215gr 303 loads ?

[Downwindtracker]

I'm going to Aus in the beginning of July and I thought some Woodleigh bullets would be a nice souvenir. Looking at their product line, mostly big bullets for Africa, the bonded core 215 303 looked like a great moose bullet. But load data for the 215 is hard to find and very old. Since I'm shooting a P-14 I can use 308 220gr data. That,too, is hard to find.

[powderburns]

A few years ago, I got a friend of mine to reload me a 1/2 box of 220's for a moose hunt. I nailed a moose broadside on the run. He did a summersault and was dead when he hit the ground. Like shooting mini cannonballs.

[The 'Hummer']

Years ago in the central interior, when I started out big game hunting, my first big game rifle was a sporterized 303Br, from Simpon Sears. Generally speaking, Dad & I used 180's and 150's for Deer but when it came to going for Moose, we 'had' to use the big boys, Dominion 215gr loads. I recently bought four boxes of 215gr Woodleigh bullets to load for use in my two newly acquired Jungle Carbines. Nostalgia reasons more than anything. There are some loads listed for 215gr bullets in the Ken Waters Pet Loads manual and if you're interested, PM me your e-mail address, I'll scan the page and send it to you.

[Downwindtracker]

I have Pet Loads,too. With newer powders between 4064 and 4350,there might be some magic load. I guess the way to find it would be to load to a velocity. Does anyone know what CIL listed as their 215 load? If I remember, they tended to load the 303 warm.

[DLM]

Her's a load out of "Cartridges of the world" 6th edition
215 gr bullet Powder 4350 grains 45 MV 2290

* load doesn't say if it was H4350 or IMR 4350

[The 'Hummer']

Originally Posted by DLM

Her's a load out of "Cartridges of the world" 6th edition
215 gr bullet Powder 4350 grains 45 MV 2290

* load doesn't say if it was H4350 or IMR 4350

I think for the most part H 4350 & IMR 4350 are 'side by each' on the burn rate tables/scale. Not much difference. There's a few 215gr loads in Pet loads by Ken Waters;
- 42gr ......... IMR 4320
- 46grs ........ H- 4831
- 46grs ........ IMR 4831
- 46grs ........ MRP
- 46grs ........ IMR 4350
Apparently the bullet used is a 215gr Remington RN which is a suprise to me. I wasn't aware Remington makes or ever made a 215gr bullet for the 303Br.

[Downwindtracker]

In the old manuals,there were only two powders called 4350 and 4831,DuPont's IMR-4350 and the DuPont made war surplus aircannon 4831, sold by Hodgdons. I think Norma's MRP is our RL-22.

[alcan7]

I think that that load in COTW is very opisimsitic to say the least. I have experimented with the 30-30 with a 220 grain bullet in a TC rifle with a 24" barrel and I was only able to get slightly over 2000 FPS & I an here to tell you the load was a lot hotter then the 4350 load listed Also you would have a time getting all that 4350 in a 303 and still seat the bullet. The 30-30 is very similar to the 303 in capacity

[Downwindtracker]

Now there's an interesting cartridge,the 303Savage, the Savage 99 version of the 30-30. I guess I should have said 303British. I wonder if anyone ever tried to load 303British in his 99? The 303British has about the same capacity as the 30-40Krag,308Winchester,7.65Mauser, and the 7.62x54Russian.The last two are 303 calibers

[alcan7]

You would need a big hammer to get a 303 British to fit in a 99 chambered for the Savage round. The British round is more powerful and uses a 311 dia bullet. You can say it the British version of the 30-06. You should be able to get 2200 FPS or so with a 215 gr in the 303 Brit.