Ammunition

[Art]

I realize there is a shortage of good shootable .303 ball ammo. Years ago I bought a case of very high quality Winchestr 174 gr. .303 British ball. It's in plain white boxes and I suspect probably made for some overseas contract. It is very high quality stuff.

Today I got around to taking my No. 4 Mk 2 to the range to check its zero on an SR target. I started by putting a sillouette up at 200 yards. The Winchester was dead on with the battle sight at that range. I had brought a box of S&B 180 gr. FMJ. it also was "minute of chest" with a center mass hold at 200 yards with the battle sight.

Next I set the sight on what I had estimated would be zero with a 6"0'clock hold at 200 yards on the SR target. I fired 5 rounds of the winchester and thought I had held the 10 ring with all 5. When I inspected the target two shots that I had thought had cut the 10 ring line were just out. Group size was 6 1/2 inches which meant the rifle is more than capable of holding the 10 ring with me shooting it if I do my part with the Winchester ammo. I then loaded 6 rounds of the S&B. It shot to exactly the same point as the Winchester. Once again the group was 6 1/2 inches at 200 yards, exactly the same as the Winchester.

I recently bought the S&B for $16.00 for 20 rounds. I have a box of Privi Partisan 174 gr FMJ BT that I'll try next but the S&B looks like very good ammo for the money to me and shoots to about the same point as the Winchester which I assume is loaded to Mk VII spec.

Information

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[Alan de Enfield]

I must admit I'm a Privi convert - Its clean consistent and is (apparently) loaded to MkV11 spec.
It reloads (neck sizing only) without any problems - I'm now up to the 12th reload and no signs of stress.
I load medium / high with 36.5 gr of H4895 with a 174gr bullet or 37.4gr with a 150gr bullet

Everyone I know that has tried reloading the S&B has had case seperations either at, or very, very soon after, 3 reloads.

I believe Ed Horton made some good tests and comparisons of the Privi cases Vs HXP, Vs US commercial cases - maybe he could post them here.

[Art]

I have shot Privi in the past and like it VERY much. I have some on hand and on the next trip to the range I intend to shoot some of it for comparison purposes.

I don't reload so the case life is not a huge deal for me, but I understand that is a major consideration for those who do.

[harry mac]

Alan's right on the case life issue. S&B is good ammo, no doubt about that, but the cases are crap.
I did a comparison between HXP PPU and S&B cases over the course of about 10 months. Both PPU and HXP survived 6 reloads before the first cases showed neck/shoulder splits, and even then it was only one or two cases out of the twenty. The S&B cases started splitting on the third firing, and it was about 7 out of the 20. The criteria of my test was that all cases were full length sized after each firing. With neck sizing, the cases will last considerably longer than the six reloads I got out of them. S&B, however are poor cases no matter what you do to them.

[Mk VII]

I'm inclined to say the same about their 7.62x54 cases. Neck cracks do for them relatively quickly, and my attempts at annealing didn't seem to help.

[smle-man]

The Yugo brass seems the best for continous full length resizes for me. The S&B separated at the base after one reload. PMC seemed like it should have been the toughest of all because the case volume is less than the others (thicker brass) but it only went two full length resizes. I am still reloading Norma cases that I got in the 70s, although the number are dwindling some are probably on their 10th go around.

I've got a stash of the modern Winchester ball, Portuguese FNM ball, Yugo Mk8, S&B ball, RG 1950, and SA 80s ball. Someday I'm going to dig out some of each and try samples through the #4mk2 tackdriver and see how each round compares.

[JB White]

Art,

Does your Winchester have the WCC 86 headstamp? If so then the accuracy comes as no surprise to me. I found that to be THE most accurate from my No4Mk2 and my rebarreled Lithgow. Impressive stuff for the price and especially at 1990 prices.

[Art]

Nope, mine is WCC 81. As you said it's really fine ammo. Too bad that like a lot of other good things its gone.

[Enfieldlock]

S&B seems to have a reputation for base seperation. I only use it for making "squib loads" for my Long Lee.

The old favourite, HXP takes some beating. I do anneal them regularly though.

You can always tell a gun-nut. He has a half-million pound house, runs a Bently, but still scrabbles through the dirt and **** to find that last piece of lost brass.

[harry mac]

S&B seems to have a reputation for base seperation. I only use it for making "squib loads" for my Long Lee.

The old favourite, HXP takes some beating. I do anneal them regularly though.

You can always tell a gun-nut. He has a half-million pound house, runs a Bently, but still scrabbles through the dirt and **** to find that last piece of lost brass.

I'm a gun nut jim, which stores do I go to to get the house and Bentley issued, QM's, QM(T), or SQMS's?
By the way, I used the SMLE MkV I bought from you some years back in the fixed bayo comp at Bisley last week end. It did rather well for me. Don't have full results yet though.