What happened to the 303 British?

They all got bought up is what,,,

Way back in the dark ages before JFK was shot,,,
I mail-ordered a British .303 for $14.95.

I will bet that in my neck of the Oklahoma woods,,,
More deer were taken with the .303 than all other guns combined.

Everyone owned one because they were affordable and easily found,,,
But let's face it, that was 45-50 years ago,,,
They've mostly been bought up.

Milsurp ammo was about 4-5 cents a round back then,,,
We shot our Enfields as often as we could scrape up a dollar bill,,,
I never heard of anyone having any problems or blowing up a British rifle.

The one I bought in 1964 for $14.95,,,
I sold in 1995 for $175.00 and believed I ripped the man off.

Now, if just for nostalgia sake,,,
I wish I had not sold it.

Sure there were better milsurps out there,,,
But not so much better as to make the .303 a bad gun,,,
27 ba-jillion British subjects and subjugated subjects can't be wrong. :D

Aarond
 
Oh, but I do, I do.
Look at how little the bottom line has moved, that's where the shoulder indexes with a rimmed round. Now look at OAL growth, pretty much zero, as shown by your top line. So the shoulder has fire-formed to the chamber without brass stretch or anything else other than reshaping the shoulder while retaining OAL & edge of the shoulder.:D

Show me the same set of images (Factory new, fired, resized) of what you have that is better.

Lets not forget that Enfields suck for accuracy too while we're at it.:rolleyes:

Err, umm 5 round 100 yd group. Lets see yours to compare as well.
DSCF7468.jpg
 
Headspacing on the rim allows the case to fill the chamber. I also neck size only for my reloads. Some are on reload #8 and going strong.

2006462360_CdnRngr1.jpg


Canadian Rangers issued Long Branch #4mk1*'s. They patrol the north territories.

000_0148.jpg


You can see the necks sized only on these reloads.

5.jpg


5 shot group, sand bags, bench, with the real sucky #5mk1 Fazakerley. Boy, that zero really wanders!

MiscStuff030-1.jpg
 
I'm gettin' one...

I know this thread is old and has been revived a few times, but I am quite excited to say my dad is gifting me a nice SMLE Mark III. In fact, I am curious as to how many incarnations of the Mark III there were. When he says Mark III, what am I most likely to end up with? Any input appreciated.
 
the .303 is alive and well

And living in the homes of many South African hunters, collectors and Bisley Shooters :)


Seriously, this side of the world it's still a popular rifle and caliber, and one can get all the reloading components including premium bullets from the world's best manufacturers for reloading.

Best Regards,

Danny
 
Yes, I was thinking about using mine for a hunting rifle. I have a friend who wants to go hunting in the Sierras later this year, when deer season opens. I am thinking this gun will do just fine. An earlier post stated that this gun has even taken down elephant.
 
I bought one from a guy for( I think ) $20 dollars when I was younger. It had been chopped for hunting and not with much effort. There were so many ordnance stamps on it it that it must have been around the world 3 times. I am not a fan of them as hunting rifles because of the safety, but that beat up gun was really accurate with Remington ammo. I am sure there were bad ones here and there but I was impressed with the accuracy of something that had been used that hard. Unfortunately, as most people realize, the cheap ammo is what dictates popularity in the U.S.
** As a side comment: The brass will stretch if loaded too hot. I have seen this with Savage lever guns.
 
back in the day, enfields were everywhere and the ammo was everywhere. it is a very nice milsurp rifle and everyone wanted one. even though I kindof think they are ugly I still find myself wishing I had an enfield. however that large supply of milsurp that everyone thought would last forever dried up. they are still on the market but both the rifles and ammo went from dirt cheap to...meh pricing.

now everyone is starting to go with the endless supply of mosin nagants and that dirt cheap 7.62x54R ammunition for it. the last time I went to my local rifle range there where 5 guys all shooting MNs. the enfield isn't gone, it just got too expensive to contend with the .06
 
Mag Capacity Still Legal?

My only concern with using one for deer hunting in Michigan would be the capacity of the magazine. I believe the regs state your gun have the ability to only carry a maximum of 5 rounds, including one in the chamber.

Which leads me to the question about revolvers, they can carry 6 and some even 8 rounds.
 
Numrich and a couple of other outfits used to sell 5-rd. aftermaket mags for SMLEs specifically to comply with this sort of hunting regs. Don't know if that's still the case, but a little Google Fu could likely find out.

When I was a boy back in MO, my first personally purchased deer rifle was a "sporterized", but otherwise in extremely nice condition 1943 Longbranch No.4 Mk. 1*. MO hunting regs for deer at that time required that a rifle's magazine could accept no more than 5 rds. Didn't matter if you only put five in one; if the Game Warden checked you and found your mag could hold even one more you could face some pretty stiff penalties. IIRC, we could buy or fabricate a "block" that was installed under the mag follower so that it wouldn't hold more than five and still be legal. That's what I did, and it passed a check several times with no issues.

Also IIRC, I had to make a slightly taller front sight in order to get mine (it had the two-aperture "flip-over" rear instead of the original-spec slide-graduated model) regulated to hit my POA at 100 yds with 180 gr. SP commercial hunting ammo.
 
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