Pulling bullets from military surplus 303 British ammunition

[Naphtali]

How difficult is it to pull bullets from military surplus 303 British ammunition and leave primers intact and fully functional?

Please describe the process.

Many British Commonwealth countries have loaded 303 British ammunition for their armed forces. Which countries' military surplus ammunition - if any - is unusually difficult to complete the process?

[georgerkahn]

One cannot know level of difficulty until one tries ! I have pulled thousands of military bullets and, well, one or two proved to be almost impossible. The challenge is often a varnish is used which in essence glues the bullet in the case mouth, in addition to whatever crimp manufacturer applied.
I made a "tool" which is basically two four-foot lengths of 2" angle iron, hinged at one end, with a hole drilled in each to accommodate a shell holder on one, and a seating die on the other. A "trick" (works for me) I discovered early on is to push the bullet in just a hair -- enough to break the varnish bond -- rather than futile attempts to simply pull this glued-in slug -- and then use my RCBS collet bullet puller to remove said bullet, albeit using my tool first is an additional step.
Last year I found some St. Louis Arsenal '06 ammunition which proved to be impossible for me to pull the bullets from (SL 43) and have learned to avoid even trying to pull bullets from these in future.
But, all in all, if you take your time, it is worth the effort! I have, but rarely use, the inertial (e.g., Quinetics) bullet pullers, as the bullet and powder get dumped in this tool's cone; with the RCBS collet approach, a clean bullet is pulled, and you then may dump the powder into a jar. (Other similar brands work as well, I am sure -- I just happen to own those made by RCBS)

Re any particular .303 challenges -- I never paid much attention to headstamp of those I pulled, and recall no particular difficulties. (Then again, there may be the 'Brit equivalent of the SL 43 .30-'06 ).

Best wishes! Two addendum: 1/ If you'd like, PM me and I'll take and send a photo of my tool; and 2/ I might add *I* dispose of all powder (scatter in garden); and, am ever cognizant those cases still have live primers in them.

Midway has the RCBS bullet puller on sale, for $21.99; I Googled it for you. The URL is: http://ads.midwayusa.com/product/680...ProductFinding

geo

[skeettx]

YUP, what geo said

I find a good way is to seat the bullets a little bit deeper first to loosen the bond (lacquer) or crimp.
Then pull the bullets with a collet puller.

Mike

[M-Tecs]

Forster Superfast (Possum Type) Bullet Puller is great if you can find one in 30. They stopped making them. Ebay has all calibers except for 22 & 30. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Forster-...item58cb4a3111

http://www.grip-n-pull.com/ have not tried this one yet.

Mostly I have only pulled US GI for mexican match. As stated setting the bullet deeper to break the seal helps greatly.

The surplus 303 British ammunition mostly will all be berdan primed and some of the older stuff may still have corrosive primers.

I think the Greek stuff was boxer primed??????

It's been a long time since I have seen surplus 303 priced cheaply enough to warrant pulling bullets. If you have a good source would you be so kind as to share it?

[Kraschenbirn]

Yup!! The 'Greek Stuff' (HPX headstamp) is boxer-primed and, so far, I've reloaded some two or three times without losing a single case.


Bill

[country gent]

As stated above the forrester super fast is a great way to go. If no longer available they are simple to make with a lathe. You need a 78 14 bolt 1 1/2' long some round stock and 1 1/4" banding. Drill a 5/8 clearence hole thru the bolt. you can lightly polish it if the mood strikes. Bore a step 1/4"-3/8" deep as large as possible in head. Torn a disk that is a light snug fit from the banding and drill a .300 or slightly smaller hole in the center. with a thin dremil cut off wheel lay out and cut 4 slots from hole to .090 of edge ( can go thru but then its harder to assemble at first. Turn a ring to press into the stepped hole in bolt head .002 -.003 is good. bore hole leaving .100 wall and angle edge to inside. ( this allows jaws to "lift" easier. Set banding jaws in step and press ring into place. Chamfer bottom edge of hole. In use screw into press with appropriate shell holder. Put case into shell holder and push thru jaws ( they will lift opening to allow bullet passage) then retract ram and case. ( jaws will lock on the slightly to large bullet gripping it and pulling it) the next round pushes this bullet out and so on. Sating bullets slightly deeper to break the seal or bond helps alot. this does happen somewhat when inserting the bullet into this type puller also. Keep in mind seating deeper and left to sit any length of time bullets may reseal bond again.

[Outpost75]

Much of the Berdan primed .303 surplus ammo produces a high percentage of hang fires and misfires.
I think you are on a fool's errand.

[Charley]

Easy to pull bullets without disturbing the primers. Seat 1/8 inch deeper, then pull with a collet puller, as mentioned. The tough part is if the cartridge is charged with Cordite. It is placed in the case before the bottleneck is formed, and it is tough to remove after the bottleneck is formed. Mostly in English, India, and Pakistani made ammo, from what I've seen.

[fatelk]

It's been a long time since I have seen surplus 303 priced cheaply enough to warrant pulling bullets. If you have a good source would you be so kind as to share it?

Yes! 20 cents per round: http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/produ..._source=search

Most of it is HXP Greek, non-corrosive boxer primed. Most of it is at least a little tarnished, but there's not a single round of what I got that I won't shoot. In fact I picked out the worst of what I got and every round fired fine. It looks like only a couple guys got anything but HXP. Here's an extensive thread on it: http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...eek-303-at-CTD

Funny thing is I was just in the process of pulling down some old "FNM 50" .303 British ammo due to misfires and split brass. I'll be loading the powder and bullets into this nice HXP brass I just emptied.

[largom]

As stated by others, seat the bullet a hair deeper to break bond. If you do not want to salvage the bullets then just run the cartridge into your press without a die installed, clamp the bullet with vice-grips and lower the press ram. Fast and easy.

Larry

[Frank46]

Yep, cheaper than dirt the folks we all love to hate cause of their gouging duering the semi auto weapons ban and ammo bans, But yes they have been selling it in lots of 395 rounds for $195 if my memory is correct. I got in when they had a bunch of "A" grade greek HXP with chargers. No rust on the chargers and all cartridges showed absolutely no corrosion. Later purchases by the guys on gunboards ammo forum show that not they are getting some HXP plus a lot of WWII english,south african,canadian, and some of the winchester WWII made 303. The latter has a corrosive primer so pull the bullet,dump powder in a container deprime and reprime with non corrosive primer. Some lots of canadian you have to do the same.Still all in all you pays your money and hope for the best. I use a kinetic bullet puller on the 303 even when it has the asplatum coating. Did about 700 rounds as the cases were so messed up that I did not want to take a chance of a case letting go in my rifle. Frank

[fatelk]

The grade B they have now is $96 for 480 rounds, or 20 cents each. Shipping to the west coast made it quite a bit more than that, but still, less than 30c/rnd for non-corrosive, reloadable .303 British? I couldn't pass that up.

Some of what I got was nice and shiny, but most was tarnished to one degree or another, but even it came clean with a quick rinse in a lemishine solution. I can't believe they have any of it still left. Some of the machine gun guys on the surplus forum have been buying it by the tens of thousands of rounds. If I could afford it I would buy more.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Or you could just shoot the stuff and pull the bullets that way.

on .303 ammo I just buy PPU ammo from SGA Ammo for $13-14 a box. It is perfect brass and is the longest lasting I have found.

Also only neck size and your cases will last a lot longer. I use a Lee Collet Sizer for that.

I would pull one of those bullets and see if the cases were Berdan primed. If they are then just shoot them and scrap them. They aren't worth messing with any further IMHO.

There is too much good stuff out there to buy that will last for a long time.

Randy