Why not a 303

It seems to be the fairly high price of reloadable ammo and bullets having "pull cuts", and the lack of reliable surplus -if found at all- at a much lower price, which keeps the price of #4/Mk. 1 rifles stable.

Due to the ammo situation I learned to reload, and now have four #4s, plus a pair of authentic #5 "Jungle Carbines".
If suplus ammo were super cheap and available, the "Jungle" would be my favorite gun, and its handiness seems preferable to my Garand.

If I had never handled an extremely rare AIA (imitation) Jungle in 7.62x39 at a Saginaw MI Gander Mountain in early '09, soon followed by watching "Croc. Dundee" using his commercial sport. version in movie Crocodile Dundee #2, the bug Might not have bitten me.
 
I have a "sporterized" Lee Enfield that was my saddle rifle for years, until I switched to an SKS. My niece still shoots my fathers old Canadian Ross, straight pull bolt rifle.
 
Owned two SMLEs, loved them both, shot targets out to 600 yards for the hell of it but never QUITE got around to taking them hunting, alas, before emigration forced their sale. Will quite happily buy another if I can find a good one.

If you handload, you have the option of 123gn, 150gn, 174/180gn and (if you're willing to pay a premium) 215gn, plus I believe Woodleigh of Australia are introducing (or have introduced) a 130gn and a very interesting 215 that's supposed to have enhanced terminal effects. There's your variety. Velocity may be down on the 308 or 06, but that depends on what you'd be hunting with it and over what distance. It has a good reputation as a moose rifle in Canada, so deer should be a breeze.

The cartridge/chamber combination was optimised for reliable chambering and easy extraction under godawful conditions, which seems like all a hunter could ask for. If you take care in the loading of the magazine you will NOT have feed issues, and cycling for a follow-up shot if necessary is VERY fast. I never tried the Mad Minute in full, but I have fired ten rounds rapid on two occasions, having loaded from milsurp stripper clips, without hanging one up on the next rim. Keep to milspec lengths (or seat Hornady bullets to the cannelure) and you're sweet. (The 215 grainers were, I admit, another matter - dummy rounds to milspec OAL would feed beautifully, but not the live ones for some reason. I never sorted out that problem before I had to sell the rifles, alas.)

I admit the brass issue, but I haven't had a problem yet and I bought myself a broken shell extractor against the day when I do. Also a Lee loader to play with regarding neck sizing for brass life prolongation.

Alas Ruger discontinued the #1 in .303 Brit before I got my licence post-move. So it's an SMLE or #4 for me. I may end up buying something else in another calibre until a decent-quality (and fully stocked!) Lee-Enfield turns up, but there's a certain nostalgia element that won't let me rest until what's on my dinner plate fell victim to the .303.
 
Back when there was a supply of cheap Brit surplus .303 ammo the No1 and No4 was very popular in the USA. I saw more sportered LE's in the woods than any other mil surplus rifle.

Now that ammo is no longer available for .03 a round it is not as popular. The combloc rifles took that spot because they had cheap ammo. Now the combloc ammo is drying up.

I'll never give up any of my LE's.

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I have a 1943 Mk4 and love it. The only problem I have with the .303 cartridge is the fact that they cost two to three times as much as the 30.06 rounds. My Enfield is very accurate and fun to shoot, but it stays in the safe most of the time, because it's just to costly to shoot.
 
Just because its a good cartridge does not guaranteed it is popular (41 magnum for example).

303 just odes not have the push over factor in the US to take off.

It doesn't do anything that the 30-06 does as well and the 30-06 has a ton of bullet choices because it was the US mainstay from pre WWI though WWII (and a bit beyond ).

There are some fine US 30 caliber cartridges that are equally low popularity.

And the one that do have a pizaza factor and lots of advertising.

Of all of them a rimmed rifle cartridge is looked at as odd (pistol caliber cartridges and the 30-30 which got entrenched aside).

Some issues with hand loaders and the old mil surplus chamber sizes and no joy there and ammo availability.

So it goes for a fine venerable round.
 
Prvi Partizan seems to have the cheapest, reloadable 303 ammo around...but as usual, at this current time --- I can't find any for sale --- for my fake sniper T "Smelly" Enfield, with a 4x Weaver scope; that draws alot of looks when I take it to the range.

I have to keep my thumb away from the ball of the bolt handle, during firing, due to recoil hits.
 
