303-250

Had to bury an elderly neighbour's old house cow the other day, and over a cup of tea afterwards, he told me about the good old days in the district, including his hunting haunts. He described hunting with a 303-250, which I'd never heard of (not that I'm any sort of expert). He said in Aussie the gov't after the war prohibited civvies owning military caliber weapons, and so this cartridge was developed to take advantage of plenty of surplus war-era rifles and brass. He reckons ammo is pretty hard to get these days, and has to buy it from Aussie.

Was this caliber ever a thing in NZ?

Hard case I’d not herd of it a quick google suggest 303-25 a .303 case necked down to .257 I would say it would be very hard to find ammo for a 1940s Australian cartridge I don’t imagine it was much of a thing here if we didn’t have the same rule/law and the .257bob is of the same era

Good old hunting mate had one - dont know where it is now -he sold it and now carrys a Tikka 7mm08 - he like it as a caliber and had it for many years

I formed some 303-25 brass last week
Just to make a dummy round to try out some dies I brought

In this image with a 25-35 which I was intending building a rifle in
But then decided the 303-25 was a vastly more capable cartridge for NZ hunting

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Originally Posted by Kelton

Hard case I’d not herd of it a quick google suggest 303-25 a .303 case necked down to .257 I would say it would be very hard to find ammo for a 1940s Australian cartridge I don’t imagine it was much of a thing here if we didn’t have the same rule/law and the .257bob is of the same era

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Wrong the 257 Robert's was introduced in 1934 by remington who commercialized what was a popular wildcat made by the man who it is named after based on the wonderful 7 mm mauser necked down and the shoulder angle sharpened. I think he would object to it being called "Bob"

I had a 303-25 for years.
Bought the rifle and reloading gear for it from Rod Satherly (Manchester Street, CHCH).
Rod had a young fella working there...by name of Dave Tipple!
Anyway, yes a good calibre. There were a few variations too...303-22, 303-25, 303-270 come to mind.
Yes, after WW2 Oz Govt didn't want 'war' rifles (.303) in the hands of 'normal' people, so the wildcat versions became popular (and legal) in Oz.
I shot a few animals over quite a few years, including a lovely 12 point stag at Griffen Creek (Otira way).
The 87 grain projectile seems to be the 'best' for the calibre...but I did try a few with 120 grains.
My rifle was a Mauser action so I could get some extra grunt from having that strong action (bearing in mind the weakness of the cartridge case design anyway). I finally sold it to someone in CHCH and I'm sure that a few months ago I saw my old rifle on this forum where someone was asking if they were an OK calibre.
I'd have another one tomorrow.
Very pleasant to shoot, and accurate.
https://sportingshooter.com.au/ask-u...or-the-303-25/

A mate of mine in Aussie just bought one. There have been a couple on TM lately too

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Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Wrong the 257 Robert's was introduced in 1934 by remington who commercialized what was a popular wildcat made by the man who it is named after based on the wonderful 7 mm mauser necked down and the shoulder angle sharpened. I think he would object to it being called "Bob"

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Well that’s sort of what I mean it was commercially available in New Zealand at the time so it’d be a no brained of the wildcat I’d have thought

Got one but needs rebedding before I put a shot through it.
Got it cheap as it didnt shoot well at all.
Done some things to it but the bedding is miles out.
Barrel isnt flash so could be toast anyway
Got a handful of loaded ammo a mate had and some of the aussie super 87grainers that wouldve been used in it
Ammo in Australia is still available.
Mine had 1-12 twist which is meant to be alright for 100 brainers and possibly the short round nose 117 hobbies stability wise.
It's on a P14 action so can crank them up over the smle actions

@csmiffy My mate in Aussie even managed to find an old Lee Loader for his! But of course 25-303s are much more prevalent there so there'll be a corresponding greater amount of gear for them too

Well I have a set of Simplex 303-25 dies
Can get a Vulcan 1:8 twist barrel
Would need to make a chamber reamer as unlikely to find one easily in NZ
There will be on out there somewhere
Din Collings would have done a few of them and I know he did a few 30-40s also
Would love to find both those reamers

There's a blast from the past,Rod Satherly of Technical Reloading Services. I bought a Redding turret press and RCBS scales and Redding Dies from Rod in about 1968/9 and they are still in regular use today. Gary White worked upstais. As to the 303 conversions there were a few around and when I lived in Otira a local had a 303/243 which was a real hummer.

