doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Anyone hunting with a .303 british ?

I know people hunting with .303's will be relatively few as apart from ruger, no modern rifle maker has made them in decades. But there were plenty of older british makers who made really nice rifles in this calibre for hunting. If you do hunt deer with a .303 how do you find its performance using modern hunting ammunition or reloads ?

The locals here (Newfoundland )have used them for Moose and Caribou forever...I'm willing to bet most every household that holds a hunter,holds an old Lee Enfield .

When Winchester put out that CPX 2 crap (spell ?) a few years back there was a bunch of stories from experienced hunters loosing animals with their old .303 rifles when using it ,other than that the round has taken more big game here than anything else.

My cousin got his first moose tag at age 18 ,he's 41 now ...the first box of C.I.L .303 Brit ammo he bought that Fall for his old hand me down Mk 4 is still in use, though nearly empty,it has accounted for at least 15 one shot kills...and that's every Moose he's ever taken.

There's no shame in that round in the right hands .

Newf - Like-wise in the Southern colonies (just joking), I still have my fathers Lee Enfield (a sporterised No1 Mk III)and hunt with it occasionally, as do my sons. Despite the corrosive ammo it mostly digested it is still in fine condition and many years ago I used it to win a hunter class match - it happened to be shot in abominable weather that played into the hands of the 174 grain ball, basically the 222 and 243 guys were struggling to keep their projectiles on the targets. At that time it was scoped but it is now "original" again

In my fathers hands it accounted for many many hundreds of head, mainly wild pigs, which at time threatened to "overun" our farm, but also deer and goats. I say this with a degree of caution less it be mis-understood, but most of his game was shot with military ball, as a tool for culling, as opposed to "taking game".

Cheers

Foster

I had a friend who used a high wall in .303 to hunt deer in south dakota back in the 70's.Iron sights and a long barrel and I have no idea of what load he used but he killed his deer.

Think the difference between a .303 and the 30-40 Krag is sort of a nit. The 30-40 is considered a fine medium game cartridge and would expect the same from a .303.
Chuck

The .303 will do the job on any big game in North America you will eat. It was the first rifle I bought as my own, cut-down war surplus, $20.

Geez you guys! Now y'all have me thinking about dusting off my old L-E sporter this fall. As if I don't have a hard enough decision when choosing between all the other rifles I own!

Is decent quality hunting ammunition available for the .303 ? Here in europe the 6.5 x 55 swedish is a very popular round with hunters, which i find ironic as it would not have been as widely used as the .303. Its like the .303 has been forgotten when it comes to hunting.

While I still hunted, I occasionally used a Lee Speed sporter in .303. As has been pointed out, its a ballistic twin to 30/40. I always loaded for it, using Hornady 180 gr round nose bullets. If I did my job, the .303 always did its.

It works fine,,and why wouldn't it. 150 to 180gr 30cal+ bullet @ around 2500/2600 fps.
There's a tendency to over-think such things today, maybe just marketing at work,,providing the need for a new and better to replace the old and crusty.

I used it when I was still deer hunting many (many) years ago and never felt it was a problem. I'd still feel perfectly fine with my Lee Sporter in 303. Or even just a No1 rifle for that matter.