Thread: 303 174gr with 2206H

Originally Posted by shananah

First post on here. I'd be keen to know what the Greek ammo shoots like out of the box (or Gun City zippy bag) as far as consistency is concerned. From the above figures is sounds fairly hot for .303 Brit, but if its consistent, I'd be tempted to pull the Military project & pop some 174 gr Hornadys in & take the old girl for a walk when it gets a bit cooler.

I am getting around 4 MOA at 100yds with greek ammo. I have found that a simple shake test seems to cull all the corroded / hang fire / dud primer rounds. I shake the cartridge beside my ear, and if I can hear and feel the powder moving inside, its good to shoot. I found around 30 duds in 300 rds that I sorted though the other day.

The Greek 174 grain FMJ military bullets shoot excellent out of my SMLE -

With max load of 42 grains of 2208 I get 2525 fps and two inch groups with the open sights.

My bore is excellent and older rifles may not do as well.

I ended up with 41.5gr of 2208 to get 2435FPS average. Best groups I could get were around 3.5 - 4 MOA. Im not entirely sure whether this is the shooter, the rifle, or the ammo as I have spent very little time using iron sights, and my eyes are not the best.
I have tried no other projectiles than Greek 174gr FMJs.

Greetings @SixtyTen,
Depending on what you are using the rifle for you may want to try the Hornady 174 grain round nose. These shot well for me in a No4 like yours with a PH sight. I was using much lighter loads of 32 grains of AR2206H in a scoped rifle and 40 grains of AR2209 in the iron sight rifle. This last is well below start loads so caution is needed. 32 grains of AR2206H gave around 2,100 fps in my near new barrel in my scoped rifle using current production 174 grain RN.
Slower loads shooting high is common in some .303 rifles.
Regards Grandpamac.

Another thought. For iron sights like you are using the aiming point on the target is critical. I found the best was a black semicircle with the flat side at the bottom. Look through the aperture and concentrate on the front sight which should be a flat topped blade. Centre the blade with a white line showing between the top of the blade and the bottom of the black semicircle. It gets easier with practice.
GPM.

@grandpamac "Depending on what you are using the rifle for you may want to try the Hornady 174 grain round nose." It's a great projectile. The problem is finding stock!

And it might be a while before that improves @bumblefoot. Any heavy round nose .303 projectile should work and the surplus Greek projectiles should also work provided the throat is not too worn. Boat tails should probably be avoided.
GPM.

Originally Posted by shananah

First post on here. I'd be keen to know what the Greek ammo shoots like out of the box (or Gun City zippy bag) as far as consistency is concerned. From the above figures is sounds fairly hot for .303 Brit, but if its consistent, I'd be tempted to pull the Military project & pop some 174 gr Hornadys in & take the old girl for a walk when it gets a bit cooler.

I wouldn’t say it’s hot. You must shake test each round as the poor storage means that about 1-10% are duds having got wet.
I have also seen a squib load so be careful
Gun city must be at the bottom of the barrel as most of the stuff I’m now seeing on ranges is d grade in quality with brass badly corroded etc. however I’ve seen some good shooting with the earlier batches

Originally Posted by SixtyTen

I ended up with 41.5gr of 2208 to get 2435FPS average. Best groups I could get were around 3.5 - 4 MOA. Im not entirely sure whether this is the shooter, the rifle, or the ammo as I have spent very little time using iron sights, and my eyes are not the best.
I have tried no other projectiles than Greek 174gr FMJs.

Are you sure. I use 39 of 2208 with smks, hornady and s&b pills which is the go to load around here in terms of accuracy
41.5 is pushing it pretty hard

Originally Posted by omark

Are you sure. I use 39 of 2208 with smks, hornady and s&b pills which is the go to load around here in terms of accuracy
41.5 is pushing it pretty hard

I load 40-40.2gr of 2208 with 174's, I'm nearly through my 4kg tub of 2206H so will go back to 2208 now. Think it's slightly better but also hard to say as was mainly using the 2208 with smks which I don't think can get a 174 fmj in same league no matter what you do?

Originally Posted by jackson21

I load 40-40.2gr of 2208 with 174's, I'm nearly through my 4kg tub of 2206H so will go back to 2208 now. Think it's slightly better but also hard to say as was mainly using the 2208 with smks which I don't think can get a 174 fmj in same league no matter what you do?

I’ve had pretty good results out to 300 with the hornady and s&b but only out of good bores. Boat tails and worn throats wont give good results. Mind you I’m only shooting out to 300