The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

The 303 is no less and accurate round than any other 30 cal, it takes decent bullets I use SMKs for accuracy work, reasonable case capacity and a rim for good headspacing. However you need to rethink your accuracy expectations with military rifles and in a decent shooting rifle military sights.

Some day I will have a bench type gun made by a decent gun maker in .303" Shilen or Kreiger barrel free floated, a decent action, some appropriate woodwork for how its being shot, good glass and I'm sure it will hold its own with the 308.

I'm also going to have one made in N02 musket probably on a large frame Martini action again with a top notch barrel as above for BPC shooting.

I've all but given up shooting military rifle competitions as my eyes have really gone down hill over the past 18 months as have my averages so its over to glass and shooting for groups, getting old is truly sh*te.

Accuracy wise I have no issues what so ever with the .303. My P14 with the Brindles trigger is a delight to shoot at 800 and returns good accuracy. I was out earlier this year with the 4(T) shooting at 800/1000/1200. This was at 48" frame so a bit of a stretch with a 3.bowl scope built in 1943 but it worked. I could not see my fall of shot so had a shooter next to me calling the POI's. Shooting rested we both agreed the rifle was doing well and he even remarked that three consecutive shots had fallen in around a 12" group, almost certainly luck more than skill but I did keep the majority of the shots comfortably in the black so the rifle was shooting a good 3MOA and better at 1000 yards

For me also the limiting factor is my eyes and the 3.bowl No32 Mk1 makes a huge difference to my shooting pleasure.

For me the issue is reloading the .303. I eventually sprung the Action on my SMLE, something I have never forgiven myself for (Worse still it was my son who pulled the trigger so I feel doubly bad about it) So really it is just a matter of building up confidence again and in this respect it would be interesting to see how other people reload their .303's

I have a tried and tested combination of 39.x grains of N140 behind a 174 SMK with CCI primers, really for me the concern is which brass to use, I have HXP, S&B and Winchester and all has been used before in other rifles, I really should haul it all out, cull the cases that I am not happy with and get my head down and load some more .303’s

I load the 303 with the same processes and principles as I do any other round, its not difficult or that different. Sounds like you just have a bit of block about. Give your self plenty of time and just sit down and slowly and methodically load yourself a box of 50, then have a leisurely shoot enjoying your handloaded ammunition.

I have a Ross MK11 with an enlarged chamber, when shot the cases come out like an 8 x 56R with a really short neck, collect die doesn't work on it so I use an NDFS neck resize die. Case life is good after that, well the brass has had 8 full stoke (39.9 gns VV N140) loads so far with no seperation sign.

I never size brand new brass these days. I ensure it chambers then if needs be I Chamf and debur. I'll take it to the range maybe 30 to 50 rounds a time and shoot them. After shooting I full length size them, trim them back to 2/1000 under the recommended size, load and shoot them again. When it's time to reload them I run them through an RCBS X-Die. The X-Die will allow the case to grow the 2/1000 but after that there is very little if any growth at all and the X-dies don't work the brass like FL dies do

I haven't a clue how many times I have reloaded my .303 cases but I do know that I haven't bought any in quite a while. Don't know if any of you folks have tried the X-Dies but personally I love them.

Blu

Hi folks

thanks to all the advice, I had success at the range with my reloads. For a first-timer, I was really happy that they all chambered easily, fired and extracted without any mishaps. Now that I am confident with the process, I can concentrate on the next step of trying to get reasonable accuracy from my reloads.

Donald

Its not that difficult Donald, it can't be, even I manage to do it.

Please excuse my ignorance Blu but what's the difference between x dies and other dies ? Cheers ian

The mandrel design limits case length growth.

Link to die instructions here:

http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/instructi ... ctions.pdf

Blu, I have them in a couple of calibres and do like them, unfortunately for us here in the UK RCBS products are not well promoted or supported by the importers so they are hard to get.

Thankyou

dromia wrote:Its not that difficult Donald, it can't be, even I manage to do it.

Without casting aspersions Dromia, it is quite a srtight-forward process....... once you have done it successfully. My first primer failed to seat properly. Left me with a half-primed case which I couldn't remove from shell-holder. After a lot of thought, went for the brute force option (after herding the cats outside, and with all the protection on, including heavy safety gloves) and through gritted teeth forced up the lever. Slight give and primer popped into place. Turns out I was being too tentative, and not realising the force required. After that, the next 49 were a dawdle :shakeshout:

There's no substitute for experience