I think it's time for a 35 Territorial.
I think it's time for a 35 Territorial.
I was considering .35/303 quite a while back (Elwood Epps was offering the rebore & rechamber), but I never followed through. Since then I've gotten a .350 Rem. Mag., which does pretty well with paper patch (IOU a post about that), so I have a .35 on hand.
As it happens, I think I'd prefer to keep this .303 a .303, in order to try it in an "old rifle" match locally. (The .303 British cartridge dates from 1888.)
I like this idea. But when I followed Criterion's link to their dealer, Dean's Gun Restoration -- which apparently installs all the others -- had a note that they do not install this barrel on P-14's. Any idea why it's hard? (And would anyone care to recommend a smith who works on P-14's, to do the install? Thanks!)
Meanwhile,PM sent.
I think it might be a good idea to reduce the width of the patch, or trim that twisted tail shorter. If it is dragged off to one side by centrifugal force there will be a split second in which the bullet is imbalanced before the patch discards, and that is enough to start a wobble.
I have picked up .577/.450 bullets in places as far apart as Arabia and Scotland, and have found the shape of that twist imprinted in the base depression. TF Fremantle, one of the developers of the .303, contrasts its meticulous loading with the slapdash procedure of the boys who loaded the Martini round. If we could apply the same stylistic analysis as we do to old masters and archaeological finds, I think we could identify individual patch-twisters.
Oops, I should have mentioned that before resizing I cut off the tail, and push the bullet through the die nose first, using a flat face punch. That leaves the bullet base still covered 100% with paper, which has been flattened pretty well by the punch, although there's still a bit of a bump in the paper from the stub of the tail. I try to make sure that the bump is centered, but the process is inexact.
I haven't fired these latest paper patch .303 loads far enough to tell, but could bullet wobble explain the results I've been getting with paper patched .22 Hornet and .222 Remington? They seem to shoot pretty well at 100 yards, start to fall apart at 200 yards, and just disappear at 300 yards (which is the max at my range).
The grits could be a problem. I have tried it and found it to cause boolit base cupping and a feathered trailing edge. But on the worn bore question - the worn bore actually gives you the ideal paper patch rifle. I have a rifle barrel with a bore with no edges to the rifling - kind of just an impression of rifling. Well, that bore shot very accurately with paper patched boolits.
I developed a patched boolit load that would disintegrate the patch, using a 'test tube'. I worked up a load that would fully disintegrate the patch. After a number of shots I needed to increase the powder charge to achieve the same patch disintegration.
The trick is to get the alloy right - well hardness. I also had the right boolit shape and size and the right paper for that particular barrel.
Rest In Peace My Son (01/06/1986 - 14/01/2014)
''Assume everything that moves is a human before identifying as otherwise''
A couple of things I note:
- your patch has a very long bevel. I would go more like 60 degrees so much shorter... though that is just my opinion.
- the 311410 is a pretty short boolit for the .303 British chamber. There may be too much jump to the rifling. I was paper patching 180 gr. short ogive boolits so they filled the throat and that seemed to work fairly well. I did try some short light boolits but accuracy disappeared.
Have you tried seating those 311410's right out with maybe just the base band in the neck? That might move them far enough to eliminate jump to the rifling.
Have you got any heavier (longer) .30 cal. boolits to test? Mind you, I tried 31141's (170 gr. RNFP) with thinner paper but did not get very good accuracy. best was with the 0.301" smooth boolits knurled up to 0.303"/0.304" and thicker paper (0.003" IIRC). That is a bit contrary to docone31's results. I just haven't had much luck with the larger boolits.
Keep trying, there will be a solution/combination of boolit and patch out there that will work well I am sure.
Longbow
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |