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    Contributing Member CINDERS's Avatar
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    Don't know about neck issues never had one in any of my 303's, had only two head separations over the years but that's all I fls all of my ammo as running with 5 x 303 rifles I cannot be bothered keeping all the brass separated on top of those throw in 4 x eff class rifles and 1 x full bore and a 22/250 means I have my hands full reloading even though they are different calibers I try to cut my work load where possible. One thing I do religiously is with the 303's is anneal after 3 firings and keep the cases TTL getting anywhere between 10-12+ loading's out of cases as I keep my loads down to 2,412fps (46gns AR 2209 1 grain = @ 52.4375 fps)
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    Advisory Panel browningautorifle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CINDERS View Post
    I fls all of my ammo
    So, I'm getting that you also FL resize all your .303 every time? Not often you hear that, considering how much .303 you go through. I also FL resize and have minimum trouble with separated cases...but I watch them. Don't remember the last one.
    Regards, Jim

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    Legacy Member ActionYobbo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by browningautorifleicon View Post
    So, I'm getting that you also FL resize all your .303 every time? Not often you hear that, considering how much .303 you go through. I also FL resize and have minimum trouble with separated cases...but I watch them. Don't remember the last one.
    I also fls all my 303 before loading. I run too many 303 guns and never know what gun the ammo will be going into next. I take care of the brass (no commercial junk) and it last for 10+
    reloads.
    my methods are
    anneal the shoulder to 1/4" past the shoulder
    size and wash the cases
    trim for length if needed
    prime powder and bullet with crimp
    fire.
    I did a torture test where I ran the cases out of different guns until they failed. here are the results.

    there is alot of variables in case life in my experience and I did a test
    I took 10 of each case from what I had and loaded and reloaded them and kept track of them.
    The load was 38 grains of 4895 and a 150 FMJ pulled from 7.62x54r
    cases were annealed and trimmed every 5 loads
    cases listed from worst to best
    remington all gone by 4 loads for head seperation
    winchester all gone by 5 loads for head seperation
    ppu/nny all 10 made it to 9 loads but were all gone by 12 for neck splits
    HXP 8 made it to 8 loads by 15 I had 2 left I still have 1 left thats loaded for the 20th time
    Iraq (surplus converted to boxer by me) lost one to a reloading mistake but the remaining nine made it to 12 then by 17 I had 2 left. those 2 are loaded for go 20
    RG1944 (surplus converted to boxer by me) all 10 made it to 10 then at 15 I had 6 left at 19 there was 5 . I have 3 left that are loaded for number 20
    the brass was all full length resized and used in a different gun every time around.

    other notes
    I boiled the Iraq and RG42 cases in water to get the salts out when I first got them.
    All the cases get washed between reloads. They get sized then get a bath in hot water and a bit of yellow ajax then rinsed and dried.
    I anneal the top 1/3 of the case
    Trim length is 2.22"
    they get fired from 7 different guns
    All cases get crimped with the lee factory crimp die.

    guns used were BREN, Vickers, SMLE's and No4's
    Last edited by ActionYobbo; 01-01-2017 at 01:05 PM.
    1ATSR 177AD & 4/3 RNSWR

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