.303, unprimed brass

[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

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Just a couple of points on the great 303 brass caper:

1. Any ammo that has a COPPER coloured primer cup will not last too long. This is because the copper cups contain MERCURIC fulminate. When this stuff goes off, it releases free Mercury metal. The BIG problem is that this "free" Mercury INSTANTLY reacts with the brass case. This is NOT a good thing: the brass WILL start to go brittle from this moment onwards. It WILL start to develop structural weakness that usually is first noticed as cracking of the necks after reloading. Annealing will NOT offer much help.

2. All that aside, you will need a stash of the RWS 6000 Berdan primer to get another go or two out of the cases. The idea of machining out the primer pocket to accept cheap, common shotgun primers has some merit, but remember that the shotgun priming system is NOT designed to handle the 40K plus psi pressure in a full-house .303 load.

3. Modern brass, whenever you can find it, is the way to go for ammo used for serious hunting or competition shooting. Having half a case stuck in the chamber tends to bugger up your scores in rapid and snap events. These rifles do NOT have "bench-rest" grade chambers, so do not expect to get 20 reloads out of cases used for decent loads. 6 to 10 is achievable, especially if you size minimally and anneal the necks after every 3 or 4 loadings. If your chamber is a "war-time" special or has been "cleaned up" before sale in the surplus business, and you full-length size, the cases will tend to fail at the web just forward of the rim, before the necks expire.

3. If you have a lovely rifle that is worth a thousand bucks or a LOT more, why would you use dubious ammo in it, anyway? It would be like running your pristine '68 Mustang on Kerosene.

[Maxwell Smart]

Are you using brass or copper for the sleeve material in the primer pocket?

---------- Post added at 12:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 AM ----------

All that aside, you will need a stash of the RWS 6000 Berdan primer to get another go or two out of the cases.

Have said stash, and have been getting about 7 reloads out of Mk 7 brass. Not questioning the physics/chemistry at all, because I do get about 2-3% neck splits, but in general what has been defeating me from going further is the gradual increase in size of primer pockets. I can use a .250" one for the first 4 reloads, then go up to the .254" ones for the next 3.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

That's keen , Max.

I keep a stash of the .254 size RWS as well, but they get used in 7.62 x 54 cases. A mate also uses them in several British and European "Big Game" cartridges.

i haven't seen the RWS 6000 in the usual Oz shops for a while; any clues?

[Maxwell Smart]

i haven't seen the RWS 6000 in the usual Oz shops for a while; any clues?

From what I've been told, the RWS 6000 are long out of production; I put in en e-mail enquiry on the RWS site, and they advised me the same.

I last saw RWS 6000 for sale in Brisbane about 6 months ago, but the price was pretty steep - I crunched the numbers, and once the RWS were over about $142/1000 (add in DG freight) it was more economical to buy new boxer-primed Prvi brass rather than try stretch out my Mk 7 brass.

Mind you, I do have plenty of the 5.5mm berdans so the sleeving-down method might get a better look later on. Oh for a Bren gun to put 'em through.....

[Rumpelhardt]

So finally it is easier to get something up here in Maine than it is in other places. .303 ammo has been and still is fairly easy to find and prices have stayed about the same.
For a spell it was easier to find .303 British than it was .308 Winchester.

[flying pig]

Why not just source the Canadian made boxer primed stuff and be done with it? I hear its beautiful to reload with. Hoping to find out soon!

[mrbungle]

i reload PPU and remington brass. i use H380 powder and serria bullets. 175 grain. the only problem i have is if you are not careful you crush the neck of the brass and you just destroyed it........took me a couple of times before i figured out easy does it. also i have had to trim the brass after about the 2 nd time shooting them. first shot new brass ,second shot reloaded then trim.......seem to get about 4-5 reloads per brass case. then the neck gets to thin to be safe.

[303Nut]

I've got 100 once fired 303 HXP brass for sale if anyone here needs it.

[flying pig]

the only problem i have is if you are not careful you crush the neck of the brass and you just destroyed it........took me a couple of times before i figured out easy does it.

Do you chamfer your cases when they are new? PRVI is s bit stingy on the bevel. I neck size mine only and have most of my PRVI cases onto the second annealing now so headed onto ten reloads.