Enfield headspace issue?

[Edward Horton]

If you do further searching on head space you will find Thunderbox in the UK and Son in Australia think Americans have “head space phobia”. If you dig even further you will find out both Thunderbox and Son reload Greek HXP cases and don't have any head space problems.

The people having the majority of “head space problems” are shooting American made cases designed to SAAMI specifications.

After reloading my Winchester cases in my 30-30 with rear locking lugs for 30 years and NEVER having any problems I asked myself “why” Winchester cases fired in a 1943 Enfield fell apart after 2 or 3 reloadings.

The answer to this question is how our American made cases are designed, the grade of brass these cases are made from and the chamber pressures they are designed to properly function at.

The real problem about Enfield head space boils down to who's biography you believe more, Montgomery's or Eisenhower's.

I wonder what grade brass Greek HXP cases are made from and what grade brass have “inherent weakness” problems when fired in a British .303...............

(please note the elongation percentage for the different grades of cartridge brass below)



I don't have “head space phobia”, I just don't believe 99.9% of the garbage people write about rear locking lugs and a inherent weak design.

I bought 500 once fired .303 Greek HXP cases from Brian Dick that had been fired in many different Enfield's AND machine guns. After cleaning and checking all 500 cases on my RCBS case mastering gauge NOT one case had any thinning or stretching in the web area of the case.

Not all .303 British cases are designed to the same quality.





Even with the head space set at or below .067 our American made cases still stretch and thin in the web area and self destruct.



Below is a once fired Serbian made Prvi Partizan .303 case that appears to be made to British military specifications, no bulges, no stretching, no thinning.



Someone call the Serbians and have them bomb our American ammunition factories and then maybe we can get some quality made .303 ammunition.