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    125 grain loads

    I bought a box of 125 grain Sierra SP projectiles I thaught they might work well on roos and hopefully shoot a bit flatter than 180 grainers.I have some AR2208 & some Trail Boss I suspect the 2208 might be the better bet anyone got any thaughts or sugestions
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    I tried some 25 gr bullets with no success at all.
    I think they are so short that the 'jump' into the barrell is too much for them.
    Mine are not the best, but they are not too bad. I can think of lots of Enfields I'd rather have but instead of constantly striving for more, sometimes it's good to be satisfied with what one has...

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    Quote Originally Posted by krankieone View Post
    I bought a box of 125 grain Sierra SP projectiles I thaught they might work well on roos and hopefully shoot a bit flatter than 180 grainers.I have some AR2208 & some Trail Boss I suspect the 2208 might be the better bet anyone got any thaughts or sugestions
    You may already know this but just in case not, 150 grains are often well reported for accuracy, and also generally available commercially.

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    Legacy Member Bindi2's Avatar
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    they did not stablize to well in my No5 to short, 135gn a little better, 150 gn ok 174/180 good 215gn Mk6 very good

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bindi2 View Post
    they did not stablize to well in my No5 to short, 135gn a little better, 150 gn ok 174/180 good 215gn Mk6 very good
    ............311 pencils fantastic.

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    A couple of potential issues:

    Really short bullets have to jump a fair way to reach the rifling. This is often not a good thing.

    The 1:10" twist rate is for the long Mk6 and 7 bullets and will seriously over-spin short, light bullets. What this means is that, especially given the groove diameter in your basic Lee-Enfield, the bullet will precess for a few hundred metres before finally settling down. Simply put, the projectile will "orbit' its own nominal trajectory as it goes down range. Not only that, but the constant "wobbling" during precession adds a further "random" factor to the actual flight path. It is one of the reasons we shoot "groups" not "single holes", even off a heavy bench rig.

    The use of a "tight twist" in Lee Enfields is not only related to the length of the bullet. At very low temperatures; like in Arctic warfare conditions, the air is measurably denser. This WILL alter the external ballistics of the bullet. Remember the dramas with the early AR-15 / M-16: the original twist with the 55gn bullet was 1:14". This was fine in the normal proving areas and hot jungles, but did not satisfy the boffins in test in the Arctic. So, the twist rate was increased to 1:12". Then folks in certain jungles started complaining that the bullet no longer "tap-danced" its way through a human body but drilled a neat hole.

    This seems to be the reverse of what happened with the transition from Mk6 to Mk7 ammo in the .303, but that was a case of radically changing the structural and aerodynamic characteristics of the bullet but not changing the rifling. The Mk7 bullet is still settling down in the first 300 yards or so. Thus, on impact with some unlucky sod, it may not travel "straight and true" as it transits tissue. Old-time full-bore shooters used to talk about the Mk7 "going to sleep" out past 300 yards; this, I understand, meant that the RELATIVE grouping was BETTER at longer ranges than in the first 300.

    I believe that the use of boat-tails in a "pre-loved" Lee Enfield barrel is not a good thing. the gas bleed around the boat-tail may well rapidly erode away an already worn throat. An open-based, flat-based FMJ is about the only way to get reasonable mileage from original barrels. New-made barrels rifled and throated to tighter spec would be a different matter, unless you started running Cordite loads through them.

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    Loads

    150 grn Sierra 311. Pro Hunter projectiles in front of 40 grns 2208 shoot 1MOA in my five 303s (2 No4s 2No 1s 1P-14) 0ff a bench at 100 mtrs. Out to 300m its the best allround load for old Enfields I've used.

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    Hi for Roos and Pigs I use 135gn Taipan HP with 46gn of Win 760 and CCIbr2 primers chrony at 2480fps out of a 20" No1 Mk111 sporter

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    Quote Originally Posted by krankieone View Post
    I bought a box of 125 grain Sierra SP projectiles I thaught they might work well on roos and hopefully shoot a bit flatter than 180 grainers.I have some AR2208 & some Trail Boss I suspect the 2208 might be the better bet anyone got any thaughts or sugestions
    I've used these projectiles with very good accuracy in No4's and No5's with 2206H. 2208 would also be fine, but I wanted a little faster rate powder for the No5.

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    Legacy Member Bruce_in_Oz's Avatar
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    If you simply MUST use light bullets in a .303 and you live in Oz, try Mulwex AR2207.

    It is faster than AR2206 and thus more efficient with the lighter bullets.

    AR2206(H) is too slow as it is the latest incarnation of the propellant used to drive 144gn bullets in the 7.62NATO ammo. AR2208 is slower again.

    A2205 MAY be a bit quick if you are going with "hot" loads. However, if you want to play with discarding sabots and 55gn bullets in .303 or .308Win, it is quite useful. Check the Mulwex on-line data first. Some of their data is a bit conservative, most is spot-on

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