Reloading .303 British

I load it for a P-14 and a SMLE. Here are my findings.

They shoot best with heavier bullets (173+) and like bullets with lots of contact with the bore. No pointy boat tails.

Most charges will consume the entire case.

Case volume varies more than any other caliber I have ever seen. Sort your brass.

They dont fit in .308 ammo boxes unless you turn them upside down.

Berdan primed loaded rounds can easily be identified by having a VERY large primer. If its Larg Rifle sized, its boxer.

Only shoot your boxer primed ammo. Save the berdan ones for SHTF.

Get a Lee universal decapper. It's $15 and will save you at least that much in decapping pins.

Just my $.02 over the years.

SlamFire1, are you lubricating your loaded rounds? Cases last forever if you do.

Just to be different, I am loading up a few rounds without sizing the neck. Instead, I am holding the bullet in place with a paper patch/cardboard wad arrangement, augmented with molten wax/bullet lube. We'll see how that works out. The paper patch and wax/lube works just fine in my hornet. (Of course, I will be lubing the cartridges before firing ).

As ready4shtf says, heavy bullets work well. I have found round nose bullets to be pretty accurate in my rifle. ( MOA with zero POI drift).

You've been watching the movie Sniper too much..

SlamFire1, are you lubricating your loaded rounds? Cases last forever if you do.

Click to expand...

Not in the 303 Brit. It is a rear locking mechanism. The action is a lot of bolt stretch. I believe lubricating the case would simply stretch the case that much more.

I do have a Lee Enfield L39A1 in 308. I have found that if bullets are pushed too fast for the mechanism, I have difficult bolt lift. That tells me the cartridge stretched so much that the bolt stayed sprung.

Incidentally, the velocity that will spring my L39A1 bolt, with a 174 grain bullet, 2440 fps. I can push that same bullet almost 300 fps faster in a front locking mechanism.

I totally agree that lubricating cases in my M1's and M1a's have extended the case life far beyond what anyone would predict. I took a set of LC64 cases 22 reloads in my match M1a without a single case head seperation.

Hey, tell me if you have had problems with lubricated cases in your Lee Enfield. Maybe yours is more stout than mine.

Question: Lubricated Cases??

Guys,

Forgive me please. What do you mean by lubricating cases? I load for service rifle and am not familiar with the term or practice. I've been religously chucking cases after four loads.

Thanks,
Scott

Forgive me please. What do you mean by lubricating cases? I load for service rifle and am not familiar with the term or practice. I've been religously chucking cases after four loads.

Click to expand...

To me, lubricated cases means putting a lubricant on the outside of the case and firing it.

I do this for my M1's and M1a's. These are front locking mechanisms, they open up when there is residual pressure in the barrel, a lubricated case comes off the chamber with a lot less stress, and without lubrication my cases would incur case head separation in less than ten reloads.

I learned the technic from a Distinguished HM gunsmith. He would take his M1a brass an entire shooting season.

He simply did not remove the RCBS case lube from his cases. He never got a primer misfire, never had a problem. His cases felt slightly greasy. After all, the cases had been handled a bunch before they got to the range. The amount of lubricant you need on the outside of a case to provide adequate lubrication is tiny.

I did not like greasy cases: case lube attracts dirt. So I cleaned the stuff off (most of the time) and rubbed on Johnson Paste Wax. For my rapid fire rounds I buff the wax smooth. I found in cold weather gobs of paste wax would slow cartridge rise in the mag box, and I had a couple of times where the bolt closed on an empty chamber.

Just this weekend I handed one of my buffed unfired cases to a guy at a reduced course highpower match. He could not tell that there was a wax coating on the thing.

I suspect that some ammo manufacturers dip rounds in a wax before boxing them up. This is based on the corrosion resistance of these factory rounds. They stay bright for a long period of time and when they do tarnish, it looks like spider webbing.

There are limitations to lubricating cases. Do not hot load your ammo. Over max loads will simply stress the lugs and receiver that much more.

