anything further than 100 yds. Besides, most of my 'hunting' will be at the range shooting holes in paper. That's when low to no recoil really shines! But at the moment I'm still having fun with 22's.

My light load powder of choice is Trail Boss but so far have not had the greatest success but then I haven't given it a fair trial yet. 5 gr of Clays has work in the past so I'll be trialling that powder alongside the Trail Boss. The great thing about Trail Boss is that it fills the case or close enough.

[MOC031]

Thanks for all the ongoing suggestions, etc. Had a couple of days of really fun weather here since winter decided it forgot something on it's way out and came back. Not much time for 'puters or the reloading bench. I will get around to posting up some replies.

On the other hand, helping a ski patrol buddy yesterday, he said his brother had some shooting stuff that he left behind when he moved, and maybe I might have a use for it...



Looks like it wasn't even out of the box once.

[Mk42gunner]

That mold should give you some decent plinkers to try with the .303B. At least to let you know if you are going the right way.

Robert

[3006guns]

Well, all I can contribute is a anecdote........

Many moons ago I move to Oregon and hauled my very nice '03 with me. When I bought it at a gun show, the seller threw in a bandoleer of armor piercing 30-06. As a result, I thought ALL .30 caliber rifles kicked the snot out of you. A gentleman I met in Oregon gave me a handful of his "pipsqueak" loads, consisting of a .32 caliber pistol bullet over a small charge of shotgun powder. I didn't have the sense to ask about the powder or charge weight unfortunately.

To my absolute delight, the rifle had NO recoil at all and hit dead center using the battle sight at 75 yards. Since the battle sight is set at 575 yards (I believe) there's no fiddling with elevation. So, the advice to use a .32 bullet of perhaps 100-115 grains (like a 32-20 bullet) and small charge of fast powder is good. Try it and you'll like it!

[Texas by God]

I tried the Lee 314TLswc over 4.7grs(.5cc) of Bullseye today. It shot well for me offhand at about 25 feet. No hearing protection or recoil pad needed. Single shot only due to short OAL.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[Argentino]

I´ve used 5 to 6 grains of HP 38 with different boolits ranging from 160 to 180 gns. Mostly Lee moulds.

Tumble lubed with LLA or BLL´s, no gas check, soft alloy. In my N4 MkII they will clock somewhere between 1000 to 1200 fps,
giving me pie plate accuracy at 150 meters with original iron sights.

I don´t feel confortable using such small volume loads in a rifle cartridge case with lots of empty room inside so I always use a filler with those loads, 0.5 to 1.0 grains of kapok over the powder charge. Besides, they tend to ignite more consistently when using a filler IMHO.

For shorter distances like 50 yards or so, .32 S&W Long boolits around 100 grains will group nicely when shooting from a bench.

Recoil is almost non existent with any of those loads. And they are fun to shoot too. I enjoy them much more than full rifle loads.

Argie.

[303Guy]

I like a filler or positioner myself. Beware of cotton wool. While it makes a wonderful filler, it can also ignite and smolder. Not always though. I did experiments with it and takes specific conditions to ignite but when it does it can set the countryside on fire. Kapok apparently not although I have not tried it. I use Dacron.

I've tried 32 100gr boolits but I think I was driving them too fast. I still have a few actually. But for the length I lean toward heavier boolits to reduce boolit jump. I want the ogive to actually contact the throat. I haven't tested the differences so I can't say what's best. But, I do have a few boolits to test and will be doing so soon enough. My load will be 5gr Clays under 130gr Mihecs. I have what I have decided to be a dedicated cast boolit rifle. In fact, I might even load up a few this afternoon to test on Sunday.

[MOC031]

Working a turnaround right now... results and findings when I get a day to get back to the reloading bench. Thanks for the ongoing discussion...

[ebb]

MOCO31 you sound like a good brother. My brother called me the other day and said he had a saw for me. An almost new porter cable 315-1 I have worn out 2 sets of bearings in my old one I retired a few years back, and my 356 is shot also. I really liked the original 315, they were like chrome when they came out of the box.

[MOC031]

MOCO31 you sound like a good brother.

I have two GREAT younger brothers. Makes it easy trying to be the same to them. Turnarounds are good money, but they sure put a crimp in your life while you're working them.

[Alferd Packer]

I just shot forty rounds of .303 using 120 gr Rcbs cast bullet over 5 grs Bullseye.
I brushed bore after each ten rounds.
,°Clean bore!
@ 25 yds a 2 inch group.

[Krag 1901]

Brazo Precision has some 120 gr 32-20 boolets BB for a good price ($49 for ~850ea delivered), powder coated I just ordered. they come in several dia (.312-~314") Might fit a .303? I'll be using them for .308 & .30-40 K.

Just in case you don't want to buy a mold for Mouse Pharting.

[15meter]

Round ball loads were some of my first rifle loads. 308 that had been converted from some kind of mauser.

Think I paid $39 for the rifle.

I got the recipe out of a book I checked out of the local library, went back a number of years later to reread it and it was gone. We had a new library director that pencil whipped virtually all shooting/loading/hunting books out of inventory.

but he did have a whole stack of Madonna's book from a couple of decades ago.

He laughed in my face when I questioned getting rid of the hunting/shooting stuff. And this is a reasonably rural county, I got the impression that he was going to re-educate us.

He didn't last long before he went on to greener pastures, may have had something with his contract not being renewed.

But round ball loads are still worth the time for executing tin cans and other politically incorrect behavior.

[Alferd Packer]

I think that starting with close range 25 yard loads and then getting them to shoot from one inch loads to all thru the same hole would tech you what shooting and reloading cast bullets is about. The reloading seems to be the same, but shooting cast is a whole new ball game. What works for jacketed bullets is not the same.
I have seen first time shooters get excellent groups, but they are usually being coached by an experienced cast boolit shooter, or sometimes they have done a lot of homework on the subjectb