Thread: 303 weight comparison

I am getting the understanding that 165 is a pretty sweet weight for the 308 especially if the barrel is on the longer side.
So.... if we consider the humble 303, it is a teeny bit bigger, so does that mean weights in the 170ish mark are the same thing? Do they make a good hunting projectile in the 165-170gr range for the 303?
Otherwise its 150s or 180s with the 170s all FM's or target jobbies?

180 grains is close enough I think to the mk v11s 174 gr weight and its length and work well in my sporterised Lithgow. Some rifles shoot the 150 well others dont, the aforementioned rifle puts them 10 inches up and left at 100 yds compared to the 180 grain ones. Both have to be flat base or they won't land an a2 piece of card.

Greetings csmiffy,
Both of my .303 rifles shoot the Hornady 174 grain round nose very well with my light loads. The scoped rifle which has a like new two groove barrel shoots the 150 grain Norma boat tail quite well too but about 50 mm right and a little low compared to the 174 grains.
Grandpamac.

The .303 case volume is not really a relevant comparison as generally you are loading to lower pressures than with the .308 due to the rear locking action of the SMLE. As a result your getting loopier trajectories and a 50-100 meters less range. Pretty limited selection of projectiles.

This will be in a p14 action so if I want to I can tickle it up a little but as I seem to have some more classic models on the horizon that probably isn't a great idea.
Not wrong about less choice of projectiles but that's understandable
After a relatively rough but passable bedding job (first ever for me) the old girl seems to be shooting a lot better but only checked at 25m. Only got 4 rounds left to try a longer range group but ran out of time. Not a tack driver but hopefully passable.
More to come

as said above it will either prefer the 150 or the 180 . personally I would look at which has best terminal reputation and go from there. speer projectiles have always worked well for me. some hornady projectiles are much softer than others so are better option for my type of hunting.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

as said above it will either prefer the 150 or the 180 . personally I would look at which has best terminal reputation and go from there. speer projectiles have always worked well for me. some hornady projectiles are much softer than others so are better option for my type of hunting.

My one really likes the 215gr Woodleigh round nose. Tight groups of about 50mm at 300m but a lot of fall on the slow 2076fps load...... Man does it hit em hard.....

sounds awesome.....thats got to be close to the ORIGONAL loading for the brit...... I poke 180s through my 08 and very impressed with thier terminal preformance.

I have found 180gn for open sights and 150gn for scopes have become my go to weights for 303 hunting ammo

MD, correct, the woodleigh 215 RN was designed for those who want to replicate the original .303 loading.

Originally Posted by Dicko

The .303 case volume is not really a relevant comparison as generally you are loading to lower pressures than with the .308 due to the rear locking action of the SMLE. As a result your getting loopier trajectories and a 50-100 meters less range. Pretty limited selection of projectiles.

Here's a fascinating video. Methinks the No 4 at least will take .308 loads.

Greetings All,
Glad to see that the .303 still generates more than wide spread yawns. In responce or support to the previous posts here is another tuppence worth from me. The reason most .303 rifles shoot the heavier projectiles better is the very long throats on many of them. Whether this is by chance or extensive shooting with erosive cordite ammunition (or a little of both) I do not know. What I do know is that the crush length for the 174 Hornady round nose is 77.6 mm for my scoped rifle (near new two groove barrel) and 83.5 mm in my iron sight rifle (well used but serviceable 5 groove barrel). Both shoot the 174 grain RN well but I wouldn't bother loading the 150 grains in the iron sight rifle. The longer parallel sided section of the heavier projectile helps them into the rifling much straighter.
Glad to see that someone is still using the 215 grain round nose soft point, perhaps I should buy some before they are gone. There is one Norma 215 grain load in my odds box and it looks awesome.
The no 4 actions were re barreled in .308, called the Envoy from a less than perfect memory, by Parker Hale for use as a target rifle. These were fine with Brit military loads. Most stopped making .303 rifles sixty years ago and the P14 over a hundred years ago so hot rod hand loads would be wise in the extreme. In the safe there is a P14 converted to .308. Once some sights have been sorted out (scope) it will be shot again but only with soft loads.
Perhaps by design or perhaps by accident many of us have wound up with more than one rifle per cartridge and it can be a challenge to keep track of the loads. I believe csmiffy that you soon to join us on that. I keep loads, together with fired and empty cases, for each rifle in separate 50 round boxes and generally keep head stamps specific for one rifle. Detailed load notes and a note in each box helps too.
All the best with your old war horses.
Regards Grandpamac.

smiffy -my no4 being only 2groove (canadian longbranch jobbie) sprays 150gn rds like a mad mamas shit .feed it 180gn and they trundle along like a well trained medium pacer ball ,though im yet to find one whose game to play wicket keeper.my action was originally a cromb&merrit ex target rifle.
someone obviously a bloody more knowledgeable than me did a writeup on the 150gn loading in 2groove barrels a while ago .
gundoc ,tertle can you enlarge upon this ?
Ps -contact me willya -Imbloody sure ive found a lump of steel ideal for my winch .wednesday WOF day!

It's funny how it goes; but my short barreled SMLE shoots 150's well I used to use 174gr Hornady round noses at just over minimum as a pig load years ago. But it was hardly ever used except when bailing a boar. Those big round noses dropped them like a sack of coal! As it did the few deer I shot with it using the open sights

I'm going to sight it in with a 3-9x on it in the next week or so, so it will be interesting to see how it goes with Federal 150's. Highland 150's used to stick 5 in 3" with a 2.5 Weaver. I was pretty happy with that considering how short the barrel is and using a 2.5x scope with my old eyes!

funny how the old girls are getting a new lease on life...Nathan Foster took a #3 and chucked a brand new barrel on her (yes they are making them again ) then had it reamed to the russian round...7.62x???rimmed kept the brass buttplate as a training in technique rifle....hold it right or you get booted....LOL.by all acounts its pretty accurate.