Another limitation is you don’t need it in bolt guns, and in my opinion, rear locking mechanisms. I have not found any advantage in case life in AR’s.

A small amount of lube on the neck and shoulder of new brass or factory ammo can make cases last a lot longer. It also helps if you have a clean chamber when fire-forming these lubed cases. The lube prevents the case mouth from "griping" the chamber as pressures rise, which often leads to the stretching near the case head.

Factory and military ammo is "one-size-fits-all" undersize for headspace. Firing these dry or in a dirty chamber begins the process of case-head stretch that results in head separation after three or four reloads. Even fewer reloads if you rifle has "large" headspace as do all military Lee Enfields.

If you want to get long case life from .303 british fired in Lee Enfield rifles, fire-form new brass with a mild load and bullets seated out far enough to give a little resistance when you close the bolt. The bullet jammed into the rifling will hold the case head against the bolt face when the cartridge is fired. This will allow the case to expand only forward in the neck and shoulder area. Thereafter neck size only (preferrably with a Lee collet die) and keep cases separated for each gun you reload for.

I shoot a lot of .303 british ammo, both jacketed and cast bullets. I expect at least 20 reloads from good brass. (not S&B) Don't try to "hot-rod" this cartridge. The best accuracy is found using slow powders like Reloder 15, and IMR4350 which don't seem to stress the action like IMR3031 and H322 (and cordite too!)

I shoot a lot of .303 british ammo, both jacketed and cast bullets. I expect at least 20 reloads from good brass. (not S&B) Don't try to "hot-rod" this cartridge. The best accuracy is found using slow powders like Reloder 15, and IMR4350 which don't seem to stress the action like IMR3031 and H322

Click to expand...

Tell me more!

I have a lot of IMR4350 and H4350. And about 1500 150 grain 303 bullets. So, how much smokeless and how fast do you push them?

I also have a Lyman Mold 314299. Casts boolits about 200 grains. You using any 4350 with cast boolits?

I am really would love to know what the mil chamber varation specs are on the things. Years ago I was running a lot of rounds tru a old martini medford and even that old first of the .303 barrels tended to break around 2-3 cases out of 100 with factory brit military ammo.

Try shooting cast bullets (Gc'ed Lyman 314299 sized to .313-.314") over 16grns of 2400. Extremely accurate, light recoil, and your neck sized casses last forever!

I've only shot a .303 Brit once, and I've never reloaded for it. That said, I don't know how much credence you might lend me on this post, but here goes....

I've heard of the shortened case life of .303 especially in SMLEs, but I didn't know it was attributable to the rear-positioned locking lugs. When I read about Lee-Enfields many years ago, it was mentioned that the chambers where the neck and shoulder of the cartridge rest were "pretty generous" in dimensions, so that the turnbolt rifles would chamber and fire ammunition even with a lot of mud, grit and unburned powder. I've always been of the impression that the case expanding to fill the slightly oversized chamber was the source of short case life. Perhaps it's this, PLUS the rear locking lugs.
I DO know that SMLEs command a LOYAL following among their owners. While almost any medium-speed rifle powder seems to work well in them, the SMLE shooters around here tell me that H335 is their powder of choice, whether with cast or jacketed projectiles. Also, .303 Brit Cases reloaded with "the load" (13.0/RedDot/150cast) seem to last forever.

I've always been of the impression that the case expanding to fill the slightly oversized chamber was the source of short case life. Perhaps it's this, PLUS the rear locking lugs.

Click to expand...

That is true. The cases gets stretched considerably on the first firing due to varying shoulder profiles, lengths, angles. Plus bolt compression.

Then, due to bolt compression, the case gets stretched on subsequent reloads.

The Lee Enfield is hard on cases.

I neck size only and have had no case head separations. FL sizing will vastly shorten case life in the Enfield.

I neck size only and have had no case head separations. FL sizing will vastly shorten case life in the Enfield.

Click to expand...

Never is neck sizing more benificial than in the enfield! By using Lee's collet die, or redding's bushing neck sizer, case life is as long as any other caliber.