Ring on shell

T

tim3

Guest
I fired these maybe a year ago and am yet to re-load any 303. At the time i saw this ring mark on the neck & ignored it but now that im reloading im full of questions. There was no issues firing them in my #4 at the time. I also have a #1 MkIII but i didnt fire any in that rifle to see if it was an issue on both.

They were reloaded by someone else whom always loaded a medium speed powder to the min recommended. I have no idea of the #4’s head space if that is a probable cause.

Throw them out ? ..or maybe be this is indicative of another issue. Its a little more pronounced than the photo shows.

I neglected to add that the shells were pretty much all over length so i wonder if that is a cause. Ive since trimmed them all back to correct length.

Tks Tim

shell.jpg
 
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It looks like someone ran a drill in the chamber and touched the shoulder... ? Have it inspected by a gunsmith and tell him the complete history of the rifle is the best advice I can offer.
 
Groove in shoulder

Several years ago when I had a new barrel chambered for my 6ppc chambered and when I shot it to break in, I saw a groove in the shoulder, but sharper. It turned out that each reamer flute had an identical chip. The reamer was returned and the barrel rechambered. No big deal.

Roy
 
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Ok thanks everyone. I thought it may have been something to do with the shells being too long. I will take it to a gunsmith & let him look at it for me. As much as i love my LE’s..their bolts never make me feel as confident as do my mausers.
 
Dick Grosbier said:
What is the rifle chambered for, you mention 303?
Is this a custom chambered barrel?

Dick
Click to expand...

Tks Dick...its a (to my knowledge & the previous owners) a standard old No4 303. I contacted him & showed him the photo & he said he has never seen it do that before. I know him very well & he wouldn't BS me about it. He shot maybe 1000 through it.
 
#4's are notorious for having oversize, sloppy chambers and max or more headspace, especially the Savage made versions.
Most will show a ring around the base (like case head seperation)
But it's just from sloppy chambering and if neck sized only, will last for at least a few reloads.
IMHO, those might be from reloads that had the shoulder pushed back, in a rifle with excessive headspace.
I'd check headspace and do a chamber cast, just to be sure.
The good news are #4's are headspaced with replacement boltheads, bad news is their hard to find today.
Cheers, YV
 
The neck looks short and the angle is not sharp enough so it probably isn't a dent in the case, more like an expansion at the neck junction. It does appear to be metal removed from the chamber. If this is the only issue it should be safe to fire as is but have someone competent check it out.
 
Find out if someone has been cleaning the rifle with one of the cheesehole "cleaning guides" with the o-ring seal at the shoulder....

What I see looks to be a ring of some sort of buildup on the shoulder proper.

??

al
 
From what I've seen and read all the older rimmed military cartridges were chambered very generously, to be generous. They were concerned about ammunition that had been dropped on the dirt/mud then picked up and chambered by some soldier who was more concerned about not getting shot than anything else. Krags, SMLE's, Nagants, and I'm sure others will give grief if not properly sized. That usually means either neck sizing until the cases no longer can be chambered or a custom FL sizing die.

Al may have the answer, or it could just be a lousy arsenal chambering job and a caught chip on the reamer's shoulder.
 
Larry is quite right about the SMLE chambers. Use a FL die, shy of the shoulder by ~.030". I've seen worse. No harm will come of it. The rest of the case looks fine. You are not headspacing on the shoulder but do on the rim only.

Ted
 
Thanks guys...ive actually tried FL. Here is maybe a better photo.

303.jpg
 
It goes/went like...................

this;

Americans: Had the best TARGET rifle.

Germans: Had the best HUNTING rifle.

British: Had the best BATTLE rifle.

Big chamber, smaller case, bound to go IN.

The rim was just there to stop it when it went IN far enough.

They didn't care WHAT it looked like when it came OUT....

it was all over, then.

You might see if you can get one of those RCBS no-growth dies and set it up.
and/or only neck size, and see if you can push the shoulder back, just a tad, when necessary.

You may also want to get some good, or better than ordinary brass, so you'll still have enough to shoot 'till you're ready to step into your coffin, then the care over the price will cease... ;):eek:
 
Perhaps it was chambered with rough and finish reamers, and either the rougher was run in too far, or the finisher not far enough...or some combination of the two.
 
Brian thats a good quote. Tks Boyd but they had only ever seen normal RCBS dies. The fellow whom gave them to me re-loaded was losing his eyesight which is why he gave them to me. He is nearly 80 & stopped shooting.

Is there a chance an over length case caused it ? They were quite long. Im on a very steep reloading learning curve here.

Are these ok to reload as they are ?
 
I have an Enfield, that is in the safe. When it next comes out, I plan on picking up a set of Lee Collet dies. It seems to me that for the sort of recreational shooting that I will use it for, that they should be perfect. The other thing that I am looking into is a tip that I saw on another forum. The fellow fire forms new brass with an O ring between the front of the rim and the back of the barrel. This seems to me to be a good solution to first firing case stretching. I will probably use layers of tape on the head of an unfired case to rough gauge what sort of clearance I have. I had a regular FL die set, when I reloaded for the rifle years ago. I think that I must have sold them. I didn't care for them because the big chamber, small die, and relatively thin brass made for crooked reloads. My rifle has a home made scope mount, rather Rube Goldberg, (not by me) but it works. With my straightest loads I was able to keep it under an inch. The rifle was given to me out of a local estate. the owner was an eccentric tinkerer. He wanted a pistol grip, so he welded part of a large frame Smith and Wesson frame to the trigger guard and it literally has a pistol grip. The rifle sets new standards for ugly. The tip of the forestock is secured to the barrel with a stainless hose clamp, like you would use for a radiator hose. The trigger has been worked over so that it has a pretty decent pull, and given how the rifle will shoot, with good loads, I plan on having some fun at the range, given that with reloads it can shoot better than many nice looking hunting rifles do with the typical factory loads. The only thing that I don't like about shooting the rifle is that the heavy bullets result in a fair amount of recoil.
 
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