Thread: Resurgence of interest in the old "Three Oh"?

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

I remember reading in an old Australian Sporting Shooter mag in the late 70's and they were re-barreling/re-chambering 303's to 30-30. Something to do with the regulations there at that time?

I think it goes back to the 40's The 25 - 303 also appeared, filling a void for Australian hunters and farmers, because at the time there was not a wide variety of choice in firearms or calibers and civilians were prohibited from owning any military calibers.

Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

Can't help you with the cylinder's capacity as I have seen them in several lengths, but can comment re the funnel. I still use mine.

Attachment 137583

and in use. Chap on left holding rifle correctly, chap on right, not, in case of boiling water spillage.

Attachment 137588

Great pics , never seen one of those before , that’s the stuff I like to see on here

After a bit of a hunt I found an old 303 ball ammo canister - here's a pic for ya's with the cleaning funnel that came with dad's rifle and some 4x2.

A canister held five packets each of 75 rounds, so 375 rounds in total. I reckon Dad must have out between 1500 and 2000 rounds through his 303 pig hunting, and he stuck everything he could, so the only ones shot were big boars and pigs out on open faces - a lot of pigs!



I also have a nice example of a Parker Hale No 4 Mk1 that is for sale, see the Sell/Trade/Swap section.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

Can't help you with the cylinder's capacity as I have seen them in several lengths, but can comment re the funnel. I still use mine.

Attachment 137583

and in use. Chap on left holding rifle correctly, chap on right, not, in case of boiling water spillage.

Attachment 137588

Greetings Kiwi Sapper,
I knew those funnels existed but had never seen one. Thank you. From memory those card board packages contained 75 rounds. I used to see them in the sports shops when we bought the rounds for sixpence each. At the time sporting ammo from CAC cost 1 and sixpence each which I thought was exorbitant.
Regards Grandpamac.

Would have came in tubes like this in a box.
750rnds in a box

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@grandpamac I found a 1/2 box of my CAC 303 ammo. I'm going to sight it in with the Federal 150's and then see if the CAC shoots close enough to use. I haven't got enough to sight in with it. If it's not close enough for sub-100m then I won't use it. I would love to shoot a deer with the old SMLE and some CAC for old time's sake I used minimum handloads of 4895(?) I think and hornady 174gr round noses for pigs. They never moved far...... That's probably why I have the CAC rounds left over

Originally Posted by clickbang

Would have came in tubes like this in a box. 750rnds in a box

Ahhhhhhhh. nostalgia.Those were the days, as @grandpamac says, 6d a round.

@GDMP My SMLE still has an old leather sling held together with white boot laces. I'm sure the laces give me a few extra feet per second

Good grief the three0..long long ago now.

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

@grandpamac I found a 1/2 box of my CAC 303 ammo. I'm going to sight it in with the Federal 150's and then see if the CAC shoots close enough to use. I haven't got enough to sight in with it. If it's not close enough for sub-100m then I won't use it. I would love to shoot a deer with the old SMLE and some CAC for old time's sake I used minimum handloads of 4895(?) I think and hornady 174gr round noses for pigs. They never moved far...... That's probably why I have the CAC rounds left over

I broke down some of the later boxer primed CAC cartridges for the components a while back. Much of the powder had clumped badly and there was light corrosion inside the cases. I fired the primers, not wanting to trust then, and some were duds. I think that the powder was AR2201 which did not handle high temperatures that well. I use 32 grains of AR2206H which is below start loads but above the 60% minimum quoted for H4895.
Grandpamac.

The CAC I have would probably mid to late 1980's

Originally Posted by doinit

Good grief the three0..long long ago now.

That scope looks a lot like the 2.5 power Lyman that is on my scoped .303. Mounts are similar too.
Grandpamac.

Not really sure how,,,but I recall when slogging around the hill for the Government I was asked to accompany a staff member on a trek.
It turned out the top brass were slightly concerned about a supposed stash of very old 303 ammo. A stash not far from a popular hut at the time,,they said it was buried. Arriving at the hut we looked at each other and the terian that we knew very well and thought, well we would have more chance pissin in the Queens hat than finding buried treasure around here.
After 3 days at the hut we never did find the old ammo,we did do some serious scratchin about too.
To end this tale ..we both found out 1 year later on that it was dug up and destroyed 4 plus yrs prior...communication brake down.
The ol 303 took the lives of many,many four and two legged targets for sure ....fact

Originally Posted by grandpamac

That scope looks a lot like the 2.5 power Lyman that is on my scoped .303. Mounts are similar too.
Grandpamac.

It was a old 3x steel Weaver Grandpamac,,almost the same to look at as your 2.5 Lyman eh.

Here's the old Three Oh with the 2.5 steel Weaver. Still have the scope