303 British

A

ammo.crafter

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Is there a viable parent cartridge case that could be used to fire form a 303 British case? For example, perhaps a 30-30 case or 307 Wincher case?
 
Nope.
Rim and base diameters are wrong.

.30-40 cases be used with minimal effort. But they are usually harder to obtain than .303B.


I have heard of people using .303 Savage. But there is a lot that doesn't add up with that one. .303 Savage can be used to make 7.35x51mm, bit it makes no sense for .303B.
It is also generally not available.
 
No.

Not really.

At least no common easily available or cheap one.

The closest in size that I know of is the .30-40 Krag case. .303 cases can be formed from Krag brass, the Krag is a few thousandths larger rim and head but frequently will work in the "generous" .303 British military rifle chambers.

You can also make workable .30-40 Krag cases from .303 British brass, but it will be "short".

Sadly, Krag brass is no longer in the "common, easily available or cheap" class.

.30-30 will not work, its too small, both rim and head, and too short in case length. .307 Win won't work either the rim's too small and the case head is too fat. 7.62x54R is even bigger in the rim and case head.

New .303 Brit brass never was a big selling item, and with the shortages of the last few years, is probably extremely rare and pricey.

You may find it easier to simply buy US made loaded ammunition, and reload the brass. Not cheaper, but easier.

Do not get European milsurp (even if you can find any) looking to use the brass. The cases will almost certainly be Berdan primed.

If you do happen to luck onto some new Krag brass I strongly urge you not to turn it into .303 British but rather to sell or trade it to Krag shooters instead. If Krag shooters find out you are "wrecking" some of "their" brass in today's scarce market, they will be most put out with you. :rolleyes:

seriously, if you do get some Krag brass put it up for trade for .303. Might take a bit of time to connect, but somebody out there will want it, and might have some .303 they'd be more than happy to trade.

Also, if you manage to get your hands on some "once fired" .303 Brit brass, be cautious, and expect short case life, I've had some that failed on their first (reloaded) firing.

There are some "tricks" that will help extend the case life, I know and use them, effectiveness varies. Happy to share them when you get to the point of being ready to reload .303 British, just ask.

Good Luck, the .303 Brit is pretty much a niche round int the US these days.
 
"Ammo.crafter" may be wanting to live up to his name and craft ammo, which will be different from the limited factory offerings. New empty factory brass would be better for that purpose. Maybe he is lucky and has a bunch of .311, 200 grain Woodleigh's. I dunno. Depending on what he is firing it through, he may be better off paying the high price of empty brass from Graf's, or buying some prvi partisan loaded ammunition from midway and pulling the bullets. As 44 AMP noted, firing a round through an SMLE may be a one time deal, if that's what he is using.

I have a #4 SMLE (longbranch arsenal), a pattern 14 rifle (winchester mfg), and a Ruger #1-A, all chambered for .303 British. The chamber on the Ruger is great, and not too bad on the P-14. However, the chamber is so generous on the SMLE #4, that after the first re-loading, about 10% of the brass shows hairline cracks just above the web. Having experienced that incipient separation, I no longer re-load anything from the SMLE, and the once fired brass is just trashed. And yes, when I re-loaded the SMLE brass, I was careful not to set the shoulder back for the second firing in that rifle, and no, my SMLE does not have a headspace problem.

Decades ago, a friend gave me some 30-40 Krag brass, which wasn't that scarce then. I used the unique/cream of wheat method to fireform 303 british. After fire forming 20 rounds, the rifle was a mess of partially cooked breakfast cereal, and non-functional. Although the twenty fire formed 30-40 krag brass worked fine, I gave up on the cream of wheat method.
 
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Cream of Wheat is always a bad idea, in my opinion.
And, in my experience, slightly reduced loads or full power 'starting' loads give better results, anyway. (And usually print great groups.)
 
A common trick among .303 users is to slip a thin O-ring over the case and roll it down to the rim, so it gets squashed between the front of the rim and the end of the chamber's rim recess, taking up all the head clearance. When they fire, rather than stretching the case at the pressure ring, the shoulder blows forward. Thereafter, they can resize that case only enough so the finished shoulder is 0.001-0.002" below what it blew out to, thus causing the cartridge to headspace on its shoulder instead of its rim. This significantly extends brass life.
 
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