Print Page | Close Window

.303 Brit, IMR4350, 180 grain jacketed

Printed From: Enfield-Rifles.com
Category: Reloading
Forum Name: Reloading .303 British
Forum Description: Enfield-Rifles.com accepts NO responsibility for any loads that may be used by persons reading this forum. USE CAUTION WHEN TRYING ANY NEW LOADS!!! ANY DATA DEEMED UNSAFE WILL BE REMOVED!!!
URL: http://www.enfield-rifles.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1098
Printed Date: March 26 2026 at 8:19pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: .303 Brit, IMR4350, 180 grain jacketed
Posted By: Robus
Subject: .303 Brit, IMR4350, 180 grain jacketed
Date Posted: June 19 2007 at 4:41pm
Can Ed or anyone else recommend a starting load for .303 British using 180 grain jacketed and IMR 4350?  I've got a lot of it around.  Thanks.

-------------
Just your ordinary gun-toting peacenik.



Replies:
Posted By: Robus
Date Posted: June 19 2007 at 4:54pm
Did I say Ed?  I meant Dave.

-------------
Just your ordinary gun-toting peacenik.


Posted By: allan
Date Posted: June 19 2007 at 5:27pm
Daves not here man....Star
oh i kill me.. seriously i dunno where ol davey is mate..think his been caught up at work lately.


-------------
'SAVIOUR OF OUR SKIES BOYO!'


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: June 19 2007 at 8:06pm
Try a Starting Load of 42gns of IMR 4350 to a max of 46. I tell you what! A Man had more time to himself when he was working,for himself! Work up at Roxby & then come Home to shoot Foxes! Never Bloody well ends ....Mutter ....Mutter

     Dave


Posted By: allan
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 6:03am
dave ..we thought the foxes got you! sounds like ya flat out with work.

-------------
'SAVIOUR OF OUR SKIES BOYO!'


Posted By: Smokey
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 6:51am
Dave, what kind of "foxes" are you "shooting", and what do you mean by shooting?
Here in the "states" a fox is a term for an attractive young woman. LOL
 
My Speer Reloading manual give the following:
for a 180gr bullet and IMR4320
 
41gr 2288 fps  MAX
39gr 2169 fps
37gr 2073 fps Starting


Posted By: Robus
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 7:43am
Thanks all.

-------------
Just your ordinary gun-toting peacenik.


Posted By: Ed Hill
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 9:42am
I'd stick with Dave' recommendation, but Hodgon shows a little heavier loads. Check the Hodgon load center at  http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp - http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp   it has loads for Hodgon, IMR and Winchester powders.
Ed


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 9:43am
Originally posted by allan allan wrote:

dave ..we thought the foxes got you! sounds like ya flat out with work.


    Mate I'm been busier than a "One legged man in a Arse kicking contest"  It's ridiculas ! The last few years I was on the bones of me arse  just working 6hrs per night 4,5 nights per week ! Now I'm working for the Man I'm makeing,digusting amounts of money& his getting ,his pound of flesh  out of my Old hide !  I'm doing 8 on & 4 off  at the moment until I get things under control up at Roxby & down here as nobody wants to shoot Foxes,it's a case of 1080 or get Dear Ol Dave to fix the problem  (hey I owe these blokes a lot for favors done for me over the years )

      Hey  Smokey  a Fox is a Young Shelia over here as well ! When you get to my age .........You only look at "Old Boilers"  Hell of a night  these days I'm only interested in a mug of  Milo  (hot cocolate  beverage)  & a warm bed !!!!Big%20smile


             Dave still has most of his teeth


Posted By: Robus
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 1:02pm
Are IMR 4350 and Hodgedon 4350 interchangeable?

-------------
Just your ordinary gun-toting peacenik.


Posted By: Ed Hill
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 1:58pm
I don't consider any powder as interchangeable, even if they are supposed to be the same. IMR 4350 and Hodgon 4350 are right next to each other on the burn rate charts, but this doesn't mean they have the same pressure curve. Unless I called the manufacturer and they verified they were the same, I'd look for loads using the specific powder.
Ed 


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: June 20 2007 at 2:15pm
The only time I use data as being interchangeable  is ADI & Hogodon as ADI supplies their powder & it's canned under the Hogodon  Brand ! IMR4350 & H4350 are two differant Powders so far as burning rates go .

     Dave


Posted By: USSRL
Date Posted: February 07 2008 at 7:49am
just out of interest no doubt some of you guys cast your own bullet heads but doesnt this cause alot of lead to foul the barrel as there is no guilding? do you have to coat the tips with a special chemical to prevent this or do you just leave them as they are? 


