Old .303

With knowledge and the right equipment the FMJ bullets can be pulled and replaced with softpoints of equal weight or slightly less. And re-crimped, of course.
 
I have some of that for the range. It shoots okay, but keep in mind that that military stuff uses corrosive primers. You have to either clean the gun immediately after shooting or at the least spray the bolt, chamber, and barrel with ammonia based window cleaner.

If you don't those parts of likely to rust quickly, especially in humid conditions.

I believe what you have there was made in Pakistan. Not the best ammunition and if you can find some of the British made ammunition, the quality is likely to be better.
 
215 Grains of Moose Stomping Goodness

Still have a couple boxes of 215 grainers. One is a full box of Remington (Rem-UMC) and the other is a mix of Rem and Winchester.

Very Christmas appropriate packaging as well.
 

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An old box of Remington UMC .303 British that was given to me years ago.
I am guessing that the box is from around 1900+/- since it says for Remington Lee, Winchester Model 1895 and Lee Enfield rifles.

It was filled with questionable quality Berdan primed FMJ reloads - not UMC cases. So I pulled the bullets and reloaded them in Boxer primed cases. Probably 30 or so years ago.

As Remington and UMC merged in 1911, the box would have been from around that time if not later.
 
Yep, it's cordite.
No, it's not old movie film but an extrusion like very fine angel-hair pasta.
The smell of burnt cordite might well be my favourite burnt powder smell.
I've been tempted to reuse the cordite from the dud rounds, though getting it back into a case would be challenging as it's packed in there pretty tightly

Cordite was usually loaded into cases before the neck was formed, so loading a full charge of Cordite into a necked case (assuming you had some) would be a challenge. Just as is the situation with modern smokelesss powder, there were many varieties and sizes of Cordite made for different applications.
 
As Remington and UMC merged in 1911, the box would have been from around that time if not later.

Thanks! That’s good to know.

I had read about a Remington Lee model 1899 chambered in .303 British and the Win 1895 was chambered in .303 starting in 1898 so I was guessing that was approximate manufacture date of ammo.
 
Cordite was usually loaded into cases before the neck was formed, so loading a full charge of Cordite into a necked case (assuming you had some) would be a challenge. Just as is the situation with modern smokelesss powder, there were many varieties and sizes of Cordite made for different applications.
Ah, that makes sense.
I did just check and I can in fact get a full load of cordite out of and back into a .303. 46 sticks .045" in diameter is the payload in a sample POF round. It was mildly annoying to get it in there, so not something I'd want to do a ton of, but for a few rounds of nostalgia without the corrosion risks I can see doing it now and then.
The good news is I had to really scrounge to find a POF round before I finally found one in my duds box to pull the bullet out of, all I have left in factory rounds is some commercial rounds and some HXP.

I've attached pics for those folks who haven't met cordite rounds before.
 

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For corrosive or suspected corrosive ammunition: Soap and hot water! Bore Tech Eliminator is good and is great for copper fouling. Ballistol and water solution works. Then, there's the old GI bore cleaner, which can still be found; lots of kerosene (?) and lots of "scent". Dry the bore and follow up with your favorite bore cleaner and preservative. It all worked for me.
 
Corrosive primers,,,,
Then add Cordite Powder which is Erosive to gun barrels,,
At least it's much more erosive than later smokeless powders are because of less heat buildup (as I understand it).

The early Metford style rifling in the Lee rifles was designed to take care of the fouling produced by the BlackPowder used in loading the earlest 303Brit round.
But most of the bolt action Lee Metford rifles coming into service were fed the the newer Cordite loaded 303 rounds. These Cordite loads wore the Metford rifled bbls out rather quickly.
The change was then made to Enfield style rifling (square cornered grooves and lands) to handle the Cordite better.

There are several formulas of Cordite as well. The orig formula (CMkI) is the most erosive I believe.
I think the old specs used to site betw 5k to 6k rounds of Cordite 303 would make a 303 Lee bbl ready for scrap.

Love those Enfields!
 
Soap and water will certainly work for corrosive ammo, but just plain water is all that's really needed. You'll hear water and Windex, water and ballistol, water and soap, etc, but the water is what washes away the corrosive salts. Clean your bore with water, dry it out, then clean with whatever bore cleaner you'd use on anyother rifel.
 
As Remington and UMC merged in 1911, the box would have been from around that time if not later.

A little more info on the Rem-UMC .303 British Mk VII ammo box.
The Mk VII cartridge wasn’t approved until Nov 1910.
 

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For corrosive or suspected corrosive ammunition: Soap and hot water! Bore Tech Eliminator is good and is great for copper fouling. Ballistol and water solution works. Then, there's the old GI bore cleaner, which can still be found; lots of kerosene (?) and lots of "scent". Dry the bore and follow up with your favorite bore cleaner and preservative. It all worked for me.

The GI bore cleaner from WWII was essentially an emulsion of water in oil (no idea what kind of oil). The purpose of the water was of course to dissolve the corrosive salts from chlorate primers used by the military at that time. When I use any corrosive ammo, I clean the bore afterwards using hot water before doing anything else.
 
A little more info on the Rem-UMC .303 British Mk VII ammo box.
The Mk VII cartridge wasn’t approved until Nov 1910.

Note the aluminum slug at the point of the Mark VII bullet. It is there to make the bullet base heavy, so it will yaw when passing through human body tissue, thereby causing more damage. Not a lot different in purpose from the bullets used in the 5.56x45 NATO.
 
Yep, it's cordite.
No, it's not old movie film but an extrusion like very fine angel-hair pasta.
The smell of burnt cordite might well be my favourite burnt powder smell.
I've been tempted to reuse the cordite from the dud rounds, though getting it back into a case would be challenging as it's packed in there pretty tightly

I have reloaded cordite from dud rounds as well as from a small lot of ammo that had been water damaged (the clips rusted onto the cases and could not be easily cleaned off). I found it easy to put the largest part of the load into a new case then start the remaining sticks in part way and seat them with the aid of a pencil.

They shot quite well and I didn't have to worry about the extra step of cleaning up corrosive primer residue. And for those who don't know, it is the old style chlorate primers that are corrosive, not the powder. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about this subject. It is easily cleaned with a water based cleaner but needs cleaned promptly as the chlorate primers basically leave a salt in the bore which absorbs moisture and leads to rust.
 
For corrosive or suspected corrosive ammunition: Soap and hot water! Bore Tech Eliminator is good and is great for copper fouling. Ballistol and water solution works. Then, there's the old GI bore cleaner, which can still be found; lots of kerosene (?) and lots of "scent". Dry the bore and follow up with your favorite bore cleaner and preservative. It all worked for me.

I've been shooting corrosive surplus for over 50 years. I use home-made GI bore cleaner on a patch (50/50 ammonia and water), followed by a patch of Hoppes.

Most of my old surplus rifles already had fouled bores. Now they look the same and have not rusted at all.
 
Corrosive primers,,,,
Then add Cordite Powder which is Erosive to gun barrels,,
At least it's much more erosive than later smokeless powders are because of less heat buildup (as I understand it).

There are several formulas of Cordite as well. The orig formula (CMkI) is the most erosive I believe.
I think the old specs used to site betw 5k to 6k rounds of Cordite 303 would make a 303 Lee bbl ready for scrap.

Love those Enfields!
Indeed, the early double-base cordite was very hard on barrels, the later (much of WWII) double-base was much kinder but still a bit harsh, and the later triple-base I think is about on-par with regular propellant. Most or all ammo made after WWII was triple-base.
Cordite - Wikipedia
 
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