bought some old .303 ammo...any good?

So, the day after I got my pawn shop No.5 MK.1 jungle carbine, I went to meet a guy to buy some M1 carbine mags. We're chatting beforehand and I mentioned that I needed to find a place nearby to get some rifle ammo.

"Rifle ammo? What kind?" he says.

".303 British", sez I, "I just bought an Enfield carbine, and want to shoot it".

"No kidding, .303? I'm your man! I sold my Enfield this spring, and have a bunch of .303 ammo I don't need anymore. I'll bring it along so you can see if you want any of it".

So this is what he brought, and of course, I bought it all. 50 rds. of basic PRVI Partisan 174gr. FMJBT, and all these others. Looks like some are milsurps, maybe, def. Berdan primered and FMJ's, but the silver bullet color is odd to me.

Several boxes of soft-points, looks like they were re-manufactured for Interarms with new hunting bullets, all Berdan primed, 60 rounds. And the two boxes of Lapua, also soft points, but Boxer primed, 30 rounds.

Can anybody tell me what I have here? I'll shoot the PRVI first, no problem. But the other stuff, is it OK to shoot? Looks like all the milsurp stuff, loose and in the chargers, is all 1937-1939 dated. There's 132 of those.

I'm also told the chargers with four slots on the back might be WWI vintage, and the ones with four holes are later. There's fifteen of the slotted ones here, and eight of the type with holes.

Bought all this for $155....good? bad? ugly? Does any of this have collector value(s) that I should be aware of? I'd rather collect old ammo than shoot it, but there's enough here that I want to blast off some of them anyway. But I'd hate to ruin something that somebody's been looking for.


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The boxes marked Sporting .303 British are probably standard length cases, but compare them to the others just to be on the safe side.
In France they convert Lee Enfields to use a .303 Sporting cartridge which is much like the 7.7X54R, basically the .303 British with shoulder set back 2mm.
This is because they otherwise couldn't own a military rifle in .303 that could chamber military cartridges.
The same tactic was used for a short while in Australia.

Most likely the wording doesn't mean the same on your boxes, but its worth checking out, since the ammo isn't commonly encountered.

Interesting....thank you! Would that French ammo be called .303 Sporting? Or still .303 British?

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Originally Posted by rondog

Interesting....thank you! Would that French ammo be called .303 Sporting? Or still .303 British?

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Not sure but probably .303 Sporting.
A French visitor to another forum posted information on these while I was looking for info on the 7.7X54R as used in Australia. Another poster on another forum posted images of his modified single shot FAL in that caliber, made for range use in Australia in a jurisdiction that did not allow unmodified auto loaders.

PS
The short cased .303 was mostly made up from milsurp cases set back and trimmed, so they usually bear military headstamps. Super Cartridge company is one old source of these.

Looks like left over WWI stripper clips too! Nice score.

In the hand full of rounds in the 7th photo the RL head stamp is for the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich Arsenal, Kent and the GB is for Greenwood and Batley, Leeds.
I suspect you are correct and they were re-manufactured for Interarms from ether surplus primed brass or more likely de-capped ball rounds. I have no personal experience with Interarms re-manufactured hunting ammo but I would think they should be safe enough to shoot. It’s quite unlikely that it is one of the shortened 303 based cartridges. If you hold it up next to one of the regular 303 ball rounds the shorter case should be quite apparent if it were. Additionally the box is marked 303 British not 303 Sporting. The “Sporting” simply refers to the type of bullet. The Lapua should be quite accurate.

For anyone interested there is quite a bit of useful 303 head stamp information on this sight:
Headstamps of the .303 British Calibre Service Ammunition Round (Click Here)

The RL & GB stuff look like regular military ball. Are they filled with cordite? Or some flake powder?
Primers are very likely corrosive.

RL and GB are cordite filled with corrosive primers

Oh, I figured they'd all be corrosive, at least all the old milsurps. And probably the berdan primered sporting rounds too.

I was mainly interested in finding out if this is "collectable" ammo that shouldn't be fired, and if the slotted charging clips had any collector value. And the age of the milsurp ammo kinda concerned me too, as to whether it's safe to shoot or not.

Also would like to know if I paid too much for all this, or if $155 was OK. I've never bought or even fired any .303, don't know how hard it is to find. I'm thinking I paid a little too much, but at least I can take Lil' Bubba out shootin' now. And all this ammo should be OK at the local indoor 100yd. rifle range, it's not steel, won't attract a magnet.

Given that there is a mix of surplus and commercial ammo, and you're getting the clips, $155 is not too bad. Sometimes you can find it for less, but more often than not I personally can't.

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Originally Posted by rondog

I was mainly interested in finding out if this is "collectable" ammo that shouldn't be fired, and if the slotted charging clips had any collector value. And the age of the milsurp ammo kinda concerned me too, as to whether it's safe to shoot or not.
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The slotted charger clips do tend to fetch decent money on e-bay. Push the WWI angle and watch how much they go for. I was pleasantly surprised when I put mine on.