S & B ammo

[Buntlineguy]

I recently bought an Enfield .303 Brit and some ammunition. I got S & B because it is boxer primed and reloadable. On firing the reloaded S & B, a high percentage of shells came apart about 1/2 inch from the rear. This only happened with this brand. The reloaded R P shells had no problem with same load and bullet. The S & B cases appeared to be very thin as compared to a R P case that I cut open. I suggest not reloading S & B cases, or at least very minimum loads.
Buntlineguy

Information

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[Amatikulu]

S&B in .303 has had a very bad reputation amongst reloaders.

The well known (Sir) Edward Horton (MBE - Manual keeper of the British Enfield), has been a long time promoter of using Privy(i?) Partizan brass as being the best for reloading.

[AKA Hugh Uno]

The Wolf Gold (made by Privi) is about as good as it gets in BOTH loaded commercial ammo and brass. Even when neck-sized only (BTW, you did buy and are using a Neck-Sizer right?), the S&B was good for maybe two reloadings (and sometimes one). I haven't used the stuff in over 20 years and it was bad then!

[Merle]

I recently bought an Enfield .303 Brit and some ammunition. I got S & B because it is boxer primed and reloadable. On firing the reloaded S & B, a high percentage of shells came apart about 1/2 inch from the rear. This only happened with this brand. The reloaded R P shells had no problem with same load and bullet. The S & B cases appeared to be very thin as compared to a R P case that I cut open. I suggest not reloading S & B cases, or at least very minimum loads.
Buntlineguy

I have had the same problem with both Remington & Winchester brass. If your chamber is a bit deeper than normal headspace, then the brass flows forward further than is typical upon firing.

I minimize this problem by setting up my resizing die to suit the length of the fired brass - NOT just screwing it down until it touches the shell holder.

I use smoke to determine when the neck is sized just barely short of touching the shoulder, then ensure the rifle will lock up on that case. If required, I'll turn the die down very slowly until the bolt will close.

Thinner brass will stretch more & likely fail sooner. I found the RP cases to the the thickest & most durable, of the ones I had on hand.

You can weigh the fired cases to see how much weight variation there is and draw your own conclusions.

[gunner]

The S&B cases are bad stuff, not only in .303 also the .357 mag is trash. I reloaded 50 cases and after shooting i had 12 cases they where torn by the length.

Gunner

[MIKE33]

Purchased S&B's 8x57mm cartridges several years ago found prefomace and brass substandard never purchesed thier products again

[jmoore]

Add me to the Prvi=good list. US brass= so-so