Thread: .303 British

Right up with your usual high standards Les.

Very nice Les.

I was given a few 303 cartridges, was quite surprised at the taper on them, made them hard to grip in a collet.
Have no bullets for them though, must see what will fit there.

Nice pen Les.I like your work.

Terrific work. Amazing.

Now you really have sent me down memory lane my Army Rifle was an Enfield 303, they were tough and dated back to World War 2 where it the similar Rifle was issued to my Dad and his went back even further.

The Deer Clip makes it bold and chunky and out there, never to be worn through an airport so what.

Thank you for your penmanship and photography and the great memories it invoked back from 1942 and the 1950,s. Those jokes about drop your rifle you kiss it were fair dinkum, I have a newspaper pic from the 50,s at a miniature 20 metre range in the middle of town when we used 303 rifles with a .22 bore in the range when I was a Sergeant in the Citizen Military Forces after my full time National Service when Korea was our main involvement overseas.

Keep them coming your pens to me represent another facet of what can be acheived making pens.

Regards Peter.

G`day Les I have a question regarding your bullet pens with the dear antler tops. Is there an issue with the diameter of the bullet being greater than the clip end?
Mick

Originally Posted by mick61

G`day Les I have a question regarding your bullet pens with the dear antler tops. Is there an issue with the diameter of the bullet being greater than the clip end?
Mick

Sorry Mick,

I'm not quite sure what you mean??

Les

G`day Les what I am trying to say is the deer antler will have to be tapered for the clip to sit properley i.e. I see you have used a sedona like kit to do one of your pens.Ihave some 30 06 shells but neither nib or top clip fit hole nor would they line up properly if I used slimline kit parts .Am I makeing sense
Mick

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Very nice Les.

I was given a few 303 cartridges, was quite surprised at the taper on them, made them hard to grip in a collet.
Have no bullets for them though, must see what will fit there.

Despite it's name, the SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield) .303 is actually .312. Most 7.62mm ammo will fit well enough for your purposes - that's .308 for the metrically disadvantaged.

Cheers,
Alan

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Very nice Les.

I was given a few 303 cartridges, was quite surprised at the taper on them, made them hard to grip in a collet.
Have no bullets for them though, must see what will fit there.

Les as always, a very high standard of work shown. A very good finish on your brass and the stag head clip is really a good touch and something different to the rifle clip.

Fred, I have turned up a timber collet to hold the .303 shell cut the collet into sixths and then hold it in the pin jaws of my small Vicmarc chuck. I only use the nib of a slimline for my cartridge pens so I don't have to allow or worry about any modification to the pens.

As Allan said about the sizing is right. The .303 is .312 and 7.62 is metric equivalent to the .308. What i think you are asking Mick is how to fit the the slimline nib into the end.

I use 5/16 brass tube which has an external diameter of approximately .313 i drill it out with a 7mm drill and glue in the 7 mm spare brass tubes. I drill the primer end out with a 7 mm drill so that the tube will line up. In essence you are creating a shim to fit inside the projectile end of the cartridge.

Darren

Thanks Darren that is part of my question answered .The standard tube will not reach bothends of the shell do you run short of the internal tube when you insert the mechanism i.e does the mech go in enough not to need a tube the full length. My other concern is the clip will not fit parallel to the pen because of the diameter of the deer end if you make the diameter the same as the shell?

Mick61, I use the .308 shell casings and they are the right length for the slim kit tubes, you can get 60mm long 7 mm tubes which may be what you need for the longer shells, but may cause a problem with the transmission as it will need to be pushed in a bit further to allow the nib refill to reach the tip properly.