Shooting Greek 303 Surplus Ball

[cprher]

There are only a few mentions of Greek surplus 303 ball recently available through online sources such as Sportsmansguide.com. Who here has shot this ammo and can compare it to other ammo such as PPU 303 (174 BT match) or Hornady match 303 also with a 174 BT match bullet?

I have two cases of 480 rounds each bulk packed in boxes of 48 each. It looks good, almost as if it was made yesterday.

Keith

Information

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[ActionYobbo]

The HXP is fantastic. I run it in my BREN and can get consistent hits out to 600 on steel. I also use it in the No4 and get the same results. I have used PPU in the past when it was available and basically got the same size groups but the HXP shoots a little lower. once sighted in for the HXP the rifles all shoot excellent. With the No4 with hxp I have the sights on 400 to hit at 300 where with the PPU was 350 to hit 300

[enfield303t]

Frustrated none of this ammo came into Canada. Would really be nice to get some.

[Roger Payne]

I'll second that. HXP is good quality ammo. The only thing I would say, if you're a keen reloader, is that the brass is a little on the soft side.

ATB.

[Son]

I have been through over a thousand HXP and have reloaded a lot of those cases, some six times to MkVII ball pressures without a case failure. As long as you segregate the cases for each rifle and only neck size (and trim to length) until they are firm to chamber (usually every two neck sizings) then use an adjustable FLR die to just bump the shoulder back so it chambers again without resistance.
As Roger said, the brass is a bit soft and does flow, hence requiring trimming to length every time, but I think the softness acts in its favour as I have never annealed any necks and have had no splits either. Don't know if I will be doing too much more reloading. I now have about 70kg of it and as it groups about 2MOA in my comp rifles there isn't too much to gain from reloading.

[Brian Dick]

I've been shooting HXP ammo for many years. It's good quality and consistent Mk.7z. I was told many years ago that the plant was set up by Dominion of Canada but don't know if it's fact. The Mk.8z as manufactured by PPU and S&B is excellent but the boat tail projectiles WILL cause problems in barrels that have been shot a great deal with cordite Mk.7. I reckon it always boils down to whether a particular rifle will print with it as it does with any ammo. I attended a well organized range test at a friends place in the mountains of Virginia back in September. They tested eight variants of rare WW1 optical sighted rifles, (no telescopes), as installed on both MLE, CLLE and SMLE rifles. The control shooters were a former US Army SF sniper in his 50's and a recent USMC scout sniper in his 30's. They tested HXP,(Greek), PMP,(South African), and FNM, (Portuguese), Mk.7z ball and decided that the FNM was slightly more consistent and accurate in the wide variety of rifles with the added optical sights. The Greek ran a close second and the South African third. It was an interesting day and both those guys were tired at the end with a five gallon bucket of empty brass between them and bruised shoulders. Hard work!!

[Catch22]

I missed out when CTD had a bunch of it (no budget at the time), but I've heard of a lot of guys that love it.

In the reloading world I see a lot of guys that like the brass for reloading, as well. I'd love to find me a mess of ammo or brass cheap to give a try.

[MrGriso]

Hi. Just joined the forum recently but I am a LE owner since about '99.

I was going through my inventory last week. Forgot that I have stashed away about 300-400 rnds left of HXP from a batch that I'd bought back in about 2001! Some in bandoleers, some in boxes. What a surprise. I had a bit more at one point. Shot really well. And I have saved all my brass, reloaded some with good result.

[Peter Laidler]

I have fired thousands of rounds of HXP through rifles, Brens and Vickers MMG's. It was made to UK MoD spec so it shoots and acts exactly as the weapon was made to shoot it does (does that make sense.....?) If it was good enough for the UK MoD to buy, issue and use, then it's good enough for the worlds shooters.

Light heartedly......, we didn't do a lot of reloading the brass. We just shoveled it up into big sacks and returned it for scrap so I can't comment on its reloading qualities!!!!!

[No.6]

HXP shoots (shot - alas no more here ...) very well. If reloading you need to trim to length the first time as ~98% of cases are overlength. After that they are fine, and having reloaded some 6-8 times they don't go overlength again/yet, but then I save each batch for each rifle and only neck size.

Ian