303 Britsh

[josmund]

Hello All,

I have a Enfield MK III ( 1918 Mft ). Its been sporterized but still very cool.

It shoots about 2 MOA with cheap factory amo. My first attempt with reloads ( H 335 & 150 Hornadys were poor performers.

I was thinking only about my shoulder when selecting the 150s. Is there a rule of thumb were heavier bullets are better?

I know I have adjustments to make but want to shorten the learning curve.

 

[TRX]

Bore sizes on the Enfields are all over the place. You might need to try different bullets.

 

[GBExpat]

Also, in addition to determining the bore dimensions of your Nº1, flatbase bullets (the standard military MkVII Ball cartridge sports a FB bullet) often seem to stabilize better that boattail bullets in the old milsurp Enfields.

 

[WelshShooter]

2 MOA is great for that type of rifle. Also H-335 is too fast a powder for this calibre. I recommend 39gr - 41gr of Vihtavuori N-140 with a 174gr FMJ projectile (if you're shooting targets) at 3.075" overall length. This is a well known load that shoots really good in Enfields.

The headspace on Enfields degrade over time due to having rear locking lugs and nothing in the front. Normally the armorer would swap out the bolt head for an incremental number which was slightly longer than the previous number, thus keeping the headspace in check. I'd take your gun to a gunsmith and have them check the headspace too. This is important if you wish to re-use your brass because you could work your brass too hard if you're constantly oversizing and will run into case-head separation quite quickly.

 

[Scooter22]

Slug your bore to see what diameter it is. As far as cases neck size after the first firing. Your cases will last longer.

 

[Renton83]

I gave up reloading for my Lee-Enfield, I had too many case head seperations. Seems very common with them as the guy at the range told me he sees it pretty often.

 

[jaguarxk120]

There is a head space trick using a "O" ring under the rim of the cartridge.

The ring forces the cartridge head against the bolt face and allows the case to fire form to the chamber on the first firing. After that just neck size the case
and case head separation should stop, or that's what I have read.

 

[Scooter22]

Seems like I read something about that on a site that specializes on loading for Enfields. Your post reminded me of it. I'll have to look through my bookmarks and see if I can find it. It may have been .303.com or something like that.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

While a 150gr bullet will work for inexpensive plinking I rather use a 174gr bullet. If you can get 180gr bullets cheap use those instead.

As for you choice of powders, I don't like H335 in the 303 British. I do however get good results with it's big brother, BL-C(2). It's similar to H335 but slower. I have a feeling you will get better results with it.

 

[josmund]

Thanks for all of the feedback.

I think the head spacing is OK as the brass does not grow when fired/

I'll try some slower powder and heavier bullets.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

If powders are hard to find by you and you can't find BL-C(2) you can try 4894, 4064, RL-15 or 4320 with the heaviest bullets. The new IMR4166 is in the same burn rate zone and I've read it works well but I have no first hand info so I can't recommend it.

 

[Fatelvis]

Try a 180-200 grn cast boolit over 16grns of Alliant 2400. Accurate and mild recoiling. It will give you about 1575fps and not be position sensitive. If you can slug your bore, you will know exactly what diameter you want to size it down to, but if you stick to a .314"-.315" boolit, you should be good to go! I get better accuracy with cast boolits in my No4, than any jacketed bullets.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I have a .303 Lee Enfield that was commercially sporterized. The 174gr and 180gr bullets gave best accuracy; 150gr were disappointing.

 

[35 Whelen]

I gave up reloading for my Lee-Enfield, I had too many case head seperations. Seems very common with them as the guy at the range told me he sees it pretty often.

The best thing to combat this problem is a Lee collet die.

I used Hornady .311" 150 gr. SP's in a few Enfields and got really nice accuracy. A load of IMR-4350 shot quite well:



Also got really nice accuracy using cast bullets out of a Lyman 314299 mould and various charges of IMR-4759.





All above groups were at 100 yds.

I remember once loading the same Hornady bullet over 12.0 grs. of Unique and getting really good 100 yd. accuracy.

I'd post more pictures but as usual, Photobucket blows.

35W