A very nice member sent me a 220gr lee mould last year to be used in a 303 British NOI MK III . I have some bullets sized and ready to go but need a load. I have the following powders on hand AA8700, AA3100, IMR 4198, Unique, AA4350 if any of these would work. Just need something to drop the small whitetail deer I hunt . I would think 1800 fps to 2000 fps would work very well.
Try 22 - 26 gr of the IMR4198 with a 3/4 gr dacron filler.
Larry Gibson
41gr of H4350 under a CBE 314 220 gives me spot on 2000fps in my SMLE and superb accuracy.
Thermal underwear style guru.
"Exclusive international distributor of Jeff Brown Hunt Club clothing."
Supplier to the rich(?) and infamous.
Cheers from New Zealand
Jeff.
sounds like some good loads.
A full case of BMG powder works,the recoil will get your attention also. Pat
...and you only need 50 inches of barrel to burn it all.....Originally Posted by PAT303
Thermal underwear style guru.
"Exclusive international distributor of Jeff Brown Hunt Club clothing."
Supplier to the rich(?) and infamous.
Cheers from New Zealand
Jeff.
Funny,I was thinking of a full case of AA8700
+1 except 39.5gr IMR4350 and a custom 220gr boolit chronos at 1950fps
38gr of IMR4350 sounds like a good starting load.
A little off top, but would you consider selling some bullets? I have a Lee Metford that tumbles .312 bullets and I want to try some .314s. I don't cast myself and can't source any commercial ones.
Thanks in advance.
For the Metford you might need closer to .316 or .318.
Thermal underwear style guru.
"Exclusive international distributor of Jeff Brown Hunt Club clothing."
Supplier to the rich(?) and infamous.
Cheers from New Zealand
Jeff.
The Metford bore was supposed to be tighter than the later Enfield rifled bores, closer to the nominal dimensions.
If the bore slugs at .312 or less the tumbling is more likely due to the rounded rifling not getting a good bite on the bullet, with skiding deforming the bullet.
If so a harder bullet is called for.
While the Metford still used the black powder pellet version of the .303 Br it also used a steel jacketed bullet sheathed with cupro-nickel.
Shoot me a PM, I am sure I can be of some help.
This might explain why the Lee Metford would shoot 'em sideways.I have a Lee Metford that tumbles .312 bullets and I want to try some .314s.
I'd think a tighter fit would help, as Jeff said. Velocity may be limited also. Paper patching should work though.
Rest In Peace My Son (01/06/1986 - 14/01/2014)
''Assume everything that moves is a human before identifying as otherwise''
I shot my MK111 today with CBE 225grn boolits over 30grns of AR2206H with a tuff of dacron and it shot to the sights at 200mtrs,I shot some rams at 200 and got 8 for 10 shots sitting. Pat
Hi All, I have a Martini Enfield, she started life in 1872 as a 577-450 and was re calipered to1899 to 303. The last 113 years have seen a lot of throat erosion due to possibly the large number of corrosive primers used in her. Re barreling isn't an option as I want to keep her authentic, don't want much do I. I have had some success in tightening up the groups by using Hornady RN 174 gr projectiles and seating them as far out as I dare. The OAL is the same but the projectile profile gives me around 1/4 closer to the start of the rifling. I can't go up in diameter, when I slugged the bore and measured it she is .312 at the muzzle. I just need to get some longer projectiles. Any suggestions out there please.
Cheers Mark..
"Its life Jim but not as we know it"
MARK: It wasn't the primers that did the throat in. It was the cordite.
You may want to paper patch the old girl. Load the fattest boolit you can fit in the chamber.
Thermal underwear style guru.
"Exclusive international distributor of Jeff Brown Hunt Club clothing."
Supplier to the rich(?) and infamous.
Cheers from New Zealand
Jeff.
You are correct in that the high temperature of Cordite ate away the throat at an accelerated rate, almost all cases of excessive throat erosion in Enfields can be blamed on Cordite,but the earlier mercuric primers with ground glass mixed in to sensitize the compound was also a factor.
Chlorate primers also used ground glass. The pre WW2 substitution of barium salts as a sensitizer was in part to reduce the effects of ground glass scouring the bore steel.
Many old BP era repeating rifles show much wear to moving parts due to ground glass from the primers being mixed with the powder fouling.
PS
RWS came up with a primer compound intended to reduce bore erosion, and it seems to have been successful. Not sure but it may have been called Sinox.
Re-tube it,there are companies around that will bore the original barrel out and reline it or bore it out to .35 cal and make it a 35/303,or ask someone on this forum to send you some 250grn wisper boolits. Pat
You could try resizing 8mm bullets to fit the throat. Don't worry about the bore size, it'll size down when it gets there. A trick I use in my 'rust textured' two groove is dipping the bullet bases in molten 'waxy-lube' before seating. This prevents copper fouling and protects the insides of the suppressor from rust. I'm convinced it also reduces pressure. A thought for oversize bullets.
Rest In Peace My Son (01/06/1986 - 14/01/2014)
''Assume everything that moves is a human before identifying as otherwise''
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