Jäger1
Member
I reloaded heavy Nosler Partition .308 bullets for some old guy friends who were devastated when their beloved heavy Dominion hunting loads for their surplus Lee Enfields disappeared from sporting goods stores. I never had a complaint as they went on whacking the local moose, elk, and deer with those reloads I put together and sighted their rifles in for. I imagine the open base of the Partition obdurated sufficiently for the rifling to get a sufficient grip on it.
The best trick for reloading for the various Lee Enfield rifles (aside from beginning with a quality rifle with a quality barrel), is to start with PPU unprimed brass. I, and many others, have measured a LOT of commercial and military brass. PPU is about the only commercial brass that appears to be a clone copied from the brass found in WWII, Korea, etc Mk VII ball rounds - particularly the thickness of the rim and the cartridge case. Particularly the thickness of the rim, which the LE headspaces on - commercial brass is much thinner.
Beyond that, you can of course do the o-ring trick. A much better way to fly (in my opinion) is to completely eliminate any amount of uncontrolled case stretch at first firing by starting out by replicating a fire formed case before assembling your first reloads with that brass.
Use a Lyman .33 M die to expand the case neck to .33". Then start running the cases successively further into a full length resizing die. Squeeze the neck down a bit, then try to chamber. When the bolt won't close, squeeze the neck down further. Continue doing that until the bolt will reliably close on all cases with a light crush fit as the bolt turns down.
When you look at the results, you'll see an obvious "false shoulder", further up the neck from where the factory shoulder and neck come together. (It also shows you how much room there is in your chamber for your case to stretch forward to on first firing, whether or not there's an O-ring at the back by the rim.)
You now have a "fire formed" virgin case, supported against the back firmly against the face of the bolt head, and supported and centered at the front where it's touching the chamber. The only direction the case can go on first firing is radially, outwards. No stretching. You are now headspacing on the shoulder rather than depending on the thickness (and consistency from case to case) of the case rim.
The "false shoulder" will disappear at first firing, never to be seen again.
After that, stick to just neck sizing (until you get to the point where you need to bump the shoulder back a bit); I and many others prefer the Lee Collet die, but there's other neck sizing options out there.
I also anneal the necks each time I reload the case. Not because it's necessary every time, but it only takes a few seconds over an alcohol lamp with how I do it during case inspection and preparation, and reloading .303 Brit is not a high speed endeavor while putting my target loads together. And mo' consistency in neck tension from shot to shot is better, yes?
They actually aren't hard rifles to reload for, and the "excess headspace" stuff is mostly Bullschiff from those who know little about the rifles, or about why the chambers were deliberately cut the way they are. It definitely wasn't to accommodate reloaders.
If you DO have a #3 bolt head on a LE rifle, however, it probably still is within military headspace spec.
But Commonwealth armourers working on backloaded rifles at base REME facilities did not fit #3 bolt heads to get a rifle back in spec to go back into service. If they couldn't get the rifle back into service by choosing a new bolt and new bolt head of #2 or smaller, the need for a #3 bolt head was considered to indicate the rifle body itself was worn out.
(at the risk of confusing many, the number on the bolt head doesn't actually indicate a specific bolt head length. There are #0 bolt heads that have measurements that would indicate they're actually a #2, and of course vice versa for all bolt head numbers. The only thing that matters is the length of the bolt head and how that fits into what you need for headspace to be proper as indicated by British headspace dies.)
Us fat happy civvies with rifles with #3 bolt heads probably aren't going to put anywhere near the number of rounds through our rifles that were fitted with #3 bolt heads to be in spec as they were headed to sale as surplus as your average squaddie did with that rifle while serving in war and peace. But it is something to keep in mind if you genuinely need a #3 bolt head to have proper headspace.
And in closing, SAAMI headspace gauges are completely wrong, about .004' or .005" shorter than Brit military gauges - wrongly condemning more than a few rifles that close on SAAMI NO-GO gauges that would easily pass a Brit military gauge. You only have .010" of space to fall within to be properly headspaced.
Why SAAMI, who came along about 30 years after the Brits had established the dimensions for .303 British ammunition, gauges, chambers, etc, and decided they knew better than the Brits what the dimensions should be for .303 British is one of those things that will remain one of the universe's mysteries.
