.303, good enough to fight a war, why is it not widely used for stalking?

[8x57]

You've got style Snagman, that is beautiful but as you say a bit pricey.

There were two of these that went through a local auction only five or six years back. They were in well used but not abused condition and went for about £350 each. I was slightly tempted but resisted, a friend of mine was weaker than me and bought one of them and even bid on the second.

 

[Muir]

I have two of these rifles. One has horn fore end, grip cap, and butt plate. It was missing the cartridge cut off and i didn't replace it because of the mismatch in blueing that would be obvious. My other is a not as fancy -more a plain rifle other than checkering- but came with the cut-off and has a perfect bore. Neither has a case, unfortunately. I've hunted with both.~Muir

 

[jimbo1984]

A beautiful rifle for sure snag man , I had a lithgow parker hale conversion when I was in Canada that il really liked , I've always really fancied a double rifle in .303 for woodland stalking but doubt I'd ever be able to afford one

 

[270rem]

I have a friend that regularly goes out with his 303 and enjoys using it very much. I have a schmidt-Rubin k 31 that I use my self to great effect. Good rifles for not a lot of money.

 

[alberta boy]

I would love a .303 unfortunately I would have to sell one of my other rifles to make room I think, but if I ever did I might get something like this.

By Sword and Musket Navy Cased High Quality Classic Lee Speed Sporter by London Small Arms Company.

A bit pricey but oh my! I just love it!

Wow , nice rifle

 

[Druid]

Edit:- Just looked in my notes and on 18/11/93 noted this 174 Grn Hornady RN, with 38.4 grn of H4895 with CCI200 primer in HXP case.... Excellent in Australian No1. Shoots almost one hole groups. The rifle had a Nikko Sterling Special sporting 4x32 scope fitted in P-H mounts. I later switched the scope to the ASI 4x32 that I brought in 70 for my Feinwerkbau air rifle as it had a duplex reticle rather than the fine cross hair of the Nikko Sterling. I did not note which scope was fitted .[/QUOTE]

I still have a feinwerkbau sport air rifle with the same 4x32 scope. Good glass for its age.

chap at our club shoots his as issued no4 303 on deer, he just puts a scope on it for the deer with one of those mounts that need you to remove the rear iron sight. Uses the same rifle for the pre 45 service rifle competition with the irons on.

 

[icedog]

Many many Canadians, especially those of the "baby boomer" generation, (and their fathers) spent at least the early years of their hunting using "sportered" versions of the 303 Lee Enfield. I remember seeing the surplus rifles priced at $15-$25 Canadian and displayed stacked in barrels at some of the local stores. The "sporterizing" work ranged from crude DIY Bubba jobs, through factory conversions such as Parker Hale, and even to carefully crafted gunsmith conversions. My dad had one of the latter. I know there are still lots of 303's that see plenty of field time here every hunting season. A hunting companion just recently gave up his deer, bear, and moose killing 303 Brit. in favor of a new .270W. I did one up a few years ago ... new ATI camo stock, barrel cut and recrowned at 22", and carrying new Bushnell glass, to give to my son-in-law. I have kept a Paker Hale conversion which is in wonderful condition, and which sees some service at the range, but spends the bulk of its time as a "safe queen". Mostly I use my own 174 gr Hornady reloads in it, but I do have a full box and a half of the old 215 gr Kling Kore SPs ... just in case I really need them one day!

The only knocks on the 303 as a sporting cartridge is the unfortunate reality that some of the war time rifles produced to handle it were not manufactured to the strictest of tolerances, and reloaders need to take special care ( necksizing) or case life can be fairly limited. All in all, I consider it to be a very capable and classic cartridge.

 

[bruce w]

when i was a kid my father took me out with my 303 smooth bore to .410 shot gun and he took his 303 rifle foxing using fmj so not to wreck the pelt ,and i would be issued a cartridge on the way home to knock over a rabbit, happy days .

 

[Southern]

I am an American, and love hunting with my .303 Enfields, all stock military issue.
I cut my teeth on a No. 5 Jungle carbine, my first centerfire, purchased at age 12.

For realistic hunting ranges, under 300 yards, the .303 provides plenty of real life punch.
Some are very precise and accurate. I find the Remington 180-gr RN shoots best in all my .303s.

 

[joe soapy]

Am i the only person in the world that mistakenly thought the SMLE stood for " Short Magazine, Lee Enfield"
when its really the Short[barrel] magazine, Lee Enfield

 

[palmer_mike]

Am i the only person in the world that mistakenly thought the SMLE stood for " Short Magazine, Lee Enfield"
when its really the Short[barrel] magazine, Lee Enfield

No you're not, lol

 

[Laurie]

Am i the only person in the world that mistakenly thought the SMLE stood for " Short Magazine, Lee Enfield"
when its really the Short[barrel] magazine, Lee Enfield

You have to think like an army quartermaster and army bureaucracy that put the main word in an entry first. So, the Short / Magazine / Lee-Enfield bits were used as if they were adjectives to the main item which would be 'rifle'. So, in the official designation, you'd have ...............

