Powder for .303 British

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Powder for .303 British

Post by Gunner » 01 Feb 2018, 12:40 pm

I have just about run out of powder for my .303 British (2206H behind 174 gr Hornadys). While results are OK they atre not spectacular. Before I buy a new supply, can anybody suggest a more suitable powder - maybe 2208 is the go!
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Re: Powder for .303 British

Post by No1Mk3 » 01 Feb 2018, 1:49 pm

G'day Gunner,
2206H is a very good powder for 303. Several State and National Titles have been won using it, but individual rifles do give variable results. Have you experimented with other projectiles? It is a well known phenomenon that some rifles will not shoot boat tails like the Hornady 174 but will shoot very well with 150g flat base and vise versa. I nave loaded 2208 and 2209 in various rifles and projectiles and have now come back to 2206H. Checking my load data I see I originally loaded Nobel #1 with good results then moved to DuPont IMR 4350 using 180g Norma pills for my best ever results (young eyes then?). 4350 is according to the info from ADI, an equivalent burn rate to 2209! Maybe buy a small canister of 2209 for experiment, but also a small 2206H and try different projectiles, Cheers.

PS: The Norma was a flat base
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Re: Powder for .303 British

Post by Cooper » 01 Feb 2018, 2:15 pm

I used AR2208 behind 150gr soft points. Haven't tried anything else. But seems to work fairly well.
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Re: Powder for .303 British

Post by vmaxaust » 05 Feb 2018, 5:05 am

The 2206H is excellent in 303's. I use 36.2 gr in a PPU case (PPU has thicker rim to tighten head space) with the Hornady 174 gr boat tail and the results are consistent in all 4 of my Enfields. Two are Jungle carbines, one is a No.4 and the other a Lithgow No.3 All rifles have different rates of bore wear so results vary accordingly but only very slightly. Your problem is not the powder, it is in my opinion ideal for this application.

Sam




Gunner wrote:I have just about run out of powder for my .303 British (2206H behind 174 gr Hornadys). While results are OK they atre not spectacular. Before I buy a new supply, can anybody suggest a more suitable powder - maybe 2208 is the go!
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Re: Powder for .303 British

Post by AusTac » 05 Feb 2018, 5:26 am

What size groups are you getting? They're not target 1moa rifles

I personally use the same powder and never had an issue, pretty consistent
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