Probably another reason why cases and ammunition made to SAAMI specifications here and elsewhere can cause issues for reloaders - it's all undersize to begin with.
The best trick for reloading for the various Lee Enfield rifles (aside from beginning with a quality rifle with a quality barrel), is to start with PPU unprimed brass. I, and many others, have measured a LOT of commercial and military brass. PPU is about the only commercial brass that appears to be a clone copied from the brass found in WWII, Korea, etc Mk VII ball rounds - particularly the thickness of the rim and the cartridge case. Particularly the thickness of the rim, which the LE headspaces on - commercial brass is much thinner.
Beyond that, you can of course do the o-ring trick. A much better way to fly (in my opinion) is to completely eliminate any amount of uncontrolled case stretch at first firing by starting out by replicating a fire formed case before assembling your first reloads with that brass.
Use a Lyman .33 M die to expand the case neck to .33". Then start running the cases successively further into a full length resizing die. Squeeze the neck down a bit, then try to chamber. When the bolt won't close, squeeze the neck down further. Continue doing that until the bolt will reliably close on all cases with a light crush fit as the bolt turns down.
When you look at the results, you'll see an obvious "false shoulder", further up the neck from where the factory shoulder and neck come together. (It also shows you how much room there is in your chamber for your case to stretch forward to on first firing, whether or not there's an O-ring at the back by the rim.)
You now have a "fire formed" virgin case, supported against the back firmly against the face of the bolt head, and supported and centered at the front where it's touching the chamber. The only direction the case can go on first firing is radially, outwards. No stretching. You are now headspacing on the shoulder rather than depending on the thickness (and consistency from case to case) of the case rim.
The "false shoulder" will disappear at first firing, never to be seen again.
After that, stick to just neck sizing (until you get to the point where you need to bump the shoulder back a bit); I and many others prefer the Lee Collet die, but there's other neck sizing options out there.
I also anneal the necks each time I reload the case. Not because it's necessary every time, but it only takes a few seconds over an alcohol lamp with how I do it during case inspection and preparation, and reloading .303 Brit is not a high speed endeavor while putting my target loads together. And mo' consistency in neck tension from shot to shot is better, yes?
They actually aren't hard rifles to reload for, and the "excess headspace" stuff is mostly Bullschiff from those who know little about the rifles, or about why the chambers were deliberately cut the way they are. It definitely wasn't to accommodate reloaders.
If you DO have a #3 bolt head on a LE rifle, however, it probably still is within military headspace spec.
But Commonwealth armourers working on backloaded rifles at base REME facilities did not fit #3 bolt heads to get a rifle back in spec to go back into service. If they couldn't get the rifle back into service by choosing a new bolt and new bolt head of #2 or smaller, the need for a #3 bolt head was considered to indicate the rifle body itself was worn out.
(at the risk of confusing many, the number on the bolt head doesn't actually indicate a specific bolt head length. There are #0 bolt heads that have measurements that would indicate they're actually a #2, and of course vice versa for all bolt head numbers. The only thing that matters is the length of the bolt head and how that fits into what you need for headspace to be proper as indicated by British headspace dies.)
Us fat happy civvies with rifles with #3 bolt heads probably aren't going to put anywhere near the number of rounds through our rifles that were fitted with #3 bolt heads to be in spec as they were headed to sale as surplus as your average squaddie did with that rifle while serving in war and peace. But it is something to keep in mind if you genuinely need a #3 bolt head to have proper headspace.
And in closing, SAAMI headspace gauges are completely wrong, about .004' or .005" shorter than Brit military gauges - wrongly condemning more than a few rifles that close on SAAMI NO-GO gauges that would easily pass a Brit military gauge. You only have .010" of space to fall within to be properly headspaced.
Why SAAMI, who came along about 30 years after the Brits had established the dimensions for .303 British ammunition, gauges, chambers, etc, and decided they knew better than the Brits what the dimensions should be for .303 British is one of those things that will remain one of the universe's mysteries.
Probably another reason why cases and ammunition made to SAAMI specifications here and elsewhere can cause issues for reloaders - it's all undersize to begin with.
