Thread: SMLE mklll 303.25

Originally Posted by ritchie426

Dammit, missed out on them!! But on the upside, won a auction for a lee breech lock challenger press with 303 dies, hand primers and so on!! Also got some RCBS 6.5 x 55 dies for 33 bucks so all good!!

Fast or last ritchie462.

There will be others

Cheers
Pete

woohoo they are relisted, ringing my sister in oz today to get her to forward some on to me as the seller doesnt post to nz... cooooool

Originally Posted by ritchie426

woohoo they are relisted, ringing my sister in oz today to get her to forward some on to me as the seller doesnt post to nz... cooooool

Things have a habit of working themselves out.

Cheers
Pete

Originally Posted by Land Rover

Wound channel of a pig I just smacked at 185yards with the 303-25. 75gr SST at 3200 fps. Shot just behind the ear.
No wonder it dropped on the spot.


Attachment 30456Attachment 30457Attachment 30458

well bugger me ,that cured that pigs headache once &for all!
with tongue hanging out i dont think he likes the way you dispense the medicine though!
Did similar years ago to a hare that limped-18gn.303 slug -not much to photograph ,a bit of sinew and a rear lower leg.rest was native forest compost!!

well the excitement was short lived...... they fit the simplex turret press only

Originally Posted by ritchie426

well the excitement was short lived...... they fit the simplex turret press only

@ritchie425

Not to worry.

Get yourself a set of super simplex 5/8ths" to 7/8th"x14tpi adapters and only $25 and you'll be away laughing.

Super Simplex 5 8 - 7 8 Adapter - Reloading Dies - Reloading - by Simplex - Allows the Use of a Super

These guys may also have the 303-25 dies in 7/8ths x 14tpi

Cheers
Pete

so I spent some time on the net sussing out the dies and adapters, rung Western Firearms who were out of stock of the 303.25 dies, turns out they were coming back in stock yesterday afternoon so I ordered a set from them, looking at the pictures of the simplex ones and talking to a couple of gun shops they are old new stock, hence all the surface rust on them and the 5/8 threads.

Took a photo of my empty cases that have split, these were loaded about 20 years ago, had no problems whatsoever when they were loaded yet now they are splitting, they are a mix of resized 303 cases DC 41 VllZ and riverbrand 303.25 cases. Will put another photo up of some reloaded ones, they havent been formed properly with the projectile not sitting true.

sorry, those ones are 2 303 and super 303.25!!

ye ol 303.25, sportco barrel 1942 SMLE

and BOOOM...... looky what I got in the mail today

yeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaah!!!

Hi Ritchie,just come across this thread so I'm a bit behind, but I have the simplex press & can load them ( & other cals) for you or you can pop on out our way to do the loading yourself if you like, It doesn't matter whether it's X mil brass or not as I have the gear to do both. If Dundees mate will do them ---no worries, but if you get stuck give me a call on three 7 four 345 eight. I'm about 40 mins out of Dannevirke amongst the moreporks & 4 legged furry game.

Hey Phil, legendary, thanks for the offer, hopefully have some time next week to experiment!!

Email sent.
Just a thought on those split shells. Sometimes annealing them before reloading will soften the brass so they'll generally last longer.
If it's mil brass the corrosive salts in the primer also tends to degrade the brass if not cleaned asap after firing.---just like the rifle.
I'll keep an eye out for the 303/25 brass as I come across a fair bit of uncommon brass in my travels.
Phil.

Hi Everyone, Just reading this thread on the 303.25. I got all this the other day thinking how cool it all was but im disappointed now, Its not cycling very well at all, When you pull the bolt back it drags the top bullet lip back over the bottom round then wont load, Its just seems all set up a bit wrong, Really nice looking rifle but no mag or floor plate, First I thought there was just far to much tension on the spring being compressed into a small space but I bent it a little to take out some tension but it still didn't improve things, Not sure what to do with it now, Im no expert and not familiar with 303 so if anyone has any ideas that would be appreciated.