Posted By: White Rhino
Date Posted: February 07 2008 at 9:18am
I want to cast mine one day any info fer a beginer to cast???

-------------
"White Rhino"

"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." --W. C. Fields


Posted By: Ed Hill
Date Posted: February 07 2008 at 11:22am
Cast lead bullets vary in composition from soft to hard. Soft bullets ( 20-1 lead/tin)  are for lower powered slower velocities, ie 45-70. Harder bullets (12-1 lead/tin or Linotype or water chilled wheel weights) can be used in higher powered applications but still are limited to about 1500 or 1600 fps to avoid leading.
Lead bullets have to have a lubricant, either in the lube grooves if the bullet is supplied with them, or coated with Lee Alox lube or something similiar.
Ed


Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: February 07 2008 at 2:31pm
Ahem.. its somewhat different w/black powder. ..& it is becoming a HUGE problem for me.
I require PURE lead in my Enfield musket(.577).I have a Lee mould & Lee smelter.
I'm just about completely out of lead.Its become difficult for me to get.Years ago-I had a mate @ the legion workin fer Bell telephone.(Korean vet)They used to bury telephone cable in lead casings.Well-they started rippin that out of the ground(hazardous), so he used to save a bucket full for me every week-& I'd buy him a beer @ Bugsy's.Well, he's long passed on(Cancer) & my supply is just about gone. They USED ta use Pig or Bear fat-I'm told-for lubricant, back in the day.(I use Crisco).
Wont be usinANYTHING soon..if I dont find some lead-dammit!
Hoadie

-------------
Loose wimmen tightened here


Posted By: allan
Date Posted: February 07 2008 at 3:53pm
Hoadie,
 go to your local automotive tyre retailer..i go to the bloke down the road here, he keeps a small bucket of the wheel weights for me. i melt them down to make sinkers for fishin.


-------------
'SAVIOUR OF OUR SKIES BOYO!'


Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: February 08 2008 at 12:03am
Cant use 'em Al.They're not lead.They;re mostly alloys etc.It'd ruin my poor old barrel.
Thanx anyways, mate
Hoadie

-------------
Loose wimmen tightened here


Posted By: allan
Date Posted: February 08 2008 at 7:39am
damn, didnt realise mate
i thought they were pure lead, they melt over a woodfire flame easy enough.
spose sinkers and your musket balls are 2 different things eh.
hey the one you cast for me sure raised some eyebrows when i showed my mates
 


-------------
'SAVIOUR OF OUR SKIES BOYO!'


Posted By: White Rhino
Date Posted: February 08 2008 at 7:58am
Hoadie, You use pure lead for Musket balls and an Alloy for modern weapons right????
Because I'm like allen My Buddies Son worked at an Auto garage before I got him on with Exterran the company I work for. he brought me a 5 gallon bucket of them tire weights and I melted them down into ingots and stored them till I get set up to cast my own projectiles  I read some where that the lead has to be of a certain hardness for modern powders and when you go to a hot load you need gas checks on the bottoms of the projectiles
 


-------------
"White Rhino"

"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." --W. C. Fields


Posted By: Smokey
Date Posted: February 08 2008 at 8:15am
I use hollow base Minie bullets in my Colt musket. They have to be soft lead to expand into the rifling when the powder explodes. BTW, I've surprised a lot of people with the accuracy of the rifle.


Posted By: Ed Hill
Date Posted: February 08 2008 at 12:17pm
Hoadie, I use 20-1 in the 45-70 with BP, no problems. Have you tried plumbers or roofers? Some of the old roof flashing was pure lead, as is plumbers lead. Sometimes the metal recyclers get the lead ling from cable like you use.
White Rhino, the wheel weights work well in rifles, you can drop the hot bullet from the mold into iced water and further harden them. Just make sure none of the wheel weights have zinc, this will usuall float on top of the molten metal and can be skimmed off.

