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

Or name

Originally Posted by Cordite

Yes, the Americans have a thing for "scout rifles". No real NZ equivalent, and "bushpig" does not quite have the same cool factor.

Really? To me, the number 5 meets the criteria very well.


By Rama - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=76075779

Originally Posted by GDMP

Seeing as semi's are now gone,maybe there will be a resurgence in the classic bolt action milsurp rifles.There will still be quantities of such rifles in storage around the world, but they must surely be hard to find now even with the huge numbers manufactured in the past.I have always had a bit of a fetish for Mauser carbines myself.....

Greetings GDMP and All,
Agreed. An excellent point. Lets hope some see the benefits of looking after and feeding some old soldier rather than hosing down cardboard soldiers with cheapo mil spec ammo, much more rewarding in the end. As Scout has found there lots of rifles looking for a new home in NZ. We just need to find them or for them to find us. Lets see what turns up next.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by GDMP

Seeing as semi's are now gone,maybe there will be a resurgence in the classic bolt action milsurp rifles.There will still be quantities of such rifles in storage around the world, but they must surely be hard to find now even with the huge numbers manufactured in the past.I have always had a bit of a fetish for Mauser carbines myself.....

Greetings GDMP and All,
Agreed. An excellent point. Lets hope some see the benefits of looking after and feeding some old soldier rather than hosing down cardboard soldiers with cheapo mil spec ammo, much more rewarding in the end. As Scout has found there lots of rifles looking for a new home in NZ. We just need to find them or for them to find us. Lets see what turns up next.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by csmiffy

@Cordite a quick think about it would suggest that while you could just cut and shut the bolt, the physical clockwise action of closing the bolt couldn't be changed that easily. You would then have a bolt that would be pointing straight up when you were ready to fire.
don't know about a left handed one. Doubt if they did it for the military-you were just trained to use it the way it was designed. I cant remember the source but it suggested that the majority of soldiers weren't familiar with firearms anyway so it is less of an issue to teach a lefty to shoot right handed then make a bunch of rifles for a minority
Did find this comment on another forum:

"There were no left handed service rifles, leftys became proficient at using the rifle in right handed fashion under the gentle ministrations of Sergeants and other Non-Coms. I have seen a 303 from Qld at the Nationals where the bolt handle had been extended and bent back over the striker in such a fashion as to be readily manipulated with the left hand without having to reach over the stock or moving the head too much, and this enabled the shooter to use the left shoulder with ease."

Ima true cackhander and have no major problems using normal firearms >im also a tightarse and im not paying an extra $100.00 simply for a LHmodel.
During my Tf careerall drill prior to firng done right handed -lasrt min flick to left shoulder to fire .did had some probs with ejection of5.56 cases from m16 causing a facial burn but easily sorted throwing shoulder forward shotty style .bren -nup right hand all the way left handed looks like an octopus trying to molest itself!
all my present arms cause me no probs whatsoever including the grand old dame my 1943 No4 Mk1*longbranch .303

somewhere in my collection of old NZ hunting mags i have an article on a DIY gunsmith/farmer whose skills created about 9 different versions of our beloved .303
one of interest was a no4 which he rebarreled with an arisaka?? barrel set further back plus modified bolt face in effect making it 7.62x39-apparently with pigs a scourge on the farm it was a race to grab this and go deal .apparently all of his kids took pigs with it.bloody fascinating article to read and photos as well.
must see if i can find it amongst gear+++++++++++.
my 180gnrounds trundel along around 2100-2200FPS but the impact is the important one.
regarding the scorn of some writers .(without names)one stated quite flatly given the differences between .303/.308 either was a bloody effective killer if used properly and he'd yet to see an animalthat knew the diference when dropped.
another rather quixotically condemned the .30 to history in modern hunting but in the next paragraph states hed be keen on a 7.62x39 for bush hunting inside 150m range .
ballistics charts ive consulted generally show both rounds to have same specs give or take a few FPS so Im rather bemused.

Well I think a good time & thread maybe to post a warning on shooting off Old ammo, ALWAYS wear shooting glasses & ear protection !!

I mowed the lawn & thought ill stick a mag through that 303 I just got, I had checked & cleaned barrel, it looks good, all matching numbers so didn't check head space (to be fair I normally shoot all sorts of bitser 303's) fulled up the mag with some old millitary rounds, all looked to be in good nick (again I shoot some terrible condition ammo but this was nice) stuck some ear muffs on SANS safety glasses (picked them up, dirty & have trouble seeing sights even with clean ones & only shooting a mag ! ?) shot like a Mad Minute & second to last round blew up, got a bit of crap in the eye & a little in the face, good really from the look of the case, no primer to be found !

The rest of the fired cases looked fine .

ouch-literally dodged a bullet there. To be fair it isn't the nicest looking bit of brass around

Looked the same as that unfired cartridge before firing, I don't actually know why it failed ?

that is a bugger then. Cant be too much of the rifles fault. You would've thought it would do it to a heap of them not just one.
Split at the neck and down by the rim/web
Chamber might be a bit loose.
Considering that as per some of our PM's my P14 has a way bigger chamber than a couple of my lee enfields as I found out.

is it still under warranty

ive had head/case seperations occur periodically when attempting to eject fired cases (milsurp).actually iwas even given a specific .303case removal tool found in 2Cant NMWC RQMS in the KEB in CHCH.the RQMSat time reckoned i was uglier than a fired.303 mangier than an unfed lab and the fact i was a"nuit nurse"scared the shit out of him .thanking you wo1Steve Witton
"hey you spotty herbert"
now ant round with a bright ring between case /head -out is goes no execeptions.a rattale rasp willaslo remove jammed broken cases if youre desperate.
Old bloke at deerstalkers shoot told me a cup of boiling vinegar down ya barrel periodically if using milsurp ammo will clean out any shit &corrosive crap!
barrel dries quick with a shine any RSM would cry over!!

Originally Posted by northdude

is it still under warranty

Haha, right should have a go at CAC then, it has something to do with the 80yr old ammo !

Just thought I would post it as a reminder, I normally do wear safety glasses when shooting off crappy looking or old ammo in Older rifles !

Originally Posted by Scout

Looked the same as that unfired cartridge before firing, I don't actually know why it failed ?

It the primer, usually potassium chlorate based, had mercury fulminate in it, could it have embrittled the case even if unfired? 70 yrs is a long time to store it, not designed to cope with that, mercury does evaporate even from amalgam tooth fillings and deposits on metals, why not internally in the cartridge? Give it enough time and the effect may be significant. Mercury fulminate primers are required to be made of copper, not brass, so the colour of the primers may give a clue.

I've had apparently good ww2 ammo split nearly every neck of a bandolier of 50, but again don't know if there was mercury fulminate in British/CAC primers.

Here's some cleaner ammo, but it might still split the necks at least.



As for splitting at the base... don't think mercury embrittling would do that. The base of cartridge is meant to be hard, the same reason we never anneal the base of a cartridge. I'd look for some reason the gun was just not supporting the cartridge base.

hope this isnt going to far off course but how about the 303 25 how good was that round always been curious do i need one a bit of aussie history