Loads for my .35-303 Enfield Sporter.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I have moved the "Load Development" portion of this project to this section and out of the gunsmithing section. The gun is built, now comes the figuring out the ammunition part.

In case you guys haven't heard the .35-303 is a Wildcat Cartridge made by necking up a .303 Enfield case and re-boring the barrel to .35 caliber. This was done for a variety of reasons, IE: Shot Out Barrel, Not being allowed to have a "Military Caliber" in your Sporting Rifle by your Oppressive Government? Or maybe you just need something a bit more powerful to deal with something that is more powerful that you are. Large things that bite come to mind, and finally you just wanted something different that everybody else didn't have!.

The .35-303 checks all these boxes.

In this thread I talked about 2 guns that came together and started talking about load development for the Enfield. The Springfield is a .30-06 and I have had workable loads for it for 30+ years.so I don't need to discuss that.

I also have loads for 3 Jacketed Bullet Weights and one Cast Boolit Load for my .303 Enfield, so lots of things about loading that cartridge carry over to the .35-303. Neck Sizing only is the biggest one.

In order to load these rounds I had to modify a batch of new Hornady .303 brass that was given to me by a member here. I did this by Shoving the cases into a .358 Winchester Sizing Die. This made them ready to be loaded. I don't know how much the cases will change after the first firing but I do know that the shoulder will be very small but more prominent than it is before firing.

In the other thread I mentioned my new Accurate Mold (.36-250D) and showed a pic to the first boolits to come out of it. These boolits are gas checks so I won't have to diddle with barrel leading. Also the next batch will be PC'd.

Anyway more to come on this but I've got to go to a birthday party right now.

Randy

[sukivel]

That rifle sure looks good!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[elmacgyver0]

Beautiful!

[TNsailorman]

I think in some quarters that cartridge is called a ".35 Epps" after Elwood Epps who made quite a few of these conversions. I am working from a damged old age mind here though. james

[dverna]

James, your mind is good. Epps made a lot of .303 conversions. I believe his son still runs the shop in Canada.

Randy, I would do a search for Epps, and if they are still around, they may have load data for you.

An interesting rifle and caliber for sure. Good luck.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Ellwood is gone and his business was sold to another family about 10 years ago. I called them and they said they didn't have any info on loading the cartridge. I know they do but were just unwilling to look for it. There is quite a few pages on "Canadian Gun Nutz" Forum about how the place went south, and 11 pages of negative posts can't all be BS. I had emailed them a week before and the guy I talked to said he read my Email and replied to me, Except he didn't.

But not to worry I have been able to piece together enough data to get the Cast Boolits in action and I have interpolated data from .358 Winchester from Lyman 49 that will work for the 225 gr Sierra Game Kings I have waiting. I called Brian Pearce and talked to him about this he suggested using data from .35 Winchester as that cartridge is very similar to the .35-303. Unfortunately that cartridge is Obsolete and so info is scarce. None of the manuals I have, have it listed but with some help from some friends around I got pages from Lyman 38,40,41,42 which pretty much covers it.

I can get 2000 fps from 250 gr Game Kings, and 2200 fps for the 225's using IMR 4895 or 3031. I'm staying below .45,000 psi which is very safe in a #4 Mk 1 action.
Also I can easily get 1700-1800 fps out of the 250 gr Cast Boolit with 5744.

Anyway lots more to come.

Randy

[Afro408]

G'day Randy. Where I come from, the 303-35 was popular 60 odd years ago and I have one on a Martini Henry action. Lovely rifle to shoot and the heavy bullets are devastating on game. I have kept a load diary for it, as I do with every ctg I shoot and can send you some data if you like. From my research on it, Epps mainly concentrated on improved 303 case for the different calibres, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, I have used the Hornady 250gr RNSN and CBE 250gr GC boolits in it and they both perform beautifully. Cheers, from Downunda!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Afro: I will take everything you've got on loading this caliber! You can either post it in this thread, or PM me with it if you don't feel comfortable about posting Loading Data . I have a pretty good idea what the top end looks like with this cartridge based on what I got already, so not to worry about me over doing it. Thanks in advance !!!

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

I want to talk about the gun a little more. This gun feels really good in my hands. That Phenomenon is known as "Tactile Gratification" and this one has got it. The Springfield does too, but that's a different story.

The Enfield comes to point just like my shotguns do so that's good. It weighs 8 lb 4 oz. The action is buttery smooth and I attribute that to the porosity in the Cera-Kote that holds lubricant very well. I also clipped 4 turns off the Striker Spring so now the trigger has a definite Wall at 2.5 lbs. and then breaks clean at 5.5 lbs. with very little creep. This is a Stock Enfield Trigger.

The only thing that isn't 100% yet is the Front Sight. It is a Stock Enfield Front Sight blade in the Parker Hale ramp base. I painted the rear edge of the blade white so it stands out against a dark background but it is so small it is very hard to see against any kind of lighter background. I want a Green FO Front Sight but I will have to modify a Williams one as the dovetail in the PH Sight Base is smaller than the .375 one on the Williams Sight.

Anyway the project on this rifle continues.

Randy

[Afro408]

G'day Randy,
I got my most accurate load with the Hornady 250gr RNSN at 40gr of ADI 2206H. Forgot to chronograph this load.
When I got the CBE mould and cast some from WW alloy, I played around with different slow powders, 2208 & 2206 and 37gr of ADI 2208 was accurate. I found the best accuracy with ADI 2207 at 27.5gr under the 255gr WW alloy GC boolit. 1720 fps average. ADI 2205 was not as good a combination.
I then cast a batch in 30:1 alloy and found that 2205 worked best with the softer alloy. 23gr of 2205 behind the 256gr 30:1 boolit gave me an average speed of 1584 fps and the most accurate load. These cast boolits were all lubed with that brown NRA? lube.
You've done a good job on the No4 build. Excellent! I'm retired from the Gunsmithing game now, but still work on my own rifles.
I hope this information helps. All the loads here were developed with the help of QuickLoad data.

Cheers,
Tony.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Tony; Could you translate the AUS Powder Designations to English.? I think 2208 is Varget? I don't know what the others are? please?

Randy.

[Afro408]

Randy, Randy, Randy. You don't have a powder equivalents chart?
https://bulletin.accurateshooter.com...product-codes/

All the info you need.

Cheers,
Tony.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Thanks. that was everything I needed to decipher the codes.

Randy

[Afro408]

You're very welcome Randy.
Cheers,
Tony.