Thread: CAC .303 vs HXP .303

Hi All,

I am currently in a situation where I’ve been offered two bulk lots of .303 ammo at the exact same price.

One is HXP .303 1970s ish
The other one is CAC .303 1954
Both are sealed in bandoliers and on charger clips
HXP in a Metal case
And CAC in a cardboard tubes

Currently I shoot the Guncity HXP .303 out of my SMLE no1 Mk3*

Unfortunately I can’t buy both.

Which one should I buy and why?

Thanks for the knowledge in advance

Hows the hxp shoot in your rifle

Originally Posted by blip

Hows the hxp shoot in your rifle

Can’t complain.
I get like 3 inch groups at 100m from sitting.
But I feel like that’s more of a “I suck” problem than it is a “The ammo sucks” problem.
I do get the occasional failure to fire but that’s to be expected.
Longest 60 seconds of my life ever though waiting to confirm it’s not a hang fire.

If you reload, which is better for reloading?

3" isnt to bad for one of those

The CAC is cordite, berdan primed and not reloadable. The primer is mercuric and chlorate so corrosive but nothing a wet patch won't fix. The bullet will be the mk vii flat base which was intended for the rifle. Flat base always seem to shoot better. The priming mix is less likely to give hang fires imo as it was "over engineered" for reliability.
Experience with the hxp has been variable some has been stored in less than ideal conditions.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

The CAC is cordite, berdan primed and not reloadable. The primer is mercuric and chlorate so corrosive but nothing a wet patch won't fix. The bullet will be the mk vii flat base which was intended for the rifle. Flat base always seem to shoot better. The priming mix is less likely to give hang fires imo as it was "over engineered" for reliability.
Experience with the hxp has been variable some has been stored in less than ideal conditions.

Your nuggets of knowledge are greatly appreciated.
I don’t reload so I don’t mind that the CAC is Berdan primed.
However the corrosiveness of the primer is a bit annoying

Do you know if the HXP is corrosive?
The guncity stuff isn’t.

The Greek stuff is not corrosive. I would take the HXP. 1954 was a long time ago.

I have read that cordite is more corrosive than powder as well as corrosive primers I would go for the XHP.

If the HXP is not the dregs of the garbage guncity is peddling and is an older stash, then I would go for that. An easy check if they will be ok is to give them a shake and listen for powder moving. No powder movement = garbage.

Cordite is a double base powder nitro glycerine and nitro cellulose plus stableisers, the poms chose it because it was not affected by temperature. Downside is it burnt hot cf straight cellulose powder. So under rapid fire of a large number of rounds barrel erosion was a possibility. Yes,Greek hpx is a stick powder like the adi offerings and should rattle. The CAC on the other hand won't as the cordite is in long strands like spaghetti that fill the case

The cac is also collectable

It is? They sell it in plastic bags of 10 for $15 down here. And I thought that was steep for 70 year old ammo...I have a couple of boxes of it lying around here dated '54 or '58. I have been keeping it in case an elephant escapes from the zoo and I need some ball ammo

Yeah I tried to sell some mint cond CAC at low price and no takers so just shot it off. Went well too. I bought HXP primed brass ex GC, bullets had been pulled so neck sizing indicated. After first firing I annealed and FL sized. I got bags of 50 2 yrs ago from GC ChCh and while they had been tumble cleaned they were still tarnish stained dark in places but no visible rot. I've reloaded the first bag twice so far, one neck failure with cracking on first firing before annealing. If I get 3-4 reloads out of them I'll more than get my $$ worth.

Another thing, if you don't reload, the HXP brass that survives being shot will likely fetch upwards of 80c a piece on yellow site. Just offer it as is. I hate buying brass someone else has cleaned and decapped and resized. Prefer to do that stuff myself. Well, I guess cleaning is ok if they don't use steel pins...

Got a few cac rounds someone can have if they pick them up.