geodin wrote:How did you go with 303?
I think my barrel is a smidg large for the .312 185 grain lee cast I have. Coating may help. What load/velocity worked for you?
Cheers.
Geoff
Do not have my sizing machine yet for the rifle bullets. It's leaving the U.S next week. My existing handgun bullet automated sizing machines can be adapted to rifle but because I do so many handgun bullets I don't want to cause my self the grief of changing setup to do a few hundred rifle bullets every now and again.
I ordered a Star Sizer (manual machine) without lubing facility. I have several dies (.311" and .312"). I'm also having a new mould made in a month when the CNC company is back at work. The mould will allow up to .315" diameter finished bullets somewhere between 170-185gr in weight.
I did try some .312" 184gr Hi-Tech coated bullets from a friend. He cast them from my material (virgin 92-6-2 from Northern Smelters Brisbane) I coated them 3 times and he sized them. Using my usual ADI 2206H powder I loaded cases with 24gr and they performed perfectly. Lighter recoil, no leading in my Lithgow No.1 MK111 which has excellent barrel bore. I did not have a chance to chrono so I don't know velocity. Accuracy seemed at least as good as the jacketed factory style rounds up to 100 metres. If I was to guess velocity it would have been about 1750fps or less. Remember these bullets have no gas checks and I do not intend using any ever.
There is always the concern about too little powder volume in the .303 case but I basically worked on the minimum 66% fill compared to the normal load I used with jacketed bullets. With those bullets I use 35-36gr of the same powder. There is also no reason you couldn't use handgun/shotgun powder to better fill the case...AP50N/APS450 with about 12gr which would produce an estimated 1500-1600fps.