Ed


Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: February 08 2008 at 2:34pm
Well-my MAIN problem with acquiring pure lead..is its deemed a HAZORDOUS SUBSTANCE here.
Now I have an old mate workin @ a local scrap yard.he aint bin able to corner me any(course he might not be tryin-either!might have sumthin to do bout me & his older sister one time)
Anyway-the minnie ball(as Allan can attest) has a hollow base & expands to fill the grooves of the rifling.If I use wheel wieghts-it scores the barrel out badly & you WONT get the accuracy either(not that I'm a great shot w/my Civil War musket.)
As for plumbers lead solder-its illegal here in Canada.
Cant get it.
This is becoming a problem.& DAMMIT!! I make DAMN good minnie-balls, too!!
Hoadie

-------------
Loose wimmen tightened here


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: February 09 2008 at 5:16am
Originally posted by White Rhino White Rhino wrote:

Hoadie, You use pure lead for Musket balls and an Alloy for modern weapons right????
Because I'm like allen My Buddies Son worked at an Auto garage before I got him on with Exterran the company I work for. he brought me a 5 gallon bucket of them tire weights and I melted them down into ingots and stored them till I get set up to cast my own projectiles  I read some where that the lead has to be of a certain hardness for modern powders and when you go to a hot load you need gas checks on the bottoms of the projectiles
 


   You hit the Nail right on the head! WR .  Black powder  Firearms require a pure lead projectile . Whereas  Moden firearms require a harder mixture of Lead ,Tin & Antimony ! The rule of thumb is up to about 1400 FPS wheel weights work well .But ! if you wish to run at 2000fps + a gas Check is the way to go ! I have a stock of Printers lead (fast dwindleing ) that I blend with wheel weights,or  salvaged  projectiles ,that i recover from the local range .  Another trick is to blend in  2lbs of 50/50  solder to 10lbs of wheel weights ! This gives a fairly hard bullet ! I cast for near every rifle I own !

       Dave


Posted By: Tony
Date Posted: February 09 2008 at 5:29pm
My crystal ball shows Hoadie dressed in black on church roof at midnight peeling the lead off the flashings.   Big%20smile

-------------
Rottie (PitBulls dad.)


“If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons

Born free taxed to death!!!



Posted By: White Rhino
Date Posted: February 09 2008 at 10:58pm
Hey Tony, Dont encourage him now.
But you do have a great Idea. another place you can find lead is Natural gas pipeline insulation, right were it comes out the ground to go through the Compressor house and through the pipe line station yard. they usualy unless they heave changed . but I worked at Tennessee Gas Pipe line In LeeVille La. back in "92" and they were replacing all the insulation in the yard while I was overhauling the Gas Turbine. My Bud was the maintenance guy there and would bring me sheets of it when the other guy was not getting it for his brother that was making his own muzzle loader projectiles.
The stuff comes off the aluminume sheeting in about 5/16" thick sheets.
 and is pure just like the plumbers lead. now its just a matter to find a pipeline station going through a Turn around and overhauling every thing in the plant. and replacing the insulation... Good luck  Hoadie. In your case like you said earlier about how Canada feels about Lead you would have to get you a couple of mexicans to run it accrosse the boarder for ya... I screewed up and mixed all mine in with the tire weights before i knew better. I knew it was pure lead but didnt know that you had to have pure lead for Muzzle loaders at that time. Hoadie just taught me that !!!
unfourtunatly after I had allready melted it all down and cast it into ingots for storage.
Hey can ya heat the Ingots to a certain temp and separat the pure lead???from all the Antimony and tin?  I know that other impurities come out in the heating/melting process and I skim it off with a donner fork. the stuff that floats... pretty neat when you see the steel clips float to the top after it all the lead melts....
 We also have a roll of 1/4" round lead wire at work that we use to check the space between the compressore head and the Piston once the piston and rod are put together.. I usually bring the peices that are used home with me. that amount per job would only be enough to cast maybe one projectil at a time.


-------------
"White Rhino"

"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." --W. C. Fields


Posted By: Tony
Date Posted: February 10 2008 at 10:43pm
On a serious note how about looking round demolition sights?  It's usual for old buildings to have lead flashings round chimneys gutterings and fall pipes etc. Bet they'd help you out ! 

-------------
Rottie (PitBulls dad.)


“If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons

Born free taxed to death!!!



Posted By: Ed Hill
Date Posted: February 11 2008 at 5:04am
I've heard the shielding for x-ray rooms is pure lead. Easy on the barrel, glows at night!

Ed


Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: February 11 2008 at 7:18am
Originally posted by Tony Tony wrote:

My crystal ball shows Hoadie dressed in black on church roof at midnight peeling the lead off the flashings.   [IMG]http://www.enfield-rifles.com/smileys/smiley4.gif" height="18" width="18" align="absmiddle" alt="Big%20smile" />


Dammit Tony!! Do ya hafta tell EVERY DAMN THING ya know!!?? Geeze!!
Hoadie

-------------
Loose wimmen tightened here


Posted By: Smokey
Date Posted: February 11 2008 at 8:26am
White Rhino, if the "mix" you did is mostly soft lead, it might still be soft enough for your musket. Adding some tin helps the lead fill out the mould better. Cast a few and see how they shoot.
Civil War minie bullets were greased with a mixture of beeswax and tallow.