I have a .303 and love it. Its raises quite a bit between rounds if not allowed to cool, but other then that I see no reason why it shouldn't be right up there with the .06 and .308.
 
The best answer is (44 AMP) that in the US, 30-06 (and now .308) is more common in the U.S. since that's what our military fielded, and 303 is more common in the Commonwealth, combined with SIGSHR that a given common rifle/cartridge combo crowds out competition, especially in the surplus market.

Ammo availability postulates? It's like I'm in an alternate universe: 303 ammo is hard to find. B.S. Prvi (for example) is readily available and comparatively inexpensive compared to 30-06. Also, regarding non-303 ammo: com-block 7.62x54R ammo is still dirt cheap. You can easily find 7.62x54R for the same price as pre-panic days. And again, Prvi has brass cased rounds and SP rounds for hunting for reasonable prices as well.
 
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I don't know about everyone else but I like mine, about 400 rounds of milsup ammo and 60 rds of US made hunting ammo. 2 mags and 12 strippers. (ammo kind that is).
I'm confident it the round and it's loadings, just wish I could find more hunting ammo right now but what I have is fine for the present.
 
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The 303 lee enfield

When I was a kid growing up, a childhood friend was going to his first family hunt. His Dad got Mike a Lee Enfield NO.4rifle for the hunt. One Saturday Mike's Dad took Mike and me to the range to show Mike how to operate and shoot the rifle. It was for Mike and me, our first experience with a high-powered rifle. After showing us the rifle and how to operate it, Mike's Dad gave us some ammo and let us go at the targets. That rifle made a big impression on me. Today I have 5 Lee Enfield rifles and I do enjoy them. People who don't know what is what, may look down their nose at the Lee Enfield and the 303 British round. But the British round compares quite favorably to the 300 Savage and 308 Win. and will handle 215 Gr bullets better than either the Savage and Winchester rounds. Deer, Elk, Large Black Bear will go down to the British rounds just as they will with more modern rounds, and will punish your shoulder less

V/R
J.Budd
 
The .303 has a reputation as a "kicker" more becuase of the shape and size of the SMLE stock than the energy of the recoil. Its about felt recoil, not the actual energy. With a stock that fits the shooter properly its not that bad. Military stocks on the SMLE fit virtually everyone well enough to be used, but fit few people "properly".
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Pattern 14 should be fine (if left as is). Have been shooting the Model of 1917 in 30-06 and its very tolerable with no but pad.
 
Another problem with the .303 is the availability of bullets for hand loading. I shoot a 7.7mm Arisaka (essentially a .303 rimless) and I have to mail order bullets and the selection is very limited.

About 20 years ago I passed up a pastern 14 Enfield for $135 and I'm still kicking myself...

Tony
 
its not tactical, doesnt come in an ar style thingy, doesnt have 'black out' after the name. doesnt have sex appeal that the magazines say we need to want...
 
Right now, my only centerfire rifle is a SMLE that my grandfather sporterized & scoped back in the early '60's. He hunted with it a few times before he bought a .30-06 & put the SMLE in the back of the gun cabinet. When he gave it to me, all it needed was a good cleaning & sighting-in to get 2MOA groups. I'm not in a hurry to get a .30-06 or .308 since the .303 will do all that they do. And I can still find .303 ammo on the shelves. I can even download it to .30-30 levels with 7.62x39 bullets & Dacron filler.

Makes it real hard to decide on my next rifle purchase....
 
Newton24b, you've hit the nail on the head, I reckon. :p

But talk up the 10+1 capacity with rapid recharge and incredibly slick action (its rapidity of aimed fire in trained hands is legendary, almost 100 years after the fact), utterly abuse-proof, last-thing-to-stop-working-at-Passchendaele qualities of the beast and ask yourself what tactical rifle today will match that? Try smashing multiple Taliban, zombies or what-have-you around the head with your fine-quality sniper rifle and then see if it still shoots to same point of aim afterwards, LOL.

And while it's slower than some of its contemporaries, the .303 MkVII SAA Ball is no pipsqueak and it has a wicked little bite thanks to that back-weighted core. Up against a non-signatory to the Hague convention? No problem; the rifling pitch is optimised for round-nose softpoints up to 215gn weight, which are even more effective for CQB.

All it takes to look sexy is the right sales pitch. Everything's got its own little niche. :D
 
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