303 British.

[Batesmotel]

Why didn’t the 303 British gain more popularity as a sporting round? Almost no sporting guns were ever made for it unlike other popular military rounds. 30-06 was a military round that was used in numerous sporting guns. Not so with the 303 which has similar ballistics. And it can’t be because it is a rimmed cartridge because we are still shooting 30-30, 45-70 and a few others.  

[Borg warner]

For one thing, it was a 31 caliber rather than a 30 caliber. For another, it was a rimmed cartridge and could only be made to function in certain guns. the 30-30 was popular because more guns were chambered for it and same thing for the 45-70. And for the same reasons the 7.62x54 never became a popular sporting round because in spite of the name, it was a 31 caliber just like the 303 British, the 7,7 Japanese, and the 765 Argentine Mauser which were rimless but still never became popular.

Ballistics were closer to the 308 than they were to the 30-06 but it could be loaded hotter in a P-14 action.  It had similar case capacity as the 30-06 but was loaded to a much lower chamber pressure, 45,000 psi which could be safely exceeded in the massive P-14 action. Some P14's were converted to 375 H&H.

 

 

[Nestor]

The Ruger #1, Uberti 1885, Lee Speed, many post war conversions are still quite popular up here.

[Borg warner]

1 hour ago, Nestor said:

The Ruger #1, Uberti 1885, Lee Speed, many post war conversions are still quite popular up here.

here's an excellent video on the Lee Speed rifle:

 

[Nestor]

1 hour ago, Borg warner said:

here's an excellent video on the Lee Speed rifle:

 

What a beautiful rifle there. It’s impossible to describe the feel of the action on those, older Lee rifles. I much prefer them over the Mausers, even though Mauser is a better design. What many don’t know is that Lee Enfield is a controlled feed action too. It’s just different than Mauser.

[Nestor]

I forgot about Winchester 1895. These were also offered in 303 British.

[Walt Longmire]

3 hours ago, Nestor said:

I forgot about Winchester 1895. These were also offered in 303 British.

I have owned a couple 1895's in .303

[FullClip]

First center fire rifle I ever shot was my father's .303 Longbranch SMLE.   Guess they were kind of like the Mosin-Nagant deal of a decade past, when they could be had real cheap.

 

My oldest brother ended up with that rifle.  It was "sporterized".   I picked up the * version of it several years ago and shoot it once in a while, but it's not as nice.

[Valmet]

I’ve long been a fan of SMLEs and the .303 but as a sporting cartridge, I’ve simply always had others that were more plentiful, more affordable, or quite frankly, better when considering bullet choice and ballistics. 

[Walt Longmire]

1 hour ago, Valmet said:

I’ve long been a fan of SMLEs and the .303 but as a sporting cartridge, I’ve simply always had others that were more plentiful, more affordable, or quite frankly, better when considering bullet choice and ballistics. 

Yes, but hunting with old and perhaps obsolete calibers is quite enjoyable. Anybody can blast something with an Aught Six. My last deer was with an old Savage 99 in .22 Hi Power. A .228 diameter 80 grain bullet in a brass fashioned after the .30-30. The buck never even quivered. Shot him in the neck, right in the spine.

[Valmet]

9 minutes ago, Walt Longmire said:

Yes, but hunting with old and perhaps obsolete calibers is quite enjoyable. Anybody can blast something with an Aught Six. My last deer was with an old Savage 99 in .22 Hi Power. A .228 diameter 80 grain bullet in a brass fashioned after the .30-30. The buck never even quivered. Shot him in the neck, right in the spine.

I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve killed my last two deer with a .30-30. The .303 just isn’t one I reach for heading into the deer woods. Lately it’s been a .35 Rem in a 109-year old Model 8. 

[Walt Longmire]

My dad's uncle Bert was likely one of the first white men to transit South America from the Pacific to the Atlantic. He did it a couple times and came back with fantastic stories. Early 1900. On one trip while traveling down the Amazon in a canoe type boat with local guides, headhunters came after them. Bert would have the paddlers slow down when they went around a bend to allow the headhunters to come in range. he would then pick a few off with a .303 he was carrying. The headhunters finally gave up.

[Nestor]

That's an excellent cartridge for just about anything. Nicely streamlined, high BC bullets, low recoil, match bullets are available for reloading, hunting bullets are good penetrators with a high SD. Of course nowadays ammo availability sucks, but nonetheless it’s still pretty popular here.