.303 light load

[junkyard dog]

My No.4 Mk1 has a five groove barrel and I pretty much only shoot powder coated cast through it, I did have issues with leading until I got the lubes right, and in the case of the powder coating, allowing it to harden for a week or so after coating before shooting.

16gn of 2400 gives a lovely soft shooting round that you could send down range all day, a box of 50 costs about the same as a semi decent box of .22lr and the brass lasts forever.

Thanks Lightning, I hadn't heard of powder coating before (apart from wheel refurb) I will look into it.

[kennyc]

Thanks Lightning, I hadn't heard of powder coating before (apart from wheel refurb) I will look into it.

[lightning22]

I never had much joy with the shake and bake method, I have an electrostatic gun which does the trick.

[kennyc]

I never had much joy with the shake and bake method, I have an electrostatic gun which does the trick.

thats why it says its a first attempt

[amc577]

The H and N plated bullets will not give you any leading...copper plated pure lead plus a high speed coating....good to about 1600 fps for the 303 bullet..

amc577

[simgre]

Dropping your load to around half of where it should be will probably give you incomplete obturation, fluctuating pressure and erratic performance. Potentially this could lead to a barrel obstruction and an explosion then likely.

I’d say the advice give so far has been good. There are some lovely, light and accurate recipes out there fir 100 yds with a .303. But none of them are with the components you want “to keep it simple” with.

[sarge4318]

Dropping your load to around half of where it should be will probably give you incomplete obturation, fluctuating pressure and erratic performance. Potentially this could lead to a barrel obstruction and an explosion then likely.

I’d say the advice give so far has been good. There are some lovely, light and accurate recipes out there fir 100 yds with a .303. But none of them are with the components you want “to keep it simple” with.

Reducing powder is often more dangerous than increasing it.
Halving the charge is likely to lead to an explosion in the chamber with far greater pressure then normal and cause the brass to flow back at best and complete destruction at the worst.

I have seen this happen on three occasions with 223 cases where it is hard to over charge with the most common powders but they can be easily undercharged. Each time the chamber detonation as some would call it or secondary explosive effect (S.E.E.), I prefer pressure spike, was caused by reducing the powder deliberately (one instance) or not noticing 'bridging' in a Dillon powder measure (the other two instances). I still have some of the parts of one of these here where I keep them just for show after having to rebuild the rifle.

I have been told Hodgdons did a lot of research into this and found that a reduced load could leave the primer flash hole exposed, the pressure from the primer igniting could push the bullet out of the case where it would lodge in the rifling. The powder then ignites and the pressure would have to build up more (often to dangerous levels) in order to start the bullet moving again now that it is stuck in the rifling with the accompanying extra friction. They couldn't get the powder to detonate from the flash of the primer firing across the total surface of the powder in a half filled case.

ETA:
My 'light load' in .303 is not much lighter, certainly not light enough to be called a reduced load. It is 36.2gn R7 with 174gn FMJ or SMK bullet. Felt recoil is much nicer and although I haven't chronoed them yet the come ups are slightly greater than the older surplus or S&B 303Ball. Makes it a pain as I have to remember the come-ups whereas with surplus ammo the old sights are pretty much already calibrated.

[junkyard dog]

A big thank-you to all who replied to this thread. The powder coating seems like a lot of work so probably won't be going down that road. The H&N bullets seem to be a good way to go but after a quick search I can't seem to find a dealer in the UK. The points made about case sealing and incomplete burning are all well noted. I am now thinking of starting with a 30 gn load and if I do I will be keeping a careful check on the cases for signs of over pressure and incomplete neck sealing. I've been shooting for a very long time now so I'm confident I would be aware of a bullet not exiting the barrel, having said that I'll probably give this a bit more thought and see if I can find any additional info on line. Thanks again everyone.
Edit :_ I've just read Sarge's post, it was posted as I was typing mine. So again all noted and thanks. Did you find the Reloader7 load data?

[kennyc]

https://hfammunition.co.uk/products/...black-100-pack

[junkyard dog]

good man kenny

[kennyc]

Oops just noticed they are currently out of stock, may be worth contacting them, dodgyrog casts and sells cast bullets, if he is t on here anymore he will be on full bore UK

[Paul101]

For 100 yds, reduced loads several of my pals use shotgun powders...Maxam PSB2 11gns or GM3 10gns.. with the H and N plated bullet.. or cast..
Pretty accurate.

amc577

That’s a good gm3 load.
I’ve got a couple of kilos, just need a few plated Bullets, my project for the week whilst on lockdown

[junkyard dog]

Found a vid on dangers of light loads with slow powders. As has been pointed out on here .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYleuf8xRgQ

[junkyard dog]

Update:- At the range yesterday and shot 3 batches (5 rounds each) of .303 loaded with 27gns/30gns/33gns of N140 behind a 150gn PPU jacketed soft point from Kranks. (other bullet suppliers are available) The result was very encouraging. All rounds were nice to shoot and fairly accurate (4 MOAish @ 100 yds) No pressure signs and the only load I am going to discount is the 27gn load which left a small amount of unburnt powder in the barrel and had a slightly smokey case neck.
Now the disclaimer:- This was with a rifle in good condition and a shooter who was not daft enough to fire another round if the previous one didn't make it out of the end of the barrel.

[airgunnut]

When I was searching for a low load for my schmidt rubin I joined the Swiss rifles forum, they were the only ones who didn't say "I uses this load" (a rearly hot load) then say "why do you want to download it?" the advice I was given by the Swiss rifles gang was 16 grains of 2400, they said it was the standad starter load for WW2 rifles. I checked it using quick load and the pressures were well under the limit
-swiss-chamber-