Thread: 303 weight comparison

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.