.303, unprimed brass

[Holzhacker]

Where can one find .303 British unprimed brass these days?

I found out by reading Ken Waters, Pet Loads, that the 30-40 Krag case has a base dia., which
fits a military .303, chamber just fine. One must fire form the case to move the shoulder forward and it works just fine. However I found that the rim dia. is somewhat larger, and the
extractor will not climb over the rim when loading from the magazine. Therefore one must hand feed the round individually. You can then close the bolt without any trouble. Seems
Ken forgot to mention that in his article. It almost seems cost effective to purchase Priv-Partizan (PPU) loaded .303 ammo to obtain cases. 7.62x39 123gr. bullets also function well,
see Speer reloading manual 14th ed.

So if your short of .303 cases, i hope this will be helpful to you.

Take care, and best wishes to you all

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Parashooter]

PRVI BRASS 303 BRITISH UNPRIMED 100/BAG
Our Price:
$49.99
In Stock
Item #:
PPU303B

WIN BRASS 30-40 KRAG UNPRIMED 50/bag 20/cs
Our Price:
$27.39
In Stock
Item #:
WINU3040

Why not save a few bucks and leave the Krag brass for Krags?

[Holzhacker]

Thanks, Parashooter, So what unit was you in, or are you, or was you a skydiver. Out of just under 30 yrs. I was 16 in the ABN. Shoot me an e-mail if you want. Take care and best wishes

---------- Post added at 08:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:52 PM ----------

Muffett, .303B brass in the US currently is not easy to come by, Here in Colorado ammo, reloading supplies is very scarce, and expensive when you can find it. Converting 30-40 brass is quite easy, and it works well. I'll agree with you it's much nicer if one can get his hands on .303British. So mate take care, and best wishes. PS At 77 I'm retired, but really don't seem to have much time, it goes by so fast. Funny when I was working I seemed to have much more time, figure that.

[conec]

Here in Colorado ammo, reloading supplies is very scarce, and expensive when you can find it.

Amen to that. Brass I have, but finding powder or large rifle primers on the shelf here in Arizona is well nigh impossible.

[muffett.2008]

I don't think there is a shortage of 303 brass, even if there was I would certainly hesitate to convert krag cases, this sort of caper is for those with far too much time on their hands.

[Parashooter]

Outfits like Graf's will happily ship .303 brass right to your address in Colorado. At least as of today, they claim to have plenty available. What's the problem?

Item #:	PPU303B
Price:	$49.99 Prices include shipping! One flat fee of $6.95 per order.
Availability:	In Stock
Vendor:	Prvi Partizan Ammunition & Components
Volume Discounts:	Rounds Units Purchased Savings Price per Unit Total Price 100 1 $49.99 $49.99 500 5 Save 5% $47.49 $237.45 1000 10 Save 10% $44.99 $449.91

Product Information
Imported from Serbia. Fully reloadable brass cases. Accept boxer primers.

[Holzhacker]

Parashooter, thanks for the update, will check Graft's. Have a great weekend.

[Peter Laidler]

Talking of .303 brass........ I remember seeing a HUGE pile of maybe 60,000 cases from Vickers guns of fired .303". I wonder if anyone could invent a simple two stage gadget that would
a) de-prime and mill out the anvil, then
b) a second stage to perhaps drill a third fire hole that would bring the total surface area of the (now....) THREE fire holes up to the total surface area of the larger single boxer primer fire hole and
c) If necessary, bore/ream out the existing primer pocket to accept a currently available primer.

Has anyone thought of this? Not being an ammo man and never had to reload or ever had to buy a round of ammo in his life - so far - it just seems like a simple idea

[Maxwell Smart]

The standard British berdan primer as used in Mk7 rounds is way bigger in diameter (.250") than a standard large rifle boxer primer, the smaller European berdan size (.217") is quite close to the large rifle boxer size though, and there have been quite a few threads on other forums on how to do this conversion.

I have experimented with sleeving down the large berdan primer pockets to accept the smaller berdans, works fine for blanks, but have not been keen to try it for full-power loads.

[ActionYobbo]

Talking of .303 brass........ I remember seeing a HUGE pile of maybe 60,000 cases from Vickers guns of fired .303". I wonder if anyone could invent a simple two stage gadget that would
a) de-prime and mill out the anvil, then
b) a second stage to perhaps drill a third fire hole that would bring the total surface area of the (now....) THREE fire holes up to the total surface area of the larger single boxer primer fire hole and
c) If necessary, bore/ream out the existing primer pocket to accept a currently available primer.

Has anyone thought of this? Not being an ammo man and never had to reload or ever had to buy a round of ammo in his life - so far - it just seems like a simple idea

its fairly simple. I have been converting berdan 303 to boxer to feed the hungry BREN. the WW2 brit cases last longer than modern commercial cases