@akaroa1 you and I might need to have a catch up one day and maybe load up some test rounds for my thing

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Originally Posted by akaroa1

Well I have a set of Simplex 303-25 dies
Can get a Vulcan 1:8 twist barrel
Would need to make a chamber reamer as unlikely to find one easily in NZ
There will be on out there somewhere
Din Collings would have done a few of them and I know he did a few 30-40s also
Would love to find both those reamers

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I also have 30-40 krag dies, brass and a Lee Enfield 30-40 barrel in as new condition

Would love one that shoots to go with my 303-22

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Originally Posted by akaroa1

Well I have a set of Simplex 303-25 dies
Can get a Vulcan 1:8 twist barrel
Would need to make a chamber reamer as unlikely to find one easily in NZ
There will be on out there somewhere
Din Collings would have done a few of them and I know he did a few 30-40s also
Would love to find both those reamers

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Ross collings in carterton will have the tools , most of dins tooling went there or to mike in tepuke .

There were a number of Canadian variations of 303 wildcats also
So you could run into a range of lengths and shoulder angles

Only in NSW could you not use a .303 early post war. Other states were ok.

The .303 wild cats came about in a bid to get better performance and flatter trajectory than the .303 on our generally light game.

The .303/22 and .25s for roo shooting where on the skins were sold. Less damage from lighter pills.

Simplex still make 303/25 dies.

Sportco made the rifles, river brand made the ammo.


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A certain gun doctor on this forum worked upstairs at one stage as well

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Originally Posted by Peteforskeet

A certain gun doctor on this forum worked upstairs at one stage as well

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More info required ...😊

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Originally Posted by akaroa1

There were a number of Canadian variations of 303 wildcats also
So you could run into a range of lengths and shoulder angles

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Yes I think Epps was one of the more popular. He did quite a few wildcats.

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Originally Posted by csmiffy

Yes I think Epps was one of the more popular. He did quite a few wildcats.

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Yes Eeps was the most prolific inovator

Some of the cartridge collector forums have a lot of detail on the multiple lengths
It would seen that the 303-22 was most likely the most diverse in length and layout
I guess due to the fact that it was maybe over capacity
Certainly a close match for the 220 Swift but with a full rim

Shooters supplies has a 270/303 https://www.shooterssupplies.co.nz/p...sporter-11708/

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Originally Posted by paremata

Shooters supplies has a 270/303 https://www.shooterssupplies.co.nz/p...sporter-11708/

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Another BSA sporter on the P14 at a guess. You would be able to get them cranking properly out of that action

very expensive for a wildcat oddball round..... would be a fun rifle to own all the same.

Gun Smith workshop above reloading technical services shop, Dave Arnold first gunsmith I remember up there, then I think the guy I referred to took up business.
Back around mid 70's

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

very expensive for a wildcat oddball round..... would be a fun rifle to own all the same.

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yes and no.
probably not done in NZ. I would suggest someone with a little bit more coin wanting the best performance out of the round and maybe either having the rifle or getting a buggered one (maybe not) and paying to get it re-barreled the same as 90% of the SMLE's getting done.
Then they could load it another 200fps on basically the same as the 257 rob, or the 270 Winchester whichever one you looked at.
Probably having the rifle was the key otherwise you would just buy a 270 or 257. Mind you maybe not a lot around

that was my point...can buy a bog std .270w for less coin and buggering around with having to find dies etc and get much longer brass life too.
package deal suppressed and scoped for similar coin.... dont get me wrong its a neat rifle and fair price if thats what squeals your wheels... a little bit of history too. just a lot of buggering around for bugger all gain if you know what I mean.
bit like me wanting to rechamber a baikal into .22hp savage but with .224 barrel..... rechamber will be 3-400 and dies that again... and then wont match .22-250 and wont gain much on .223.... but would be different.

Doubt it was done recently I reckon
Probably more like 30+ years ago and is someone's old deer/kangaroo slayer from way back