Anyone have a have a source of 303 Enfield brass?

[ianb1116]

Since the 303 is a rimmed cartridge and headspaces on that, the chamber is not as critical, plus the older ammunition used cordite which led to erosion in the barrel throat and more space for the case to expand into when fired.

I think that may be way I've seen more case head separation in the .303's we own over any other cartridge.

[Nate7667]

I'm seeing plenty of options!

https://ammoseek.com/reloading/brass/303-british

So there is!

(Natchez and CTD can eat a box of dicks)

[RockIsland]

Here's S&B 150gr soft point for $12.85 a box.

https://www.outdoorlimited.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=sb303b




I don't reload but I've heard S&B brass is good. I use that time not reloading, to search the interwebz for cheap milsurp rifle ammo.

Never bought anything from them, and d/k how good their shipping prices are.


CTD had some (I think) Greek surplus a few years ago for pretty cheap. I didn't have the money at the time, and yeah F CTD!

The cheap surplus ammo days are over.

[abner13]

I think that may be way I've seen more case head separation in the .303's we own over any other cartridge.

Have you even checked the headspace?

[Rosco the Iroc]

Of course you can run an #1,2,3 bolt head to make up for the head space if needed. Damm the brits were smart.
How much brass are you looking for, and what are you offering? ahem, someone I know..really well might just have a few hundred cases..

[Nate7667]

CTD had some (I think) Greek surplus a few years ago for pretty cheap. I didn't have the money at the time, and yeah F CTD!

The cheap surplus ammo days are over.

...I sucked it up, ate crow, and bought a bunch of that surplus 303 from CTD when they had it.

[Ecclectic Collector]

I'm a big fan of the .303 and have some experience with using it in multiple rifles. The tapered case body and intentionally loose chamber dimensions tends to make it hard on reloaded ammo.

There are some cures for this. If RuralTom wants to load his own one of the best bets to extend the case lives is to fire his ammo, then only neck size the cases so they'll chamber instead of doing the normal full length resizing. Just try a few dummy rounds and get it so that the completed cartridge just chambers with a little effort. You'll get 4-5+ reloads on each fired case that way instead of the usual 2-3 reloads you'd get by full length sizing. Another strategy to extend case life is to simply back off the powder charge by about 10% from max loadings. I'm a big fan of IMR4895 and Hodgon H4895 or RL#7 powders in this cartridge.

As for sources on brass or new ammo. I second Grafs as a source. I've used both them an Midsouth Shooters supply for years. My old preference was Remington-Peters headstamped cases as I found they had the right balance of elasticity vs strength but with the debacle the owners of Remington are going thru cost cutting at the expense of everything else this may not be an option anymore. Winchester brass is also good. As for import ammo and brass: I've found that both PPU and Privi are good. Your mileage may vary. The old .303 is a real war horse of a cartridge and any temporary shortage of cases is short term. Its popularity in North America is still huge and enough people overseas use the .303 to make demand for it high overall.

[MT1]

OP... Google '.303 British brass for sale" and you'll find plenty of sources. If you're looking for a local source you may have to hit numerous gun shops to find factory ammo. I've had some success finding both brass and ammo at auctions for good prices.

[SIGFAN86]

Join these groups and you'll most likely find what you need.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1810655925847479/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/reloadingcentral/

[gun-bunny]

A friend of mine bought a box of the Greek surplus to shoot his SMLE in the 100yr service rifle matches. It was really inexpensive, both the ammo and the Fazakerly NoIVMKI*, and he was going to shoot side by side with me with my Savage NoIVMKI* that I shot my reloads. The first match he started digging into his surplus ammo on strippers and had hangfire after hangfire. Some of them were so long between ignition and detonation that he was afraid to extract cartridges that were misfires. I was on the opposite end of the firing line due to how we signed up, not side by side, and I didn't even know what was going on until I heard the RSO disQ him for equipment failure.

I eventually bought the Fazakerly and case of .303 from him, thinking I could reuse the brass and primer by removing the bullet (using a standard kinetic bullet pulling hammer) and reload the cartridges. As it turns out, the problem was not just the old powder- but with the primers also. No luck. I don't want to remove live primers. I guess I could just fire the empty cartridge through the rifle then reload the brass from there, but this was almost 20 years ago and I haven't looked into since then.

It's funny, how the price of everything changed... I used to have a (large) bag of stripper clips that got in the way. I had more than I could ever reload enough cartridges to load them into. I gave the bag to a friend of mine when I found out he bought a Longbranch without much thought. It's just what friends do, help each other out. I never knew they were going for $1 a clip! I don't regret helping out a friend, but yowza, I could have bought a case of .312 lead projos, a box of primers, more powder, and probably had some left over!