Thread: Powder in Greek HXP .303 MKVII?

Originally Posted by Billymavs

Cheers all, after scouring some very dated forums
From the early 2000s the ballpark has been narrowed.

its my understanding that during the War, Great Britain contracted to buy ammo produced in the US, and since the US didn't make Cordite, it was loaded with IMR powders, BL-C, and other American powders.(the same stuff the Greeks were producing on American supplied equipment left over from the American production of 303 for the war effort)

After the War, Bruce Hodgdon bought up tons of BL-C powder as surplus. It was originally formulated for the American contract .303 Enfield ammo. Sales were so good, that when the surplus BL-C ran out, Hodgdon arranged to have more made. The new manufactured powder was named BL-C(2), and it's still being sold today.

Next to do is load up some BLC-2 and see what’s going on, based off others experience it will in principle be as close as I can get, and from others results it would appear to be on the money.

I would like to reiterate my point that old dirty ass BL-C(2) is not what's responsible for making that ammo gel well with your rifles. The same as your car will run fine on petrol from Z and NPD, you don't have to keep going to BP out of superstition.

You can use something that doesn't burn like coal at low pressures, isn't known for being highly temperature sensitive, and is perhaps cheaper.

Unless you have a stash of genuine MkVII 174gr flat based spitzers + original primers and brass, you are not duplicating the load anyway.

E.g. I made some 7.5x55 ammo for a K31 and the goal was to emulate GP11. I used a 175gr SMK and StaBall Match, worked it up to the same ~2560fps and it shot bloody great.

Originally Posted by Pommy

I would like to reiterate my point that old dirty ass BL-C(2) is not what's responsible for making that ammo gel well with your rifles. The same as your car will run fine on petrol from Z and NPD, you don't have to keep going to BP out of superstition.

You can use something that doesn't burn like coal at low pressures, isn't known for being highly temperature sensitive, and is perhaps cheaper.

Unless you have a stash of genuine MkVII 174gr flat based spitzers + original primers and brass, you are not duplicating the load anyway.

E.g. I made some 7.5x55 ammo for a K31 and the goal was to emulate GP11. I used a 175gr SMK and StaBall Match, worked it up to the same ~2560fps and it shot bloody great.

I think the idea is that the powder is a known charge amount.

If you buy pulled projectiles from GC and reuse the hxp cases then it is easy to get something to line up with the sights. Sure you could use something else but then you have to muck around trying to get close to 2440 fps etc etc