Posted By: White Rhino
Date Posted: February 11 2008 at 8:27am
Hey Ed, you could send the kids out at night and pick up the spent projectiles that are glowing in the dark... they would love it- it would be like a night time easter projectile hunt...Shocked
May have to try that Smokey.


-------------
"White Rhino"

"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." --W. C. Fields


Posted By: Tony
Date Posted: February 12 2008 at 5:01pm
Originally posted by hoadie hoadie wrote:

Originally posted by Tony Tony wrote:

My crystal ball shows Hoadie dressed in black on church roof at midnight peeling the lead off the flashings.   [IMG]http://www.enfield-rifles.com/smileys/smiley4.gif" height="18" width="18" align="absmiddle" alt="Big%20smile" />


Dammit Tony!! Do ya hafta tell EVERY DAMN THING ya know!!?? Geeze!!
Hoadie
 
 Dave told me!!! Big%20smile


-------------
Rottie (PitBulls dad.)


“If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons

Born free taxed to death!!!



Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: February 16 2008 at 5:59am
Originally posted by Tony Tony wrote:

Originally posted by header header wrote:

Originally posted by Tony Tony wrote:

My crystal ball shows Hoadie dressed in black on church roof at midnight peeling the lead off the flashings.   [IMG]http://www.enfield-rifles.com/smileys/smiley4.gif" height="18" width="18" align="absmiddle" alt="Big%20smile" />


Dammit Tony!! Do ya hafta tell EVERY DAMN THING ya know!!?? Geeze!!
Header
 
 Dave told me!!! Big%20smile




  OH !!!! LIAR LIAR ! PANTS ON FIRE !!!!!!LOL

   All I said to you Tony was that Hoadie had asked me if I knew where he could buy a Grappling hook & rope & if stealing from the church was a sin ?

    Dave


Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: February 16 2008 at 11:30am
Damn! Ya cant trust ANYONE anymore!!
Hoadie

-------------
Loose wimmen tightened here


Posted By: Tony
Date Posted: February 17 2008 at 7:31pm
I can just see Hoadie dressed like a Ninja ( I said NINJA not Ginga for you mad colonials with mucky minds) crawling about  giving it the Hail Mary full if grace bit whilst peeling the flashings off!

-------------
Rottie (PitBulls dad.)


“If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons

Born free taxed to death!!!



Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: February 18 2008 at 6:26pm
I said NINJA not Ginga for you mad colonials with mucky minds


   Hang on a second !!!!!!!!! I resemble that remarkShockedBig%20smile

    Dave


Posted By: maimai
Date Posted: December 08 2008 at 12:21pm
Wasn't Ned kelly a mad ginga Mick?dont think he peeled lead tho ,he threw a fair bit didn't he.maimai


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: December 08 2008 at 5:02pm
Originally posted by maimai maimai wrote:

Wasn't Ned kelly a mad ginga Mick?dont think he peeled lead tho ,he threw a fair bit didn't he.maimai



      I don't think he ever f**ked a Poofta ! But He f**ked a Man who did !!!!!!
Yes he did throw a lot of Lead around ,The Problem was that it was returned to him with interest!!!!! Big%20smile You could say it was a "Bum" wrap Ouch


      Dave


Posted By: airforcediver
Date Posted: December 13 2008 at 5:02pm
Originally posted by hoadie hoadie wrote:

Cant use 'em Al.They're not lead.They;re mostly alloys etc.It'd ruin my poor old barrel.
Thanx anyways, mate
Hoadie
 
I know i have asked you this before Hoadie but what province are you in?  If its one with a reasonable amount of Scuba divers, look for the old school weight belts as most of them were reasonably pure lead.
They will be easily defined as the very beat up looking belts as oppose to the new ones which are lil harder courtesy of the alloys.
 
Some of the sport goods shops in BC still order in pure lead for reloading but its like $4/lb as oppose to most dive lead at approx $2.5/lb
 
an interesting side note given how Canada is against lead as its bad etc etc etc. this link talks about the alternative birdshot and how it not really isn't any better for the enviro
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2004/11/15/bullets-lead041115.html - http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2004/11/15/bullets-lead041115.html


-------------
If all else fails call in a MOAB and call it a day



Print Page | Close Window

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Copyright ©2001-2024 Web Wiz Ltd. - https://www.webwiz.net