LVSteve
Member
It does make my eyes roll when reloaders whine that a particular military cartridge is tough to reload. The military work on a "one and done" basis when it comes to ammo, except maybe gathering up range brass to be recycled. The military generally don't design ammo with reloading in mind, reliability and feeding in tough conditions are more on their mind.When Russia invaded Afghanistan the supply of cheap 303 ammo disappeared immediately. The Afgans were all familiar with the Enfields and the cartridge. The secret backers of both sides had the money and the power to buy up any surplus weapon and cartridge on the market. At the time, in the US there was also a lot of negative feelings about the .303 being a poor choice to reload because of the rimmed design and the cases stretching making reloading a 2 or 3 time case before discarding the brass. If I was going to have to select a bolt action rifle to use in combat, the Enfield MK 4 would be my first choice. 10 shots vs 5, smooth action, reasonably accurate, modern sights. The 98K has 5 shots and sights that are not very good in my opinion. How many Germans died while trying to get the clips out of the way while the Brits were still shooting?
The fix for .303 case stretching is to slide an O ring down the case so it rests against the rim. When the round is loaded, this ensures the case base is firmly contacting the bolt head, so any "stretch" is at the shoulders, ideal given the variability of Enfield chambers. Future reloads are limited to neck resizing, the only issue being is that the case is now only good for the rifle in which it was first fired.