Hunting bullets for a .303

[jdpretorius]

Just a side note: a lot of bullet makes are .311 but there are some that are .312 which can some times help.

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[driepootx]

Hornady has 312 round noses, but they tend to break up badly and make horrendous holes in carcasses.

[BBCT]

Someone once suggested to me that I should use Large Rifle Magnum primers instead of plain Large Rifle, the theory being that gives a greater initial flame to ignite the powder hence a sharper initial pressure spike. It seemed to work in my .303 at the time, which was a sporterised no.4 shooting Hornady 150 grainers. I can't remember the loads but it would have been with S335.

If you choose to try this, remember to reduce your powder charge and work up again as if you are developing a new load.

[MrK]

In my tinkering with my own .303 I found the following:

1. Some experimentation wrt different bullet weights is required. Some guns like the 150 grainers, some don't. The .312 bullets work well in barrels that have some wear.

2. I get my best results ito group size with fire formed brass. Once fire formed I neck size only unless chambering a round becomes noticeably harder. Once this happens I "bump" the shoulder. My rifle has a fairly big chamber, the shoulder moves almost 1mm forward on the first firing of new brass.

3. A factory crimp die helped to reduce my group size noticeably. The spread in my chronied velocities decreased a lot once I started using the FC.

[Toxxyc]

Hornady has 312 round noses, but they tend to break up badly and make horrendous holes in carcasses.

Tons of people recommended the Hornady Interlocks to me for the 303 (174gr, round nose). I never got to test them on game. My rifle simply refused to group with them. I cleaned almost two boxes (almost 200 bullets) before throwing in the towel. No matter what loads I loaded, they wouldn't group smaller than a CD-sized group at 100m. Fine for really short-ranged hunting, but I wasn't comfortable with it, so I stopped loading them.

I actually came about the Sierras by accident. We were on the range and my father in law pulled out an ammo box with Sierra-loaded rounds. I explained to him the situation with my rifle and the Hornadys, he gave me three rounds and said "have at it". Grouped around 4cm at 100m. So I took 3 more. Same result. So I just copied that load with those bullets and now I have a great hunting load.

[B-west]

I tried the Remington 174gr RN core loct, and I had good results with them, took down a couple of kudu and Gemsbok with them.

Then I tried reloading Sierra 150gr pro-hunter, With very good results. If I did my part, I could get a 20mm group at 100m.

The Hornady 174gr RN also gave me good groupings, but like driepootx said, meat damage were bad.

[Messor]

Just make sure that you are not doing it the wrong way around.
Trying different bullets and combinations is no guarantee of any results, the first thing that needs done is making sure the firearm is capable of the required accuracy. I wouldn't worry about bullet length or neck tension or any shot in the dark type of stuff unless I am satisfied the rifle is capable of accuracy in the first place. Why try and do expensive load development in a worn barrel for example?

[jdpretorius]

The negative with spending money accurizing a 303 is that you would probably not add much if any resale value to the rifle. They can be a great bush rifles though ( I consider them to be under rated by many), especially if you want a "working rifle" that you are not to pedantic about. The one i tinkered with for a while was sold at half of what I had in it, to a youngster that wanted his first rifle and could not afford an expensive ticket.....i still miss it on some days.

[gerrieheath]

Morning. I have a no4 mk 1*. Mostly I use hornady interlock 150gr with 44gr S341. This is exceptional accurate. I am talking about sub moa group. We have hunted almost everything up to medium eland with this. Never an issue. Last year I started using rhino penetrators. Boy what a bullet. Took a rooihartebees at 280m. Shot dropped more than i realised and hit the shoulder. Whent through the animal out the other side. Instant kill. I was surprised at the meat damage that was not excessive

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[pre 64]

gerrie.....Your shot dropped more than you realised? Where were you intending to hit the Hartebeest?