Assistance Knowledge on Enfield .303

"The primers are boxer, not Berdan, so re-priming is a huge pain."

The reverse. The British-designed Boxer primer was adopted in the U.S. and has its own anvil and a central flash hole so it can be easily pushed out for reloading. The American-designed Berdan primer was adopted in Britain and elsewhere; it has its anvil as part of the cartridge case and small non-centric flash holes, so has to be pried out for reloading.

Jim
 
I would consider it a positive lesson learned. I have a No4 MKII and I've taken several whitetail deer and ferel hogs with it in south Arkansas and north Louisiana. It's as popular a hunting round outside the United States as the .30-30 is inside.
 
You can get good Prvi Partizan or Sellier & Belloit .303 ammo for a decent price, it's modern, boxer primed, and clean. Good brass for reloading. Save your brass, if you know someone who reloads, you can spring for a set of dies and the components and the two of you can reload your .303 for cheap.
 
The secret to good case life with 303 reloads is to necksize only. You start pushing the shoulder back and your case life will go to hell.
 
I'd get the PPU 180 gr loads as they both reload well & follow the path of the original 174GR MkVII closely enough you can use the gradations on the sights issued with no real problem.

You could use the MkVII ball for punching paper, plinking & so on with no bad side effects. It may be theoretically collectable but its not enough of a premium to worry about. I'd honestly shoot it as "other" ammunition.
 
I fired a few rounds through it today. The recoil was rather mild.

It was raining out so I did not go for any accuracy firing. I did check the head space first and things were good to go.

I will now put it in the rack after cleaning.

Appreciate all the comments and information. :)
 
The recoil was rather mild.
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A friend of mine who was a "Mauser guy" tried my No4, after 3 rounds he exclaimed :
"Hey! It doesn't beat the sn*t out of you like my Mausers"!
He became an convert that day :cool:
 
The secret to good case life with 303 reloads is to necksize only
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I'll second that. Enfields were built with extremely generous chambers to allow functioning when fouled or with dirty ammo. After cases are fireformed to your rifle the first time, neck size only to prevent overworking the brass.

I load for 2 .303s and have dedicated brass batches for each.
 
Which dies are you Fella's using for your reloading? I am still debating whether I will shoot it enough to reload for the .303.
 
At one time, when I got "once fired" .303 brass I would FL resize them once. Then I had a complete head separation on what should have been its second firing (first time I fired it).

After that, I decided that I would not FL resize, and I would also avoid "once fired" brass, unless it was fired by me.

If you have a .303 British, get a ruptured case extractor. They aren't all that expensive. You may never need it, but if you need it just once in your life, you will be very glad you have it!!!

I know the British were using Cordite through WWII. I've seen 1940 photos of women loading ammo with it. They literally just stick a small bundle of what looks like thin spaghetti into the case, and cut it off at the end.

I do have one small pet peeve that involves "Cordite", and that is the frequent use by writers who don't know what they are writing about using "the smell of cordite" when describing any/every gunshot. somebody gets it from a 9mm or a .25auto and writers talk of the smell of cordite in the air...

Cordite like several other powders has a distinctive smell. Noticeably quite different from about everything else. Guns tht shoot ammo that was never loaded with cordite simply cannot smell like cordite, no matter what the writer thinks. (rant over)
 
Any of you gentlemen needs a .303 neck die, I have a Lee collet to sell. Don't like it and don't need it. I do just fine partial length resizing. About 20 loads before I retired the first batch of brass. Head separation happened a few times. The broken brass could be easily extracted with bore cleaning brush. No big deal.

Let me know if you are interested in my collet die. It has been sitting in my storage for more than a year now. Thanks.

-TL

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Which dies are you Fella's using for your reloading? I am still debating whether I will shoot it enough to reload for the .303.
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I use the RCBS neck size only, or the Hornady Custom-grade new dimension full length but backed off to allow for partial full length resize.

You can easily use just the lee classic whack-a -mole for the 303 if you want a simple basic kit.
 
Yes, the wack-a-mole Lee reloading device brings back some fond memories. It was my first reloading tool from about forty years ago. I reloaded a lot of .243 Winchester rounds with it. I still have it but have not use it for years. :)

Back then, the price was less than ten bucks and now over forty bucks. I will most likely just get the Lee two die set, with neck sizing die only, for my turret press.
 
My memory of the "whack a mole" in 44 mag was it separated cases after two rounds.

Not a fond memory though other than lost case and a waste of money.

I threw it away, pretty sour on it and I had a good concrete barrier to pound on.
 
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