303
A friend of mine just bought a british 303 in 308. It is the short carbine. It has 7.62mm2A1 then RFI. Is this british made or one that was made in another country? I take the RFI to mean royal something so I think it is british made.
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I have a #4mk1 Lee Enfield rifle. It appears to be a run of the mill 303 except for one thing. On the left side of the reciever it has the words U.S.PROPERTY stamped on it. Can anyone tell me anything about this rifle? Thanks for your help, Imbugged. 0 -
Most everyone makes .303 Win, Rem etc.
If your recoil shy your not going to like the .3030 -
The commercial .303 by Rem, Win etc is non-corr. Older surplus ammo of WWII vintage is usually corrosive.
I have an Enfield No.4 MKI I got a few years ago still in cosmoline and wrapped in paper. It is fun to shoot, and accurate.
A few years ago there was a lot of ammo in .303 on the market, but its a little harder to find now.
"Never let school interfere with your education"0 -
I had an Enfield jungle carbine for years. Was fun to shoot,mags hold lot of shells. Was called the slowest bullet in the woods during deer season. Kicks a bit,not too bad 0 -
gun-runner;
the British 303 was adopted as England's standard military round in 1888 & remained till they switched to the 308 Nato round.
Rifles & ammo in 303 British have been produced & distributed litterally "around the world" in all past & present member countries of the British empire.
the 303 British is said to have shot more game than any other round.
the 303 British & 30-40 Krag are very similar rounds & produce very similar results. the world wide use & production of the 303 Brit. has resulted in some variations in bore diamiter as well as bullet loadings. my Lyman manual cautions that bore diameters range from 308 to 317. the obvious is "know your rifle & check the ammo you shoot in it"
by matching the ammo & rifle, accuracy should improve & recoil will be reduced. I suspect the "large recoil" reputation comes from using bullets larger than bore dia. thus driving pressure up.
"all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten" Robert Fulghum
anyone who says "nobody needs a full auto" has never been in front of a brown bear charge0 -
I have owned several differnet Enfields over the years and the one I like best (and the only one I still own, sadly ) is the Remington made P-14. These are really well made rifles and are virtually indentical to our P-17 made for the US military. I feel they are superior to most of the English pattern Enfields in a variety of ways; most importantly the sights. With the correct hand loads I can get "3/4 inch groups out of my P-14 and was never able to do quite that well with any of the English guns I owned. Not a thing wrong (except maybe the weaker action) with the English made weapons, But the P-14 is massive and strong; one of the things that helps it eat up recoil as well. I would thinktwice about a #5 as they do have a habit of beating you up a bit with that reduced weight! Most modern ammo for them was made with good primers and I wouldn't worry too much about that, particularly if you are good about cleaning your guns anyway! The case of Greek I bought several years back (50's production ) was clean shooting and I am still recycling the brass with no problem after 5 firings each. I believe Sellier and Bellot makes 303 at a fairly good price so if you don't reload, think about their offerings!
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Enfields in Canada get traded around for anywhere from $25 for a good shooter to $300 for a nice sporterized version. The 303 catridge is one of the more underestimated rounds out there. The ballistics are very good and can be improved by careful handloding but you are limited to a smaller selection of bullet weights. Lately, we've been playing around with the 303 EPPS IMP....what a fantastic catridge! Just run the reamer through the factoy chamber(watch your headspace) and you're off to the races. Did one in a Winchester 1895 and it turned out awesome; very fast, accurate, and easy to reload. As far as recoil goes, I'd shoot any variation of an Enfield 303 all day long before I'd want to squeeze a box or two out of a 308. 0 -
Regarding the .303 Improved, does this substantially increase the pressure over the standard round? I have a No.1 MKIII* made in 1918. I believe, correct me if I am wrong, but this rifle was proofed to somewhere around 45,000 PSI. I'm sure the Pattern 14 would handle the pressure generated by the expanded case, and more, but don't know about the SMLE's. I think I would want to find this out before doing any changing to the original caliber. Thanks, 0 -
John Carr- I haven't tried the Epps conversion on an smle yet, only on a P-14 and a Winchester 1895. I can't say as I have really wanted to do much with an smle as, in my opinion, the are not a very 'sexy' rifle. Sometime over the summer, though, I will try it on my Jungle Carbine and let you know how it works out. The pressure issue is something to consider very seriously before doing any sort of conversion on any rifle though. Thanks for the reminder. 0 -
Nice to see I'm not the only .303 brit fan on the forum.
Here's a neat link for you guys.
http://www.303british.com/
Woods
"... there is much truth in the Italian saying, 'Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.'" -- Benjamin Franklin0
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