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i have a good supply off ppu ammo i need to shoot up , found a small lot of 100 cases of winchester at a garage sale .
whats your favorite powder ?
i have 1 box of 125 grs .
5 boxes of 150 gr
3 boxes of 174-180 gr
these are unmolested iron sight rifles pie plate accuracy is expected but playing card is what im after .
i have a pretty good amount of H4895 , 414 and bl-c2
favorite brass ? worth getting a neck sizer die ?
I’ve got nothing productive for you, but I did chuckle at your “pie plate expected, playing card is what I’m after” comment. Keep us posted with your results, hopefully someone will come along here with some good info for you. If I remember, there was a guy that made a post a few months ago with a bunch of info on loading for old mil surp rifles, you might try looking for that.
JTD
I've played with a few different powders in the .303 Brit. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the powders listed. I think my preference is for IMR 4895 / H4895 (Not the same powder but similar) for a 174gr load.
When loading for the .303 Brit (I'm assuming you have a Lee Enfield SMLE) there's are few things to pay attention to.
1. The SMLE action is inherently springy and this can stretch your brass, particularity just in front of the web of the case. After a few cycles of reloading and shooting you'll begin to see a ring appear. What it isn't obvious is that inside the cases you are getting thinning of the brass where the visible ring occurs. Eventually this will lead to a case head separation. I use a small pick to run along the inside of the case and if I can feel the spot where's it thinning with the pick, then it's time to throw it out or to relegate the case for my "mouse fart cast loads"
2. Bore Diameter is important as they can very widely between .310 to .314 in some cases. Using a soft lead ball to slug the bore and have an understanding of what bore diameter will go along way in selecting the proper diameter bullet for use in your rifle.
3. Surplus Lee Enfields were used in competition shooting in in the years following WW2. They are capable of good accuracy if one knows how to accurize the Lee Enfield. If you'd like to get the minute of "Playing card" using some of the techniques these old timers used should get you most of the way there. There's a few books on it that I have on my book shelf and are readily available on Amazon.
4. Honestly, I like the PPU brass for this caliber. I have no idea who makes it for them or if they may it for themselves but it's worked for me. I haven't ever bought just brass.
5. For accuracy, the 174gr SMK does well for me. My rifle shoots about 2 minutes of playing card. I hope to bring that down by tightening up the stock.
6. Another thing you might look into is cast bullets. I have a Lee Mold and cast 150gr pills. 11.5grs of unique will drive the bullet to ~1500fps. It tames the rifle and is way more fun then you could image.
7. The throat is quite long so trying to seat off the lands is pretty much impossible. Even if the bore is quite new.
Hope that helps.
Helped more than you know the pawn shop had a box of 3130 which i want to say there is more than 100 in it for 13 bucks . Just good dirt shooting or deal loads. I was going to load to the cannulure and go with that. Starting 44 grs of h4895 hopefully its pizza box worthy .
From a few videos i have seen neck sizing might be the way to go . Hopefully but not banking on that neck sized brass will work with both even if its mixed up but i will see later on .
I bought 2 because these are not getting any cheaper and well really i made a deal forgetting i had 1 on layaway.
Cheers
Segregate your brass to each rifle and neck size after that brass has been fired in your gun. You will be amazed if you hold a fired piece of bras next to a new one how much the neck moves forward. This will extend the life of your brass a lot. I load paper punching loads for 50m and 100 yard fun and matches. I use either of the 4895s or either of the 4198s to do this. For bullets I am using hornady 150 gr .312 dia.