You suspect (or know) that this Greek HXP has the old style corrosive primers? I thought they were well gone by then?
The nice thing about when you're shooting muzzle stuffers like my .54 caliber Hawken replica, it's so easy to take the barrel out of the stock, remove the nipple, and then stick that end in a pail of your favorite solution of boiling water, and use a mop on the end of a cleaning rod to pump that boiling hot water back and forth through the barrel, rinse and repeat.
Range report has the HXP grouping about the same as the '41 Winchester. Some Prvi that was downloaded about 1 grain and a 180gr FB soft point shot slightly better. We are shooting a minute of pie plate out of a good condition Maltby '42 with flip sight and war expedient 2 groove barrel.
The ammo seems to function properly and next time I will try it out of the No. 4 Mk. 1 (T).
ALL ammunition is both corrosive and erosive to some extent, but certain types are far worse than others.
HXP is way down the scale.
Mine are not the best, but they are not too bad. I can think of lots of Enfields I'd rather have but instead of constantly striving for more, sometimes it's good to be satisfied with what one has...
The wartime Winchester .303 has a poor reputation for reliability. The smokiness is interesting: a smokey round which tends to reveal the firer's position would be an effective form of sabotage.
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
The wartime Winchester .303 has a poor reputation for reliability
That is being very generous - but it wasn't reliability that was the problem it was inconsistent case dimensions causing blockages and jams, it was banned from use in aircraft (not easy to clear your wing guns at 20,000 feet) and some of it was even removed from front line use 'on the ground' - and was then "relegated to practice use only."
Regulations For Army Ordnance Services
Part 7, Pamphlet No. 11
Small Arms Ammunition
(The War Office 24th February 1945)
7) .303-in. Winchester
No Winchester .303-in. ammunition is considered suitable for use in aircraft although Red Label ammunition from Lot 45 of 1941 onwards may be used in emergency. Packages containing this ammunition should bear the restrictive marking “NOT FOR USE IN AIRCRAFT”, though it is known that some has come forward without this marking. The ammunition is fit for normal ground use unless it bears an additional restrictive marking.
Lots of Winchester .303-in manufactured before Lot 45 of 1941 should be stencilled “FOR PRACTICE IN RIFLES ONLY”.
It was pretty much a repeat of the WW1 experience. The situation was so bad it was discussed in Parliament and the decision made to cancel the contracts, as by July 1916, the orders were 420,000,000 rounds in arrears, and, 50% of what had been supplied was deemed to be unusable and scrapped or relegated to 'use for practice at home only'. The other factor was the cost of the ammunition from the USA. British costs of 303 were £6- 10 shillings per 1000 whilst we were being charged £8-10 shillings per 1000 by the US manufacturers (plus we had to collect it !!!)
Last edited by Alan de Enfield; 04-26-2025 at 12:28 PM.
Mine are not the best, but they are not too bad. I can think of lots of Enfields I'd rather have but instead of constantly striving for more, sometimes it's good to be satisfied with what one has...
In my experience - on the range, a smokey round is usually the first round, not due to ammo but of a user who did not wipe the oil out of their bore before firing, and likely slathered it in oil before putting it away the last time.
For what it's worth I did a series of range experiments on this topic - oil in the bore and fouling. My typical regimen is to use a light oil in the bore when finished cleaning if the weapon will sit no longer than a couple months before it gets used again. I use an application of RIG grease in the bore for longer storage, wiped out and renewed annually. So, what happens if you shoot without cleaning the oil or grease out of the bore? The short answer is light smoke on the first round, and dark black fouling that looks/acts like a stain, and is only removed with something like JB paste. It's different than the carbon buildup in the corners of the grooves that you typically see with a dirtier powder like H335 (The high volume AR guys know exactly what I'm talking about). The heavier the oil/grease, the darker the stain and the harder it is to remove. I noticed NO change in accuracy with a lightly oiled or greased bore. Of course heavy grease is a bore obstruction which I'm not talking about. And an oily or highly polished chamber is DANGEROUS as it prevents the case from sticking to the chamber wall. I'm not talking about that either.
In contrast, an oil-free bore doesn't show any of this staining. The bore is usually perfectly clean after firing with perhaps, depending on the quality of the finish and type of powder (e.g. lapping from the manufacturer) a little carbon in the corners and a streak or two of copper. Similarly an oil-free garand gas cylinder will be black after firing, normal, but wipes out clean - even with dry patches - with minimal to no scrubbing at all! I keep a squirt bottle of alcohol in my range bag for the purpose, although usually I just run an alcohol patch in the bore right before departing for the range, and run a patch of oil down the bore immediately when I get home, or at the range when packing up if I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. Shooting an oil-free bore has greatly reduced my scrubbing time. I'm usually in an out of any rifle with just a few dozen passes of a bronze brush, and 3-4 patches.
Originally Posted by Rick
PM
