Starting load for 303-25, please?

Pretty much what the subject… If anyone would like to share a starting load for a 303-25.

Using AR2205 and at some stage AR2206H
Bullet: Hornady 110gr ELD-X

I think you’ll find those pills a little heavy to stabilise in the old school straymore barrels.

She’ll be right

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Cool, if they work I’ve got some 120s you can try too.
Remind me when you’re out here next to give you a hand full of the cast pills I’ve got too.

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@GUN-DMC what bullets do you use for it?

I bought a box of those lovely lipstick looking 87gn hawksbury rivers.
I tried some jacketed 120gn Speers but they shot all over the place.
I have not actually done any testing yet, the couple of hawksbury rounds your shot off with no sights is all the shooting that’s been done with it.
The majority of factory ammo that was produced (in the good ol days) was 80 to 90 grain, just for Interests sake.

Which cal was it from HRBC?

.257 87gn perdy red powder coat.

I meant name, but anyhow, here they are “25-20 85gn Round Nose Flat Point”.

Coolies. Goes to my re-stock list.

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These ones, sorry I lied 85gn

Lol, yeah you beat me to it. :roll_eyes:

Start with 25gr of 2206H for your 110’s. I wouldn’t go using 2205 in it, too fast.
3 “O” 25’s work well with 87gr jacketed bullets, you can get them out around 3000 f/s which is a good relatively flat shooting load for 'roos, goats, pigs, etc.
I’ve never tried cast bullets in one.

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Ive got a couple of 303-25 rounds that I got given that were mixed in with normal 303. They are the old Berdan primers and cordite era. I think the 303 bullet may have just been removed the neck sized down and another bullet stuck on top of the existing charge. The reason I say that is I have pulled a few and can see the stick cordite in there and it has the little wad on top. The only way these could have been made is the case formed after the load was put in.

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It was quite common to make .303/.25 ammo out of military surplus .303 ammo. Blokes would pull the bullets, remove the cordite, resize the case, reload the cordite,( usually minus a few sticks) seat the .25 cal bullet and “voila”, job done. If yours are the way you say they are, someone took a short-cut.

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Any idea of what the different loads would be? I assume that long stick cordite was not for reloaders? I have also seen some that is in granular form.

Looks like they not only had to resize them down but then do some inside neck turning. On the cases I have you can see what we would call a doughnut today it looks like it would of stopped the bullet from seating in too far its that obvious.

I may be getting some more hand me downs as there is an old I can say Soldier because he was that is in our club that has been forced to give up his license and shooting. He was also an amateur or more correctly a second part time job as a gunsmith. The stuff that is turning up at his place is very interesting would scare the living shit out of some. :grin:

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Not really, I’m just repeating what my father told me he and my grandfather used to do. They both shot full-bore back in the .303/surplus ammo days. They also both shot 3"O"25’s.
The “donut” you see is common when necking down thick brass. It is probably why the 87gr bullets were most popular in them. That and the fact they work. You have to remember these things were popular when there wasn’t a lot of options here in Australia.
I had the chance to use my grandfathers old rifle for a while, now owned by a cousin. I set him up to reload it by doing all of the load development and testing for it using new components.
Personally, I’ll take my .257 Roberts anyday!:grin:

I picked up 303-25 reloads from golden flash cartridges in Maryborough that he loaded with 87 grain projectiles over 35 grains of AR2208. I think they were at the lower end of where he was comfortable loading it, more of something that would fit everyone rather than going for peak performance

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I’ve seen those for sale at holts in cola, they were bloody expensive and seemed like a good reason to order a set of dies, lol. :grin:

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I’ll be at Golden Flash 2nd or 3rd week of April if you want some picked up.

Seems someone finally bought golden flash cartridges, their ammo on their updated website has almost halved in price from when this thread was started, I think they are selling for about 35 bucks a box now.