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a good killer of game to the elk/kudu/zebra size at moderate ranges. Oh, yeah, this has been proven thousands of times in the field for a hundred years!

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For God so loved the world that he gave us the 303

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Amen to that !

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Woodleigh make a 215 gn round nose projectile that I have used successfully on most animals here in Australia except for buffalo,and then only because the occation has never presented its self.
Tom Cole,a famous Aussie buff and croc hunter used one of horseback to hunt buff.
He has written several books on the subject.
All are a good read.
Al

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The .303 has been used on everything from rabbits to buffalo in Australia. Nothing a .308 can do, a .303 can't.

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John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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The .303 has been used on everything from rabbits to buffalo in Australia. Nothing a .308 can do, a .303 can't.

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I see the .308 as a ‘modern’ .303 as long as the .308 has a quick twist barrel and 200-220 grain bullets. Its funny that NATO picked a rimless .303 of sorts. Much is made of the US pressure on NATO to accept a short .30-06, but really the .308 is a ‘light bullet .303, ballisticaly speaking!


For some time I have used a method to test hunting bullets/loads and 1 recently decided to test some .303 loads. My ballistic media starts with a piece of 1/2 inch plywood followed by a water-filled USA 1 Gallon plastic milk jug. This combination is then repeated, with all boards and jugs set snugly together. A USA 1 gallon milk jug is about 51/2 inches wide. For those of you who have followed the French into the metric system, the boards are 1.27 cm thick and a gallon jug takes about 3.78 litres and sits about 14 cm wide


Weather was 320 Fahrenheit (00C) and snowy and muddy. Clammy. New snow stayed away long enough for me to get the loads chronographed before the jug-shooting started.


All shooting was done at 20 meters.

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Winchester Super Speed 180 Pointed Soft Point Factory Load @ 2356 fps.
Old stock.
- Fully penetrated 3 boards and 2 jugs. Bullet was found in 3rd jug.
- Recovered weight 148 grains, 82%, .68" diameter.

Remington-Peters 215 grain Round Nose Factory Load @ 2004 fps.
1950s-1960s stock
- Full penetration of 4 boards and 3 jugs. Bullet was found in 4th jug.
- Recovered weight 179 grains, 83%, 73" diameter.

"U" 1943 MKVII Ball bullet @ 2287 fps.
Ball bullet from 1985 HXP L1A1 was removed and replaced with this MKVII bullet
- Full penetration of 4 boards and 3 jugs. Bullet entered the 3rd jug dead centre then veered off to exit the 3rd jug at the bottom of the jug, then unzipped the 4th jug and ploughed into the heavy wood table where it wedged tightly.
- Recovered weight 173 grains, 99%, no expansion but it did bend and flatten some.
I have read reports of this dual core (aluminium front, lead rear) bullet acting as a soft point but I cannot verify this. Bullet changed course in the media with a slightly oblong exit hole where it left the first jug. First jug showed some splitting but stayed mostly intact. Second jug did blow up.

Greek HXP 1985 L1A1 175 grain Factory Military Ball Load @ 2363 fps.
Solid lead one-piece core
- Full penetration of 3 jugs and 3 boards, then fully penetrated 11/4 inches of plywood and came to rest inside the laminations of an additional piece of 3/4 inch plywood.
- Bullet lost about 1 grain of weight but otherwise stayed intact and maintained its shape and could be shot again.
I only had three jugs left when I shot this bullet so I piled up plywood to catch the thing if/when it exited the third jug. This bullet did little damage to the first jug except for the .311 calibre entry and exit holes, then turned sideways in the second jug and spent the rest of its trip flying sideways.

Greek HXP 1985 L1A1 170 grain "DUM-DUM SPECIAL" @ 2327 fps.
Factory Military Ball Load with tip ground off
- Bullet fully penetrated 3 boards and 2 jugs, then carried on through the 3rd jug and dented the board behind it.
- Core did slip up the jacket but recovered weight was 156 grains, 92%, .67" diameter.
I twisted a 5/32 inch wrench socket around the bullet tip to score it then ground off the tip to the line and polished the tip on a buffing wheel. PLEASE NOTE: Due to the possibility of shooting the core out of the bullet and leaving the jacket stuck in the bore I cannot recommend this practise. I did it but I am telling you not to! I checked the bore between shots.

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A few comments:
The explosive hydraulic effect of bullet impact cannot be described adequately. The soft point loads are quite destructive of the jugs they penetrated, the FMJ's less so. Even the first jug shot by a SP will typically rupture in various places and fly off yonder. Not so when shot with the FMJ's.


My own personal goal for bullets I use on deer, elk and bear is to find them in the 3rd jug with recovered diameter in excess of .50" and weight in excess of 60%. From anecdotal reports I expected something different from the MKVII bullet. I guess I expected it to break up or otherwise do something really interesting. As it turned out, it acted essentially as a regular FMJ. I’d like to shoot this one extensively but I do not have a source for those bullets now. The real sleeper in the group was the Home Brewed HXP L1A1 ‘DUM-DUM SPECIAL’. With the tip ground off it looks for all the world like a Norma Vulkan bullet and for cryin'-out-loud gave excellent ‘soft point’ performance. In fact, for deer or elk shooting its performance appeared superb. Were it not for the theoretical loss of core in the bore I'd opt for this bullet over any shot in today’s test for such game!

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Some unexpected results this time - with the 150 grain bullets demonstrating penetration and expansion similar to the heavier 180s. This I did not anticipate.

Standard test media were used; this being one 1/2-inch piece of CDX plywood followed by a one-gallon milk jug filled with water, followed by another 1/2-inch piece of plywood, followed by another milk jug, and so on.

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I should add that the only hunting experience I have had with the .303 was in the shooting of a single black bear with the Remington Core-Lokt load. I have been using this testing method with a growing variety of calibres for some time. I have some criteria developed after comparing many tested bullets with successfully recovered bullets from game. For a general purpose deer and elk bullet, I want:

- First jug decisively blown up, indicating quick initial expansion and hydraulic effect (solids/FMJs may provide deep penetration at times but frequently leave the first jug essentially merely holed, indicating poor early hydraulic effect. Such late expansion means the bullet may not expand much in the critter)

- Bullet to be found in the 3rd jug (deeper penetration usually indicates poor setup/expansion and poor energy dump)

- Expansion to be equal to or in excess of .60" regardless of the original diameter of the bullet.

As such, most of these loads performed pretty well, though the old stock Remington 180 grain bullet didn't penetrate as much as I'd have liked and the Speer 200 grain bullet appears to be really too stoutly constructed for .303 British velocities, giving deep penetration but poor expansion. Recognizing that as range increases to at least 200 yards penetration will also increase, albeit at the expense of some expansion, the 200 grain Speer appears to be a poor bullet for general use in the .303. I suspect it may act as a solid at ranges in excess of 100 yards or so, possibly closer.

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