.303 british stories

[jordisonkevin]

just wanted to hear stories about people shooting different animals with the old .303 British.

[S.S.]

My only story was not a good one. I was using a T3 (sniper variant)
with a factory Remington 170 grain corelokt bullet I think.
Shot an average sized Georgia whitetail at about 60 yards.
Saw the impact just behind the front left shoulder. Tracked that
deer for about the next 3 hours, jumped it up once and then the
blood trail stopped. The only deer I have ever lost. I have never
hunted with a .303 again. Not that it is not a great cartridge,
I just think it needs a bigger target to use up it's energy in.
I think it just poked a .30 caliber hole through the deer I shot
without much or any expansion.

[Brithunter]

Ok here goes:-

   1st thing animal wise shot wiht the 303 was a Red dog Fox using factory Winchester 180 grain. Made a right mess of it at about 65 yards :-


Rifle is a BSA Model E (sporterised P-14) for 1949-53 fitted with a Pecar 3-7x36 scope. Fox don't look bad until you get up close:-


and that's the entrance wound   The long bullet shaped slot in it's ears is where it turned it's head as I squeezed the trigger.

Now I don't have photos of the young Fallow deer shot with the same rifle but this time using a handload with the Hornady 150 grain SP bullet. I have the recovered bullet as the deer was facing me but not quite head on so I aimed just to the right of centre of the chest and recovered the bullet under the skin of the haunch. So the bullet entered between the left front leg and sternum and angled back through the body to finish up under the skin of the right haunch ( Rump) expanding very nicely. The deer was alert and watching me so at the shot turned to it's left and ran about 25 yards out into the field meaning I had to go out and drag it back those extra 25 yards   if it had not of seen me I expect it would have dropped on the spot. Range was about 80 yards.

The last one was a Roe Doe at about 50 yards again almost facing me having come up behind me and seen me move round to look at her and her companion, then they then turned and ran back up the headgerow and popped out onto the field edge about 50 yards further up and I was waiting for them to show them selves. Bang flop, never recovered the bullet from that one and it was the 150 grain Hornady again.

Oh the Fallow weighed around 75 lbs the Roe doe weighted 35lbs dressed out so I can only assume that either:-

1) the Remington bullet is too hard, difficult to believe but?

2) the shot was not a good one  

3) it was a fluke

Strange things happen whilst deer hunting   on my very first deer that I shot a Roe Doe at about 90 yards the Sierra 180 grain PH bullet from my .308 blew up on the ribs of the 40-50lb animal. Part of the bullet did go right through. It had hit a rib going in and the bullet and it's fragments plus the bit of rib taken out on entry tore a 3" wide gash on exit taking out three ribs. I say blew up as I picked out bits of lead core and jacket fragments from the inside of the rib cage and tender loins and for a bullet that would normally be used on much larger game it really shocked me so I avoided Sierra's for many years.

Edit:-

HmmmS.S. I think you got a little confused as there is no T3 .303? I can only assume you either mean a No4T or a No1Mk111 sniper rifle. Unless it was a P-14 sniper which later was known as the no3 rifle 

[Sourdough]

When I was growing up, come Deer season Dad kept a .303 British Enfield rifle leaning against my Grandma's dining room window.  When we ate breakfast my Dad and Grandpa sat where they could see out the window.  They overlooked a spring.  It was 200 yards to the spring.  There was a natural salt lick up on the hill, so deer were always came to the spring for water.  They shot many Whitetail Bucks from the window.