Bullets for the .303?

[camerl2009]

Yes - that is what is being talked about is that a longer place of contact makes up for a worn out barrel. And at risk of beating a dead horse - once a barrel is worn to the point of not fully engaging the bullet it does not matter what size or type of bullet you use. The rifling will not engage any better with a long bullet once it has hit that point.

The ONLY remedy is to replace the barrel.

I think the only reason I am pointing this out is that folks can spend a lot of money on what they believe is a fix when it isn't even a band-aid. I've spent enough money on what I thought were fixes only to have to return to the original premise and replace the item in question.

And if one puts too large an oversize bullet in a worn out rifle it is possible to be too large to really go down the barrel and excessive pressure could build to the point of destroying the rifle and possibly parts of your body. The grooves only have so much depth and once the rifling wears to the point of not engaging the bullet you're chancing stuffing a bullet into too tight a space. I have seen destroyed rifles where we were not certain what really caused the problem. Just a theory but I'd rather be safe when it comes to shooting.

it is possable to reline it all the way through the chamber (theres some 1/2" liner witch just makes it) this will stop the liner from shooting out the gun . best way to get accuracy with a worn lee enfield is a throat sized cast bullet most are going to be around .314-.316 its best to slug and see unlike jacketed bullets cast will swage down so a over size cast will not be overpressure one because cast bullet loads are lower pressure to start with and they dont wear the barrel down at all if any they are also not as harsh on the gun like jacketed loads not to mention if you can get it wheel weight alloy is good enough and can be had free or next to nothing i dont pay a thing for my bullets. i do have to pay for my gas checks though and theres no .311 gas checks you got to use .308 witch i think would not protect the bullet i use .32(.323) on my bullest there pushed through my .316 sizer this sizes the gas check and locks it on

[muffett.2008]

Interestingly enough, I recently checked five different barrels of varying mileage for throat wear.
Using the OAL of the 303 at 3.075, a target grade No.1 barrel with aprox.1000 rds, had a bullet jump of .168 thou.
A No.1 Mk.III barrel of 1940's vintage with indeterminate mileage but looking good, had .351. another had .362.
A No.4 with relatively new barrel came in at a surprising .559 and a totally worn out looks good rifle for show only had a jump of 1.309 thou.
No wonder the No.4's are so finicky ammo wise, you could not seat the bullet out far enough in the service barrel, however a target grade barrel in 4 groove was much more realistic.
To my mind it is easy to understand with figures like these, how the No.1 out performs the No.4 with boat tails, but then, it's a far better rifle anyway.

[Norton1]

Yep slugging the barrel. I did not know you could still reline barrels. I have not seen it done for years and then only by some very competent, and expensive, gunsmiths.

And the "jump" for some rifles seems to be a picky thing. My former sniper rifle would not shoot unless its jump was less than .015. But my Varmint rifle, 220 Swift in a Ruger 77V, could care less what the jump is. And of the service rifles I've owned none of them could be loaded long enough to cut the jump down to a reasonable distance. And yet they have all shot very well if loaded properly.

For me - I believe that nearly any rifle with a sound bore can be made to shoot well. And by well I mean MOA accuracy at distance. Some rifles love all benchrest components and others could care less if the things were square and fell out after firing (joking). But a good bore is the essential piece for all of the above. I have not owned a No 1 so can't say what, or why, it might like any particular round better than another. Someday I'll get o ne and it'll be fun to compare the two. Long range tactical shooting really does require a bullet weight of over 170 to maintain the supersonic speeds at 1000+ yards. a 168 will only maintain the speed up to 800 yards.

I'm really looking forward to taking this No 4 out to the 1000 yard range and putting it through its paces. I firmly believe that the 174 grn boattails will perform quite nicely there.

And I do enjoy the forum. A lot of talent in here.

[camerl2009]

hmm really the no 1 mk 3 rifle shoot very badly from what ive seen they where used in ww1 and right through(alot even seen use in the 20's and 30's you can guess where) to ww2 and i bet even korea fast firing with cordite ammo put's out more heat then modern smokeless so it would have shot out a barrel faster and then theres cord wear at the muzzle

yeah relining can be done still track of the wolf has .311 1 in 10 twist liner thats 1/2" od and sold by the inch its a bit different then relining a .22 but it can be done and it could be done by anyone

[Cdn303]

That is for .30 Luger pistol and is 4 groove. If you really want to go that route, why not get the .30 centerfire, .300" bore, .308" groove, 1-10" twist, 6 grooves, 1/2" OD. This would vastly open your bullet selection up.

[MKV111Z]

Actually camerl2009 the life of a .303 barrel used with cordite MKV11 ball was around 12000 rounds as MKV11 Ball upsets into the rifling at the leed, whilst this erodes faster with cordite than ball powders they wear the barrel evenly and the bullet didn't upset reducing the life to an estimated 6000 rounds. I believe this came out from some MOD UK work carried out in the 60's as Vickers and Bren barrels which had used both cordite and ball powder (MKV11z and MKV111Z) ammunition gave erratic results due to the different wear patterns and they were not to be used in training for flanking or overhead fire.

There was also a .303 long range round which had 174 grain boatail bullet produced by Kynoch prewar I have some dated 1939 and then up to at least 1968 using cordite easily recognised by the case which is black for its first half which I understand could give erratic results possibly due to the boat tail but this is anecdotal.

H