Odd looking .303 advice req.

[legs748]

After using up my stock of privi I went out and bought some hornady .303 174gr btfmj, I planned to load a batch today but after assembling the first round it just looked odd, like the cannulure is in the wrong place. Case is Remington and contains 39gr of vit 140, bullet is seated to 3.070" oal.

Shouldn't the groove sit on the edge of the case neck? I pulled the privi bullet from my inert bench round to compare and they have the cannulure in a completely different place. privi on the left, hornady on the right.
Also the box states the hornady to be .3105 yet they mic up at a full .312"
Are these bullets wrong, packaged wrong or just plain wrong? Or is the location of the groove immaterial?

Any ideas or advice gratefully received.

[saddler]

They're defective

Send them to me & I'll safely dispose of them for you

[mag41uk]

Saddler is such a wag!

They are fine. I have used quite a few of these.

Tony

[Dougan]

Interesting...the crimping grove it definitely in the wrong place for a standard .303 'British'...at the risk of a daft question (to all) are there other .303 types of ammunition that this bullet could be intended for?

[Chapuis]

It's not really a crimping groove just ignore it. It is really just a means of holding the jacket to the core.

[jcampbellsmith]

If you want to crimp them using the groove, then seat the bullet more deeply and work your load up again. Looking in the Hornady Manual (8th Ed), the two other .303 bullets listed also have a similarly positioned cannelure.

Looking further at the manual it lists COL of 2.980 for the #3131 bullet.

Regards JCS

[dromia]

Why would you want to crimp anyway?

[Laurie]

Interesting...the crimping grove it definitely in the wrong place for a standard .303 'British'...at the risk of a daft question (to all) are there other .303 types of ammunition that this bullet could be intended for?

7.62X545R, 7.7X58mm Arisaka, 7.65X53mm Mauser, .303 Savage use 0.310-0.311" bullets. As Dromia says though, why bother? You neither need to crimp, nor want to, unless maybe loading for an automatic weapon

[Dougan]

If you want to crimp them using the groove, then seat the bullet more deeply and work your load up again. Looking in the Hornady Manual (8th Ed), the two other .303 bullets listed also have a similarly positioned cannelure.

Looking further at the manual it lists COL of 2.980 for the #3131 bullet.

Regards JCS

Thanks for that - Unfortunately I haven't got the Hornady manual, as I'd like to see the loads (don't suppose there's one for Viht powder is there?) - That seating depth is 90 thou deeper that those normally advised for '.303 British', which would put the grove nearer the neck...

...Legs...what does one look like seated to 2.980...?

[Dougan]

Why would you want to crimp anyway?

I wouldn't...I totally agree on that...

...but reloading suppliers do make factory and taper crimps for rifle cartridges, and manuals describe how to use them; so I assume that some folk do crimp, and I've seen factory ammo that is lightly crimped into a shallow groove...

...I'm still curious as to Hornady's purpose for the groove, and if they intended that bullet to be used for '.303 British' loads...?