.303 Surplus ammo.

[Tuna]

FYI....I just got an email flyer from SOG. They have surplus .303 available in 250 round cans and 1000 cases. All of it is loose and FMJ. $140 for 250 round plastic can and $500+ for the 1000 round wooden cases. I have no idea who made it or when but I know surplus .303 is very hard to find now.

[JB White]

Probably another batch of loose, mixed headstamps. Some of that has been hit or miss. Most of it has been hit or miss in fact. Some got lots of decent shots with a few duds. Others reported almost a 50/50 success/failure rate. Let us know what you get? Headstamp-wise I mean.
Thanks.

[madsenshooter]

What about the Wolf bimetal cased .303? I know it isn't going to work for everyone, it has a .310 diameter bullet. I have seen it as low as $105 for 280 rds. Of course, when ammo is low priced, there's usually a reason!

[p246]

What about the Wolf bimetal cased .303? I know it isn't going to work for everyone, it has a .310 diameter bullet. I have seen it as low as $105 for 280 rds. Of course, when ammo is low priced, there's usually a reason!

It shot okay out of a couple No 4s with good bores. Have yet to find a No 1 that will shoot it well or even good. Even my 43 Lithgow which is my best No 1 shooting wise does not like it. I have not tried it in my Pattern 14.

[madsenshooter]

I shot some today, out of a rifle with a nice .310 groove diameter barrel. Ten went into 2.7x2.4" group at 100yds. With at least two, maybe three out of the ten shot for group giving what may have been a barely perceivable delay between primer strike and boom, but 20 of 20 went off! I may just transfer the components into some boxer primed brass and give em another go. I've had some good experience with Russian powders and US primers in my Garand. The bimetal cases worked well, no difficult bolt uplift or sticky extraction and they fireformed to the chamber nicely. 41913

[madsenshooter]

Now that I've had time to think about it, these rounds behaved just like some I'd loaded with DDNP primers, the old Wolf KVB-7E! I still have 4975 of those, won't ever use them for anything! I'll bet this .303 ammunition is primed with this compound.

[madsenshooter]

Digging around online about DDNP primers, I see that not only do they not produce enough pressure, they increase bore friction as compared to lead styphnate primers. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1410/1410.6390.pdf

[P51MUSTANG]

Anyone get any of the ammo? Was it nice and clean or POF junk? I shot some of that years ago and it was terrible.

[JB White]

Anyone get any of the ammo? Was it nice and clean or POF junk? I shot some of that years ago and it was terrible.

Beware of nice and clean POF sold in small lots outside the old government packaging. A good while back it turned up on one of the show circuits in bags. A few people suspected it was ammo that was prettied up via tumbling the live rounds. Sporadic performance ranging from total duds to hang fires to perceived dangerous.

On the other hand, a few chance-taking shooters lucked out when a batch of POF turned up which actually shot OK. Apparently it hadn't suffered from poor storage and handling prior to finding its way here. Safe to say that batch of POF is long gone except for what belongs to the lucky ones who held some back.

I have never fired the Wolf brand 303. Never had any reason to buy it befor. Not yet anyway. My brass is getting tired and my stock of benchmark ammo is getting low. Might have a reason to try some soon.

[p246]

Privi 303 works in good bores also but cost more than the Russian stuff. It is cleaner though. Just scored two bandoliers of Radway Green 53 and 30 rds white tip tracers last night. Stored in a ammo can so fingers crossed. Even finding old Mk VII that looks good is a gamble. Worst case pull the bullets, been there before.

I have about a hundred rds of the POF I was given in a bag. Have to pull them as it looks like confetti coming out of bore.

[Sunray]

"...or POF junk..." Not all POF ammo is junk. There were some years that were ok. Don't remember which years. Most is unreliable though.
"...Wolf bimetal cased .303..." Isn't surplus.
"...bimetal cases worked well..." That has nothing to do with difficult bolt uplift or sticky extraction.
The DDNP primer scare doesn't apply to .303 British. No such thing as .303 British NATO ammo.

[p246]

"...or POF junk..." Not all POF ammo is junk. There were some years that were ok. Don't remember which years. Most is unreliable though.
"...Wolf bimetal cased .303..." Isn't surplus.
"...bimetal cases worked well..." That has nothing to do with difficult bolt uplift or sticky extraction.
The DDNP primer scare doesn't apply to .303 British. No such thing as .303 British NATO ammo.

Yep I've had some POF that shot well. I wish I had paid attention to what years was good but that was 30 years ago. We had a No 1 Lithgow and Dad bought us boys tons of the stuff. Later he said it was cheaper keeping us entertained with that 303 and 22 rimfires then us running to town and staying out late on the weekends getting into trouble.

A lot of the surplus 303 just wast stored well. When I get some I try it, if it shoots great clean accordingly. Click bangs or confetti I pull the bullets. I use to reuse the cordite to but it just became a time suck. I use the pulled mark VIIs in my No 1 rifle variants because the bearing surface of the HPBTs just doesn't seem to work in them. I've just been shooting Sierra 174 grain HPBTs in the 2 No 4s I shoot as they shoot them well and Sierra is within driving distance.

[P51MUSTANG]

The POF is junk..... I had a few original boxes of it years back. It was all cordite and there were alot of hangfires in the lot.

[JB White]

Yup. It seems the BT's work well in rifles not having much barrel wear/throat erosion. Given the fact our rifles are surplus and are likely well used, BT's are mostly avoided. I know I've always taken a pass after hearing all the hit-or miss feedback.

Since we're on the topic of crap ammo, I once bought some "crappy Iraqi" cupro-nickel jacketed at a very good price. Nobody liked it but the seller was moving it out for barely more than the cost of the chargers. Danged if that stuff wasn't pretty good in the kid's rifles. I don't recall any misfires or hang fires and it grouped decently.