Feeding a 1943 03A3

[PWC]

I have a 1943 03A3 and lot of mil -06 brass to use. Should I use the published loading data for comm'l reloading, knowing the mil brass is thicker and will increase the pressure? What was 'the load' for Lake City, Denver and St. Louis ordnance plants?

What do you use in 4064 and 4895 for 150 gr fmj?

[lyman]

shoot me an email and I'll send you a .pdf copy of Dunlap's loading .30 cal match ammunition
i'll update my profile in a sec

it is a short read, and has some great loading info,

I'd have to find my notes for 4895, but can tell you my garands love 46 gr 4064 pushing a 168 SMK,

I also have a load somewhere that duplicates the ammo handed out at Perry for the Vintage Springfield Matches, but I'll really have to dig for that one,

[fguffey]

I have a 1943 03A3 and lot of mil -06 brass to use. Should I use the published loading data for comm'l reloading, knowing the mil brass is thicker and will increase the pressure?

Military brass is heavier because it is thicker? At best that is a half truth. I have measured military cases, most have a case head that is .200" thick from the cup above the web to the case head. I also have thousands of commercial 30/06 cases that I have measured. My R-P case heads measured .260" from the cup above the web to the case head. My Military cases weighed more than my commercial cases meaning my R-P cases were thicker at the case head than my military cases. What I was left with was military case with long powder columns with small diameters and commercial cases with short powder columns with large diameters.

When loading for the 30/06 military case regardless of the manufacturer, make and model of the rifle I load the case with 2 grains less than maximum. And there are Winchester cases as in WCC, WWC by Olin. Cases made by Olin were lighter.

And I have one military 30/06 rifle with a long chamber, it is .011" longer from the shoulder to the bolt face than a go-gage length chamber. The extra .011" in length lowers the pressure.

F. Guffey

[lyman]

brass should be measured by capacity,
water is the usual method

as in Remington brass will hold xxx grains of water
Winchester will hold eee grains of water
Lake City holds @@@ grains of water,

it the water weight is smaller, then the powder weight should be reduced a bit and the load tested and worked up

[fguffey]

brass should be measured by capacity,
water is the usual method

So your measure in grains and not in cubic centimeters.

F. Guffey

[PWC]

I believe 1 gm = 1cc

[lyman]

So your measure in grains and not in cubic centimeters.

F. Guffey

it is what I was taught,

and have read elsewhere,

[Randy A]

Years ago (maybe changed since then) but the NRA approved load that was deemed Garand safe was 47gr IMR 4895 with the 168gr SMK bullet, 48 gr IMR 4895 with the 150 gr bullets. I tested these with excellent performance across the board (exceptional in the A3) and decided to stay with them. When I finish off the last 16 pounds of 4895 I'll test 4064 before I go buy more.

[Johnny P]

The military loaded to a certain fps. Every lot of powder was tested, and the load was adjusted to achieve that fps.

Personally I have always loaded just a little lighter than military spec for the military bolt actions and find them much more pleasant to shoot, especially the standard 03 and 03-A3 stock.

[fguffey]

http://www.curtrich.com/BPConversionSheet.htm

Weight of 1 mL of water
Cubic centimeters (CC) is a unit of volume not of weight. But 1 cc of water weighs 1 gram (or .o4 ounces) and 700 cc of water (or grams) weigh 24.69 pounces or 1.54 pound

..

Isn't the metric system wonderful.

1 grain (gr) = 64.79891 mg (milligrams)

F. Guffey