.303 Ammo advise needed

**Louis G** · 02-02-2012, 22:20

Like a lot of us the old .303 standing in dad or oupa's cupboard end up in our safes mostly for sentimental reasons ( after getting rid of another possible better gun to make space for it). My story is no different. Was sold by the SANDF in Potch in 1970 as surplus stock when they went over to the R1 rifle. It had never been fired and was still in the original wrapping. Sold for the exorbitant price of R12.00 and for another R10.00 the SANDF gunsmiths "sportirized" it. License obtained it is now in my safe with the traditional "sack of ammunition"---herein lies the problem. Had a scope fitted that I had lying around. Barrel is still shiny and pristine as new. Off to the shooting range and I reckoned if it shot well I would spend a bit of money on it within reason. I discarded any military ammo and only shot the PMP ammo. Shot the loose ammo first and then some boxed ammo of which I have 10 boxes. Accuracy was a pleasant surprise giving the ammo used and the "fantastic" trigger. (40 mm at 100 m). All the loose ammo was marked PMP. Some had 64 stamped on the back and some had 70 stamped on the back. The boxed ammo simply had PMP 303 on the back and 174gr Sorftpoint on the box. No date of manufacture but the price on the box is R50.66 fron Sentraalwes Kooperasie. They gave a respectable 2540 fts average velocity over the chrony with a 35 fps average deviation.

I reload and simply shot the ammo for the fire-formed brass. When I tried to clean the rifle my pristine barrel had turned into a black fowled mess which took a whole day of soaking and hard work to clean. Who is the culprit? I still have nine boxes of the Kooperasie ammo left. Do I shoot it or discard it. It turned out that the ammo with the 64 and 70 stamp on the back still had the double flash hole like the old military ammo and I had to discard them in any case. The Kooperasie ammo had normal flash holes.

**driepootx** · 02-02-2012, 22:30

I think the culprits were the military ammo with the Berdan (two hole) primers. Avoid them and the PMP ammo should not foul as badly. The good results you got speak for themselves. So, Kooperasie is koning.

**mic** · 03-02-2012, 06:17

Some of that old military ammo may have been loaded with cordite. Not an issue BUT you have to clean the rifle right after shooting it. Cordite also is very corrosive.
Enjoy your 303!

If you want to discard those old military ammo, I'l take them from you.
They work well for just plinking on the the range.
I also own a SMLE no4 mk2 ex SANDF issue, but mine is still stock standard. I am a collector and as such have a pasion for original guns.