.303 Savage and Lee Loader

[Gadzooks Mike]

Ok, Savage fans. I'd like your opinions on this.

I have always wanted a Lee Wack-A-Mole for my .303 Savage, but there aren't any to be found, and I'm not even sure they were ever made. In any case, I have a set of .303 dies, so I can reload my cases anyway. But it seems that maybe, just maybe, a 30-30 Lee Loader would work just fine for the .303 Savage since it only resizes the neck. The neck on a 303 is slightly longer, but the same diameter as the 30-30. Headsize of a 30-30 is a bit smaller, but that may not matter either, depending on how the tool holds the case.

Anyone ever done this? Anyone think this might work? If nobody has done this, I may just drop the $20 or so to find out. If I do, I'll let you all know.

 

[Shoney]

You may not be able to use a 30-30 die on the 303 Sav.

The length of the 30-30 = 2.039"
The length of the 303Sv = 2.015"

30-30 shoulder starts at 1.440" and ends at the neck 1.563"
303Sv shoulder starts at 1.351" and ends at the neck 1.478"

case width at shoulder
30-30 = 0.401
303Sv = 0.413

The savage case is not long enough to go all the way into the 30-30 die, you would have 0.085 303 Sav case not sized. But of greater importance, the 30-30 neck sizer may size down the 303 at the shoulder/neck (unknown until it is tried).

 

[Gadzooks Mike]

That's the kind of stuff I was wondering. I'm not sure how the case fits into the die for those things. Not like a normal die, I know. Ah heck, it's worth the $20 to find out, right? I think I'll order one and see what happens. If it doesn't work, I'll stick it on ebay or something. Who knows, with a bit of modification, some luck, and a cold rootbeer....

 

[GooseGestapo]

As long as you're shooting brass that was fired in YOUR rifle, You'll probably be OK.

You just won't size the entire neck. Even the .30/30 only neck sizes the neck as far as the rim allows the case to be inserted/driven into the sizer. Even with the .30/30, I found that brass fired in another gun with a looser chamber often weren't fuctional in my Remington M788 that had a tight, and very accurate chamber.

You might however have a small problem with the tightness of the neck not allowing proper seating of the bullets .311" for the .303 Savage. Lightly reaming the inside of the case neck will help. I did this with a small pen knife held at about a 45deg. angle.

If you can find a punch with a tapered section that is slightly larger than the neck, you can use the round-tapered part of the punch inserted into the case to lightly expand the mouth to allow proper seating. Just a .004-.007" will do. The Lee pistol dies came with a plug type expander. When I started loading cast bullets in the .30/30 while broke and in college in the mid-70's, I used this technique. If needed, you can use the crimping function of the reverse end of the sizing die to turn the case mouth back into the bullet shank to allow proper feeding and sizing.

Experimentation is the essence of reloading..........
good luck...

 

[Gadzooks Mike]

And the answer is - nope.

Although it only resizes the necks, the entire case has to fit into the die. And the die is a bit small for a .303 Savage to fit. I guess it could be drilled out a bit, but I don't have the equipment to do that.

The manual decapper, though, is useful and I can decap the used Savage shells using a small board across my legs and a mallet while watching TV. Then I can clean them up properly before using the normal loader and dies to resize them.

I'll probably keep the set, though, since I may someday come into possesion of a 30-30 or find somebody willing to drill it out a bit to fit the .303 Savage.

Anyway, I promised you all an answer, and there it is.