reloading 303.

[Edward Horton]

For those of you that missed my other 17,286 postings on this subject, the photo below shows that American manufactures can't even make a .303 British case to American SAAMI standards. The shoulder of the American made case should be in the same location as the shoulder on the "foreign" made military surplus case.



If you actually measured the difference in shoulder location you would "SEE" that it is over a 1/4 of an inch short of the correct position.



Our American made .303 cases have thinner rims than "foreign" made military cases.



Our American made .303 cases have smaller base diameters than "foreign" made .303 cases.



Our American made .303 cases are thinner than "foreign" made military cases.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Rick]

The last 100 cases I fire formed were with the same o-ring without any damage to the o-ring, your o-ring size will depend on your headspace setting, rim thickness and the diameter of your cases. I also remove the extractor when fire forming, the problem with American made cases is they tend to run to the smallish side on base diameter. When the o-ring is compressed and squeezed by the bolt it centers the cartridge in the chamber, and helps promote equal case expansion.

While this is getting well beyond the original question, there are different routes to the same destination.

I've never heard of "the o-ring method" before.

On the other hand, what I have always done with new .303 brass is use M-dies to set up a false shoulder on the brass before loading that results in just being able to get a crush fit when closing the bolt. With this method, there is not much question that the brass is firmly supported between the shoulder of the chamber and the face of the bolt, and any movement of brass is going to be outward only.

I am also anal enough that I wrap thin strips of masking tape around the base of the brass (having determined how many wraps are required) which allow it to just be chambered before first firing. This generally takes place during commercials while watching the military channel or whatever on TV. The idea of this is to ensure that if the false shoulder doesn't center the case within the chamber, the tape certainly makes sure it does.

I keep a good thing going by using Lee's collet dies for resizing so the brass gets worked no more than necessary.

I don't know about others, but this certainly works for me.

For better or for worse, using this to set up brass for all future loading, results in brass that has long life and accuracy out of my two LE's that I certainly can't snivel about. I buy all my brass in lots of 500, so it is a relatively infrequent chore which I consider to be acceptable in exchange for what I think it delivers in ease of reloading and case life.

With all of that in mind, the o-ring idea is now busily racing around in my mind. It seems to me that this would replace the irritant of wrapping tape ahead of the rim quite nicely while ensuring the base of the case was centered in the chamber at the back.

This bears investigation. What size o-rings do I head out and search for?

[Edward Horton]

Rick

I waited over five years after reading about the o-ring method of fire forming the .303 British and I wish I had started as soon as I had read about it. I have been reloading for over 40 years and the o-ring method just seemed a little too far out in left field until I tried it.

Optimist over at Gunboards did a destruction test with new Remington cases after I posted the o-ring method of fire forming there. Optimist reached 32 case reloading number before the first case failure and had NO case head separations.










Your o-ring size for fire forming will depend on the case base diameter and your headspace setting, I use three different sizes depending on the Enfield used.

I even lapped a zero bolt head to give me a headspace setting of over .084 and used the o-ring method with no ill affects. I like having tight headspace but the o-ring method makes the word "headspace" meaningless (within reason) on the Enfield Rifle.

[ireload2]

RobD,
So tell that to the guy claiming the location of the shoulder is the problem. You have missed several thousand posts about the same subject.

[RobD]

I guess so - and pleased to have missed them, actually - the thousands I have read constitute a veritable ouroboros. I wish I hadn't entered this fray.

[Peter Laidler]

Being one of the shooters who only uses what the Queen supplies school of shooting and never reloaded anything, I have heard other shooters talking about annealing their cases every so often, especially around the necks. Is this an answer to any of the split case problems, even if it's not directly related to this thread

[Edward Horton]

Being one of the shooters who only uses what the Queen supplies school of shooting and never reloaded anything, I have heard other shooters talking about annealing their cases every so often, especially around the necks. Is this an answer to any of the split case problems, even if it's not directly related to this thread

Mr. Laidler

The answer to your question is yes Mr. Laidler, and it is very related to this thread.

[Peter Laidler]

Thanks for that Ed. I'm not the brightest light in the box when it comes to reloading. I've got the metallurgy but maybe you could explain the theory. But maybe I ought to learn fast, looking at the price for .303" factory stuff............. Phew!

[Edward Horton]

First reloading lesson Mr. Laidler

"Borrow" as much of the Queens brass that's reloadable as you can get.




And then make them stand in formation

[finloq]

Impressive, Ed; although if there is ever an International Brass Shortage, I now know that it won't be centralized in Harrisonburg, PA. If you ever want to be a part of a brass for good intentions telethon, a few of us will happily pledge.