Characteristics of the 303 ammunition used in No4(T)'s? -and matching it?

[Brown Dog]

Thanks for the feedback, must say that as a newcomer to LEs , I'm pretty open-jawed to find that no one's manufacturing 'old-style' 303 bullets for them.

Gunner; thanks for the S&B load

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No great surprise Ulrich. The theoretical external ballistic advantage of the boat-tail at long ranges is swamped by the internal ballistic disadvantage if you are shooting at 100 meters. I have a very late No 4 MK 2, pretty well mint until I used it, so quite definitely not a worn bore or throat, and the flat-base 174 gn bullets still fly better than the boat-tails of the same weight.

Bit lost by this post - the successful S&B load described is also boat-tail. Have I misunderstood?

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[vintage hunter]

The old Herters company did make 174gr bullets that were pretty much identical to the profile of the mk.VII bullet but unfortunately they've long been belly up. The Sierra 180gr Pro-Hunter is as close as you can get now. Don't be put off by the thing about LE's not shooting BT bullets very well, there's nothing written in stone saying they won't, all rifles are different and the only way to know is to try it. Some will, some won't. I have an Indian ''T'' with considerable muzzle wear that will shoot 1'' groups @ 100yds using Hornady 174gr BTHP's and it stays MOA to 300yds, the farrest I've shot it to date. On the other hand I also have a clone ''T'' made up on a Long Branch with a 2 groove barrel that does'nt like any bullet over 150gr, flat base or boattail, it's at it's best with Hornady 150gr bullets and IMR 4064 powder, it gives the original ''T'' a run for it's money. I think what Patrick is saying is that until you get past 500yds or so the BT bullet has no advantage over the flat base bullet.

[gunner]

Thanks for the feedback, must say that as a newcomer to LEs , I'm pretty open-jawed to find that no one's manufacturing 'old-style' 303 bullets for them.

Gunner; thanks for the S&B load

Bit lost by this post - the successful S&B load described is also boat-tail. Have I misunderstood?

No, you have understood it correct, it is a BT bullet. But for some reasons the BT bullets are often less accurate out of a LE, but this one is great!

Another Round that i make since years for my comrade´s LE is a 150grs Hornady Interlock with 41,4grs. OAL is 76,2mm. He is a good shooter and he is able to hold the bull with 10 rounds at 100m sitting position and front support. I´m often jealous!

[Patrick Chadwick]

Bit lost by this post - the successful S&B load described is also boat-tail. Have I misunderstood?

No misunderstanding. The 180 gn bullet is pretty long. And what I wrote was a general statement based on personal experience and a bit of plausible theory- that the internal ballistics of a flat-based bullet are usually better than a boat-tail of the same weight. Simply because 1) the guidance into the throat is better with a longer cyclindrical section 2) any "free-flight" period is reduced or eliminated (that depends on the throat).

There is also the aspect of what happens at the moment the bullet exits the muzzle. I will return to that later. But as a real rule, you can say that the better the bullet fits the throat BEFORE losing contact with the case neck, the better the results. Please note, I am (usually) careful to avoid "digital" words like "always" and "never. Real rifles with less-than-perfect chamber, throat, bore and muzzle are far too complex for that kind of simple statement.

Patrick