.303 Brit Surplus Ammo?

[DoggyDaddy]

Short of reloading, does anyone have a good source for (reasonable) .303 Brit ammo? I've checked all my usual sources... AIM, SGAMMO, Widener's, Buymilsurp.com, Centerfire Systems, J&G, Ammunitiontogo, and even Midway, but all anyone has is new manufacture for 16 bucks/20 rds. and up. Google played a horrible trick on me yesterday... It linked me to a Midway page with .303 for $49.95/300 rounds! Well, of course I was on that like a duck on a June bug, before I realized it was an old link and the ammo had been "discontinued by manufacturer". Is my best bet going to be to just check the gun shows?

 

[Claddagh]

Finding any true military surplus .303 Brit. is likely to be tough to do. It hasn't been any country I can think of's standard, or even secondary, issue round for at least half a century now. The last that I saw had corrosive primers, came from India and/or Pakistan and was well over 40 yrs old. Even then it wasn't exactly 'cheap' and its overall quality of manufacture, performance, etc. was generally reported as being fairly dismal.

IMHO, if you're dead set against reloading your best bet will be some of the European-made milspec stuff from Prvi Partisan, etc. And finding that for much less than the $16/box you posted may be challenging, even if you purchase it in a case lot.

BTW: IMO before you shoot about any WWI/WWII era SMLE it's wise to spend a few bucks with a professional gunsmith to have it checked out for headspace, chamber dimensions and such. Lots of these saw hard use over an extended period of time under battlefield conditions, so unless it's got "FTR" (Factory Thorough Repair) stamped on it someplace a bit of CYA would be a good thing.

 

[longhuntr]

it's all but impossible to find any decent british surplus,I don't know if they banned it or what.I bought an ammo can of it about a year ago at croy creek.it was dated in the late 40's and came in stripper clips in bandoliers.unfortunately it was all berdan primed,and about 1 in 10 split on firing.I ended up with a set of lee dies and used new brass from privi partisan to load cast lead bullets.If you only neck size the cases and keep the loads down around 1500 fps,they last quite a while,and are much kinder on the gun.303 is still big up in Canada,where they use it on everything from deer to bear to moose. I use a .312 bullet in it and my moisin nagant 91/30.180gr. at approx 16500 in either one with 5744 powder.While it is a strong design,the newest of there is still 70 years old.The bolt heads are easy to change,and are numbered to set headspace.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Finding any true military surplus .303 Brit. is likely to be tough to do. It hasn't been any country I can think of's standard, or even secondary, issue round for at least half a century now. The last that I saw had corrosive primers, came from India and/or Pakistan and was well over 40 yrs old. Even then it wasn't exactly 'cheap' and its overall quality of manufacture, performance, etc. was generally reported as being fairly dismal.

IMHO, if you're dead set against reloading your best bet will be some of the European-made milspec stuff from Prvi Partisan, etc. And finding that for much less than the $16/box you posted may be challenging, even if you purchase it in a case lot.

BTW: IMO before you shoot about any WWI/WWII era SMLE it's wise to spend a few bucks with a professional gunsmith to have it checked out for headspace, chamber dimensions and such. Lots of these saw hard use over an extended period of time under battlefield conditions, so unless it's got "FTR" (Factory Thorough Repair) stamped on it someplace a bit of CYA would be a good thing.

Thanks! That's about the conclusion I'd come to from what I've seen. I think I really do need to look into reloading... if I can stop buying guns long enough to afford the initial investment!

This Enfield is in pretty good shape... the stock doesn't have any dings or scratches in it (of course I guess that's not necessarily an indicator of what the metal has been through) and the metal only has a tiny bit of pitting on the top front of the receiver. Rifling is strong and muzzle doesn't show any excessive wear. I didn't see any FTR stamping anywhere. The barrel bands are stamped SNV (?). Don't know what that means.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

it's all but impossible to find any decent british surplus,I don't know if they banned it or what.I bought an ammo can of it about a year ago at croy creek.it was dated in the late 40's and came in stripper clips in bandoliers.unfortunately it was all berdan primed,and about 1 in 10 split on firing.I ended up with a set of lee dies and used new brass from privi partisan to load cast lead bullets.If you only neck size the cases and keep the loads down around 1500 fps,they last quite a while,and are much kinder on the gun.303 is still big up in Canada,where they use it on everything from deer to bear to moose. I use a .312 bullet in it and my moisin nagant 91/30.180gr. at approx 16500 in either one with 5744 powder.While it is a strong design,the newest of there is still 70 years old.The bolt heads are easy to change,and are numbered to set headspace.

A guy at the Tri-State show yesterday had some Greek surplus that he said was 1980's manufacture, non-corrosive and reloadable. I only picked up 48 rounds and it was still 30 bucks. He had 50 rounds on strippers in a bandolier for 40 bucks. I kinda wish I would have gotten that instead just to have the stripper clips. Still, that price isn't much better than new manufacture Prvi Partisan. I know nothing about checking headspace, so maybe I should have it checked out before I shoot it.

I've still got almost 1000 rounds of 7.62x54, but how does your cost of reloading compare to surplus cost for that caliber? While the surplus is still plentiful now, I'm sure it will dry up some day too.

 

[sgreen3]

I dont know if this will help you but you might give it a look, .303 British rifle ammo ammunition - AmmoSeek.com