I was gifted some 303

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Niner
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I was gifted some 303

Post by Niner » Sun Oct 09, 2016 11:02 am

A friend of mine inherited some ammo. He didn't need the 303 so he gifted what he had to me. What it amounted to was 104 rounds of a mixed lot of ammo. Must have come from one of the surplus dealers who just dumped odd lots into a bin and sold them by hundred count. In fact there was a tattered piece of paper with the ammo with the printed information that a hundred rounds were worth $18.

The ammo looked pretty tarnished and so I cleaned it up a bit. Nothing looked damaged or obviously defective so I'll try shooting some of it.

The factory marks were various. RG for the Royal Ordnance Factory , Radway Green, Cheshire, UK is probably the best reputation ammo.

There were also POF for Pakistan and KF for India.
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Re: I was gifted some 303

Post by joseyclosey » Tue Oct 11, 2016 10:21 am

I've just pulled three old .303 rounds for a friend, one being headstamped AOC. Can't remember the date but manufacturer was Bombrini, Parodi et Delfino, Rome, Italy. It had a grey flake powder and a boat tail bullet. Others were a Kynoch and an early Radway Green, both loaded with cordite and flat based fmj bullets.
I never thought to photograph them unfortunately.
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Re: I was gifted some 303

Post by Niner » Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:31 pm

Took some of the assortment out for a range exercise. And... after firing a couple dozen, I got one no bang.. even with trying to shoot it twice. I got two neck cracks. One in a RG and the other in a POF 1954 Most fired without any cracks. Accuracy unknown as I was doing the shooting. And... one other thing... that Jungle carbine kicked more than I remembered it did. However I haven't been shooting in a long while and I don't remember the last time I shot one of my two Jungle carbines.
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englishman_ca
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Re: I was gifted some 303

Post by englishman_ca » Fri Oct 14, 2016 5:17 pm

Worth more than 18c per round these days.

Providing the ammo has been kept cool and dry, it should be fine.

A buddy gave me some 100 year old gallery rounds. I have shot of about a dozen, and every one went bang.
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Re: I was gifted some 303

Post by Niner » Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:36 pm

Good to see your comment , Englishman. I'm not too concerned with neck splits on old surplus ammo. Now if it were further down the case.. that's different. I still have some of that old mauser ammo from Century back a dozen and more years ago. Lots of that stuff was from the 30's. Most still fire and I've fired a number of them with neck splits. But.. since they are for use only once anyway I haven't discarded what I have left of the unfired ammo.

Not that I'm suggesting safety issues don't still remain. Everybody has to do what they think best of course in using old surplus ammo at all. Some wouldn't fire any old ammo. And... if you get a misfire because a primer doesn't fire, keep the weapon pointed down range for a while before opening the bolt just to be sure there is no cook off. And... discard the misfires in a safe way. Don't just leave them on the ground at the range for safety reasons. Most ranges have a way to deal with such..like a bucket for them to be discarded in some safe way.
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Re: I was gifted some 303

Post by englishman_ca » Sun Oct 16, 2016 8:27 am

Old ammo is getting pretty collectable theses days (it always was) so it does not make good sense to shoot it off unless you have a bucket load of it. It is often worth more as collectable. Some cartridges can bring premium prices, sometimes hundreds of dollars for one rare round.

It is worth researching before shooting off.

I have spent over thirty years looking for a round of Mk.III 303 Brit to add to my collection. So far, not even an empty case. The only one that I know of is set into cement on a war memorial in Natal, South Africa.

Split neck is common for old mil spec ammo. Possibly the brass has aged and got brittlem. Handloaders are constantly annealing their brass to prevent this. However, the action of the Lee Enfield is robust enough and directs any wayward gasses away from the shooter. Not a concern unless you reload!
Look to your front, mark your target when it comes.
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