[Rifle .303 calibre], Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield.

The predecessor 'in the books' was the MLE, ie Rifle / Magazine / Lee-Enfield.

Going back to the OP's question many posts ago, the combined fishing tackle / gunshop I bought my penny eyed hooks, monofilament lines, and .22 Milbro pellets from in County Place, Perth, way back in the late 50s / early 60s always had a rack full of converted .303 Enfields in a glass faced display area in the shop entrance. I don't think they could have sold well even that long ago as the contents never seemed to change. Unless the dealer had lots more identical models elsewhere on the premises of course, which is a possibility.

 

[enfieldspares]

Gosh this is an old thread. Even input from Brithunter! .303 suffered in popularity as a sporting round as it isn't American or continental European. Plus no dedicated sporting rifles, as such, were made in it as bolt action. Yes lots of commercial sporting BSA rifles but other than sporting P'14 rifles you'd not find a repeater except the Winchester 1895.

It's fashion really and input of BDS idiots that make the old 215 grain loading (and 6.5mm MS) illegal because of their obsession with velocity in Scottish deer legislation.

That and the fact that some SMLE sporter conversions looked "ugly". But it's a good round, no less or worse accuracy in a good rifle than any contemporary rimless calibre and a sure killer.

Maybe it's like why .270 Winchester became a target round. Folks and fashion felt other things were better. No reason. I have seen a Mauser 98, by Rigby, in .303 "British"...but they are rare...they did exist.

 

[Southern]

In the USA in the 1960s, you could buy an SMLE or No.5 Jungle Carbine for about $15.00. They advertised them in Boy's Life magazine, the magazine for Boy Scouts, for mail order. I used to buy handfuls of surplus British ammunition from a bulk wooden crate for five cents each, to feed my Jungle Carbine.

The supply dried up in the 1970s, then a dump from the UK and India in the 1990s. Nice No.1 and No.4 Enfields were available for $100.00. Now those have dried up and the prices are $300 and up.

 

[8x57]

The supply dried up in the 1970s, then a dump from the UK and India in the 1990s. Nice No.1 and No.4 Enfields were available for $100.00. Now those have dried up and the prices are $300 and up.

Twenty years ago you could buy a decent Enfield in the U.K. for £30-£35, nobody wanted the things. These days to buy an absolute dog of a .303 Enfield you are starting at around £300 and the sky is the limit if you look at what some people think they are worth.

 

[Muir]

I bought dozens of No1 MkI, Noi I MkIII, and No4's in all shades and shaped for under $30 back in the late 70's early eighties. I still have many of them.

In North America the 303 was available in the 1895 Winchester, the Remington Rolling Block, and the Model 54 Winchester at various times. I believe the Remington Model 30 Express could be had in 303 by special order but my recollection is foggy on that one.~Muir

 

[Southern]

I found a really nice Remington Model 30 Express for $500, back in December. I have made a point of not going back into that little small town, because I know I would be drawn to that thing. It was in .30-06.

The Model 30, being based off the P14/M1917 action, should have been chambered in .303, but I have never heard of it. I think they were all rimless: .30-06 being the first, then 7x57 Mauser and .257 Roberts, .30 Remington, .35 Remington, and a few more. But a .303 makes perfect sense, especially to market in Canada.

 

[shooternz]

They are still very popular in New Zealand and go for silly money a lot of them have been cut down and fitted with suppressors for subsonic loads in bush hunting,
I recently bought a BSA sporter built on an Australian Lithgow No1 MK111 action it has a pretty good 5 groove barrel, plan on shooting it with cast bullets should last
a long time, it is good enough for hunting Deer most shots here are under 100 metres,
As long as brass is available there will be people hunting with them down under

 

[Conure]

What an interesting thread. Have read through it and found it most interesting indeed as the 303 was one of my favourite rounds to reload for.

 

[plumber01]

I think there are a whole load of crap ideas about rifles and calibers, at the end of the day they are just metal pipes that let a bullet fly through them, I was shooting at bisley today with a bunch of old boys with old service 303's , all with standard iron sights, one fella hit 2x v's, 4 outer, and 4x 3's, all with open sights at 600 yards, a 174gr bullet that accurate down to 120yards ( typical deer distance) will put down any deer, they are just unfashionable, but originally the caliber was chosen because it was a deadly round. There are better calibers available now, however in the right hands it would still work perfectly well .