I would love to have a new 303 to hunt with. Sadly really good shooters are harder and harder to come by, so I am considering what else I could do about it.
Some re-chambered 7.62x39 Baikal single shot rifles (to 303) on an auction site got me thinking.
Would it be possible to have a bolt action 303 built up from a cheap bolt action new rifle?
For the moment I just want to stick to the idea of using a new rifle as the basis - I have heard many horror stories of old 303s doing things they shouln't.
So anyone got any ideas??

Get a P.14! Mauser action, five shot magazine, easy, relatively to rebarrel and easy to make a decent looking sporting rifle out of. BSA did it for years...looking as little like a P.14 as you could imagine!

I have no useful suggestions about new rifles. I cannot think of a new action that will accomodate rimmed rounds.

And that is going to be the problem, the rimmed round.

Plus not that many actions were ever chambered in 303 Brit.

I would not hesitate to use a No 4 action, but then, never heard of them having problems. I guess you have.

I would agree, if you can find a P14 action, that would be an excellent start.

I just got done putting together a Savage LRPV in 225win which is also a rimmed round. I've considered doing a 303Brit on a Stevens 200 It would be easy to do on a magnum bolt face. You could make feeding a non issue with the usage of a score-high benchrest follower.

The only catch for me would be finding 303brit dies that would accommodate .308 diameter bullets

quote:

Originally posted by SlamFire:
Plus not that many actions were ever chambered in 303 Brit.

Except a few million service rifles. I know you meant sporting rifles, I just couldn't resist .

Seriously though, I thought finding .311 bullets was the real problem with reloading for this cartridge. I'd like to be shown wrong on this though. I know of a a couple of old rifles that I'd like to see in the field again with something other than crap factory loads.

Dean

He is just south of Woodleigh!

Get a P-14 and get it Epps improved, JGS has the reamers. Click on "Tool List" and then 30 Calibers.

Build one out of a #1 Ruger. It ought to look right.

I've seen it done on a Mauser Action.. guy thought it was kind of cool, to have a German rifle shooting a British Cartridge...

Some guy had an Enfield rechambered to 8 mm Mauser...

I've thought of doing the Mauser Action in 303.. although it is pretty much the same performance of the 30/40 Krag that I already have one of...

Of course any bolt action rifle with a mag bolt face would work just fine...

Believe it or not, Mauser actually built a large batch of K98's in 303British in around 1910-1911.

These were built to order for the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) a pro-British, anti-Irish independence paramilitary group active in opposing Irish independence a 100 years ago.

These rifles were smuggled into what is now Northern Ireland via the port of Larne in 1912.

They were chambered in 303 as that was the ammo that was freely available here at the time.

An old boy who lives a few miles form here has a lovely example of these rifles. It is the only one I have ever seen, I assume that these rifles were collected and destroyed by the authorities here over the years.

Google "Larne Gun Running" for further info.

Here endith today's history lesson.

To answer the original question, the easiest way to get a 303 Brit on a modern action might be to rebarrel a Ruger No 1.

Not likely you'd ever want to do this, but the Browning re-issue of the '95 Winchester in .30-40 Krag makes a great conversion to the .303 British cartridge. The B. M-95's are fairly common. I had that same conversion done to an original M '95 carbine with a badly pitted barrel, which we replaced. Itwas done at the "Custom Gun Shop" by Doug Paul back in the early 1970's when I was living in Edmonton, Alberta. Worked out just fine.

You can do it with either a .308" or .311" barrel, depending on how much radial clearance you want and the load you want to use.

Also, Siamese Mausers make great .303 British rifles, if you want a bolt action without a lot of hassle. One of the new Remington "Mausers" would also be easy to do...mainly a little extractor work and, if you want it to feed really slick, a tapered filler in the back of the magaizine to make the cartridge case rims stack in front of each previous round as the magazine is filled.

For a look at a really classy .303 British Mauser, there is an article on my cased Rigby .303 Mauser in one of the early 1970's Rifle issues.

build it off a P-14. I have one built off a P-14 and havnt had any problems.

Sierra make 303 bullets, I use Pro-hunters and they seem to work really well on deer at 2300fps.

I think hornady make them too

I'd certainly go with the P14 suggestion,they feed real nice & being front locking they don't seen to stretch cases like the LE action are reputed too, though I think that with a nice tight chamber, sensible pressures & not over resizing fired cases, case life in a #4 can be better than many people will give credit for. A lot of wartime production rifles had oversize chambers & cases would neck slit or head separate after only a few reloads, sizing all the way back from the expanded state didn't help either. Regarding bullets, most of the major bullet manufacturers seem to list at least 150 grn & 174/180 grn bullets, 310 cal 123 grn bullets for the 7.62 x 39 also make a good plinking/light game load, and if you want premium bullets , Barnes do a 150 grn TSX & Woodleigh do 174 & 215 grn Rnd Nose. The 95 Winchester was originally chambered in 303 BR as well.
Steve.

If you can find one a Siamise (also referred to as Thai) Mauser would work just fine. I have one rebarreled to 30/40 Krag that I like.

/

Alf, you are the man regarding Mausers but I own two of the original 303 Rigby actions and think they are called "transitional intermediate". Mine are intermediate length large ring actions with small ring barrel threads; hence the "transitional".

quote:

Originally posted by bullterrier:
I would love to have a new 303 to hunt with. Sadly really good shooters are harder and harder to come by, so I am considering what else I could do about it.
Some re-chambered 7.62x39 Baikal single shot rifles (to 303) on an auction site got me thinking.
Would it be possible to have a bolt action 303 built up from a cheap bolt action new rifle?
For the moment I just want to stick to the idea of using a new rifle as the basis - I have heard many horror stories of old 303s doing things they shouln't.
So anyone got any ideas??

Too bad you don't live in USA ie the dumping ground for outdated military junk. Local shop has a row of ole' Anglo .303 SMLEs looking for new homes.

/

Thanks. Any idea behind the small ring threads? Was that at Rigby's request?