Thread: 303-250

Had to bury an elderly neighbour's old house cow the other day, and over a cup of tea afterwards, he told me about the good old days in the district, including his hunting haunts. He described hunting with a 303-250, which I'd never heard of (not that I'm any sort of expert). He said in Aussie the gov't after the war prohibited civvies owning military caliber weapons, and so this cartridge was developed to take advantage of plenty of surplus war-era rifles and brass. He reckons ammo is pretty hard to get these days, and has to buy it from Aussie.

Was this caliber ever a thing in NZ?

Hard case I’d not herd of it a quick google suggest 303-25 a .303 case necked down to .257 I would say it would be very hard to find ammo for a 1940s Australian cartridge I don’t imagine it was much of a thing here if we didn’t have the same rule/law and the .257bob is of the same era

Good old hunting mate had one - dont know where it is now -he sold it and now carrys a Tikka 7mm08 - he like it as a caliber and had it for many years

I formed some 303-25 brass last week
Just to make a dummy round to try out some dies I brought

In this image with a 25-35 which I was intending building a rifle in
But then decided the 303-25 was a vastly more capable cartridge for NZ hunting

Originally Posted by Kelton

Hard case I’d not herd of it a quick google suggest 303-25 a .303 case necked down to .257 I would say it would be very hard to find ammo for a 1940s Australian cartridge I don’t imagine it was much of a thing here if we didn’t have the same rule/law and the .257bob is of the same era

Wrong the 257 Robert's was introduced in 1934 by remington who commercialized what was a popular wildcat made by the man who it is named after based on the wonderful 7 mm mauser necked down and the shoulder angle sharpened. I think he would object to it being called "Bob"

I had a 303-25 for years.
Bought the rifle and reloading gear for it from Rod Satherly (Manchester Street, CHCH).
Rod had a young fella working there...by name of Dave Tipple!
Anyway, yes a good calibre. There were a few variations too...303-22, 303-25, 303-270 come to mind.
Yes, after WW2 Oz Govt didn't want 'war' rifles (.303) in the hands of 'normal' people, so the wildcat versions became popular (and legal) in Oz.
I shot a few animals over quite a few years, including a lovely 12 point stag at Griffen Creek (Otira way).
The 87 grain projectile seems to be the 'best' for the calibre...but I did try a few with 120 grains.
My rifle was a Mauser action so I could get some extra grunt from having that strong action (bearing in mind the weakness of the cartridge case design anyway). I finally sold it to someone in CHCH and I'm sure that a few months ago I saw my old rifle on this forum where someone was asking if they were an OK calibre.
I'd have another one tomorrow.
Very pleasant to shoot, and accurate.
https://sportingshooter.com.au/ask-u...or-the-303-25/

A mate of mine in Aussie just bought one. There have been a couple on TM lately too

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Wrong the 257 Robert's was introduced in 1934 by remington who commercialized what was a popular wildcat made by the man who it is named after based on the wonderful 7 mm mauser necked down and the shoulder angle sharpened. I think he would object to it being called "Bob"

Well that’s sort of what I mean it was commercially available in New Zealand at the time so it’d be a no brained of the wildcat I’d have thought

Got one but needs rebedding before I put a shot through it.
Got it cheap as it didnt shoot well at all.
Done some things to it but the bedding is miles out.
Barrel isnt flash so could be toast anyway
Got a handful of loaded ammo a mate had and some of the aussie super 87grainers that wouldve been used in it
Ammo in Australia is still available.
Mine had 1-12 twist which is meant to be alright for 100 brainers and possibly the short round nose 117 hobbies stability wise.
It's on a P14 action so can crank them up over the smle actions

@csmiffy My mate in Aussie even managed to find an old Lee Loader for his! But of course 25-303s are much more prevalent there so there'll be a corresponding greater amount of gear for them too

Well I have a set of Simplex 303-25 dies
Can get a Vulcan 1:8 twist barrel
Would need to make a chamber reamer as unlikely to find one easily in NZ
There will be on out there somewhere
Din Collings would have done a few of them and I know he did a few 30-40s also
Would love to find both those reamers

There's a blast from the past,Rod Satherly of Technical Reloading Services. I bought a Redding turret press and RCBS scales and Redding Dies from Rod in about 1968/9 and they are still in regular use today. Gary White worked upstais. As to the 303 conversions there were a few around and when I lived in Otira a local had a 303/243 which was a real hummer.

@akaroa1 you and I might need to have a catch up one day and maybe load up some test rounds for my thing

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Well I have a set of Simplex 303-25 dies
Can get a Vulcan 1:8 twist barrel
Would need to make a chamber reamer as unlikely to find one easily in NZ
There will be on out there somewhere
Din Collings would have done a few of them and I know he did a few 30-40s also
Would love to find both those reamers

I also have 30-40 krag dies, brass and a Lee Enfield 30-40 barrel in as new condition

Would love one that shoots to go with my 303-22