Recently I was thumbing through an issue of the South African magazine Man Magnun and I came upon a news release that the 303 Epps is now being loaded commercially in South Africa.

Elwood Epps, who invented it by blowing out .303 British cartridges for use in P-14 rifles was a legend in southern Ontario when I was a boy.

He was from Clinton, Ontario and was basically a Canadian Elmer Keith who could also use a lathe. Jim Butcher, the gunsmith in Clinton today learned his trade from Elwood.

There were tons of woodchucks in southern Ontario in those days and quite a few european hares as dairy farming was big and there was lots of clover.

I would bet Elwood made alot more 22 wildcats based on the 303 than he did .303 Epps. There must be people out there on AR who are alot more familair with Elwood than I am. I never met him. But my mentor Frank Wreford knew him well. There were a few other well known gunsmiths in those days in that area such as Earl Leach in Stratford, a chap in London named Charlie ------ and a few others.

There must be a great many Elwood Epps stories out there. I know he made a 30-06 for Bob Dawson who at one time wrote Outdoors for the Globe and Mail. Dawson used it to take the first legal buffalo killed in Canada in about 100 years. It was in the NWT with an outfitter named Brewster who floated horses up the Slave or Athabasca Rivers to the hunting area. It is thought by some that these horses introduced brucellosis into the buffalo.

One of Bob Dawson's guides on this hunt was the late Rod Allin who later went on to become the action cameraman for Warren Miller who made ski films (Rod could downhill ski backwards) and for the TV series Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

Rod was from Goderich Ontario and recently he went home to die there. By a strange co-incidence we used to fish and swim in the exact same swimming hole below the water falls on the Maitand River when we were boys but I never met Rod there. I met him in Colorado many years later.

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The 303 epps is one of my next projects if I can find a local smith with the reamer. I was on the way on building 6mm-303 but I decided my H&R would not be the best frame to build it on, so its staying 243. Just started neck size my 303 brass, that's probable one of the big pluses with the epps case is better brass life.

OK guys I'm not clear here. The 303 Epps is which caliber bullet?

The 303 epps is based off the 303 British case with the case blown out and the shoulder angle changed.This increases case life and you get more speed to boot. www.303british.com is one of the better sites to get info. There are diagrams of both cases to show you the differance. The p14 action is one of the best to build on to get the full befits of the case.

Dear Exit31,

Like the 303 British its a .311 bullet. You can load light bullets made for the 7.62x39 in it if you want a varmint cartridge. When I was a boy I used to load 115 grain flat nosed 32-20 bullets in it for woodchucks.

Isn't there an Epps gunstore some mls. N. of Toronto? If yes, I bought several deer licenses there over the years.

Dear Duk,

It used to be in Clinton but you are right it moved north of Toronto. But Elwood has been gone for some time now.

I have used a lot of 100 and 85 gr xtp 32 cal pistol bullets in my 303 it's a lot of fun and cheep. have managed to get them to shoot quite well also.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Gorsline:
Dear Exit31,

Like the 303 British its a .311 bullet. You can load light bullets made for the 7.62x39 in it if you want a varmint cartridge. When I was a boy I used to load 115 grain flat nosed 32-20 bullets in it for woodchucks.

The store is just outside Orillia, one of the best gun stores in Canada. www.ellwoodepps.com

Elwood was famous for taking 303 Lee Enfield rifles and making them into very light rifles with one piece stocks. He had many pictures of them in his catalogues.

Does anyone know how he did it? Did he cut the steel ring into which the butt stock is bolted right off or did he just grind it down and work around it.

It seems to me that with the very early Lee Enfields with their very slim barrels you would have the makings of a very light and elegant sporter (maybe 5 pounds or so) if you cut away the steel ring into which the butt stock is bolted.

Often wanted to try making one but never got around to it.

I must admit I really like my 303 British. It's a tough gun and I can bash it around in the bush. It seems it never gets a ding but my other guns really get marked up.

the chef

As already noted the Ellwood Epps store is still in business although owned by different people. One of Ellwoods grandson's is a gunsmith and does pretty fair work. His shop is called "Wise Choice Gunsmithing" I can't remenber the the address off the top of my head but he is a Remington repair depot. Look under Remington repairs dealers on the internet and you will find the address and phone #. If anyone wants information about any of the epps cartridges or something chambered to an Epps calibre contact Wise Choice. I have a 25/303 imp. It is everything a 257 roberts is and approachs a 25-06 with lighter bullets.

im going to elwood epps this weekend.....

it a good gun store has all kinds of stuff and can get damn near anything.


http://www.ellwoodepps.com/

Near the Epps store there was another antique gun shop also on the right side of the highway going north. In there I saw an old hard cover book of about 300 pages by someone from southern Ontario detailing the development of varmint cartridges in southern Ontario in the period just after the war.

I wish I'd bought it. Only copy I ever saw. When I was a kid everybody had some variation of the many Epps cartridges, or else a K-hornet or a 22 Varminter (22-250) - you name it. A tradition now gone. The gunsmith Earl Leach had one called the 22 Jet.I think it was a 303 necked down to 22 and blown out for use in large Martini action single shots and Winchester 1895 single shots.

I have fired the 22-303 on a Martini Action a few years back. It shot quite well, I still know where it at I like to get my hands back on it.The round was being loaded with 22-250 dies. There was quite a few 22's built on the 303 case.