I think I found one of the worst survival/teotwawki full size rifles and calibers at least if you're in the US. The lee Enfield. The bad: Uses .311 bullets . .311 bullets are more expensive and the select sucks. The action with it's rear locking lugs allows the bolt to elasticlly deform which over stretches the brass. My old speer reloading manual recommends only firing 303 brass at full power in a SMLE action for 2 firings, it's the Glock of rifles. If you have a 303brit in a Mauser style action ignore the last 2, Mauser 303s are the exception and seem to be kinda rare these days. The good: 10 round detachable mags in an Enfield. Appears to have a very modern 1:10 twist. Shorter action given the length of the round. Enfield has somewhat adjustable headspace. Holds the world record for most hits on a 300m target in one minute with bolt action. Has higher rate of fire than a Mauser. They used to be cheap as dirt not so much anymore. Could buy a case of rifles and a pallet of ammo for $200 in the 1970s. Is the go to hunting rifle in other part's of the world. The British empire loaded like a hundred billion rounds of 303 between the 1890s and 1960s. Hypothetically if I were to get one and it had a rusty barrel, no ammo I would probably do a 45acp conversation on it. They use 1911 mags.
Don't forget if they have the conical jungle flash hider the muzzle blast is so bad your eyelashes fall out when you fire it.
I know a few hillbillies that fire .30-30 in those .303s. All I can say is they are still alive and feeling clever. YMMV. This post calls for a legal disclaimer.
dis is a list uv da conflicts it has been used in [ could be incomplete ] :: Second Boer War World War I Easter Rising Various colonial conflicts Polish-Soviet War Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Irish War of Independence Irish Civil War Constitutionalist Revolution(Limited) Spanish Civil War World War II Indonesian National Revolution Indo-Pakistani Wars Greek Civil War Malayan Emergency French Indochina War Korean War 1948 Arab–Israeli War Border Campaign (Irish Republican Army) Mau Mau Uprising[1] Suez Crisis Algerian War Portuguese Colonial War Congo Crisis Battle of Mengo Hill Nathu La and Cho La clashes Nigerian Civil War Vietnam War Rhodesian Bush War Cypriot intercommunal violence[2] The Troubles[3] Sino-Indian War[4] Dhofar Rebellion[5] Zanzibar Revolution[citation needed] Chadian Civil War Bangladesh Liberation War Turkish invasion of Cyprus[6] Uganda–Tanzania War[citation needed] Soviet–Afghan War Nepalese Civil War War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Iraq War Myanmar Civil War twas used in Afghanistan possibly as late as 2021 used by isis terrorists circa 2019 it has been converted ta 7.92x57mm Mauser twas converted ta 7.62×51mm dey make .45 ACP conversion kits [ wouldnt recommend em ] 7.62×51mm would be a gud choice if ya can git one
you can add the Balkans and the current Ukraine-Russian War to the Enfield usage list >>> the need for firearms in the Balkans was so great - they raided the film studio warehouses that still housed all those weapons used in some of the WW2 classics like Battle of the Bulge - the Czech Army used to be rented out to be the Krauts ....
.303 British uses an odd size Berdan primer that we can't usually find in the U.S. Gibbs made a handy .45-70 conversion. There were also, for a while, some .410 shotgun conversions being imported.
In the US perhaps but in the rest of the world it remains quite common ! Pretty much everyone I know has a .303 in the back of their safe and new production ammunition and components are available.
the worst are the Winchester Big Bore 94 lever guns. good luck finding .307, .356 and .375 Winchester ammo. Might find projectiles but you are going to wind up making your own brass.
Remington .30 is impossible to find, which sucks, worse then the .307 Winchester, and .35 Remington! Three of the worlds finest rifles were chambered in these calibers, which makes them the worst choices! Thankfully, my Model 8 Remington was originally chambered in .300 Savage, so converting it to 7.62X51 was super easy to do, and now, one of the finest shooting semi auto Rifles ever made is now a viable and powerful option for what ever future we must endure! As to the Enfield, the rifles themselves are just fine, not the strongest, or most accurate, and other then the absolute stupidity of the Brits in specifying an odd ball caliber as a standard across the board, there is noothing at all wrong with the rifle or it's caliber IF you can find ammo, and r loading supplies, which you cannot, thanks to Clinton and later Obummer!
I hear you on that. I've got a pre-model 8 in .35 Remington. But I have fodder for it. a full case of 200gr a couple boxes of 150s and 200s and components to make 5x that much. So I can keep mine fed. Which isn't difficult when you need a few to ensure previous years zero and then wait for Bambi's dad to make a showing. as for 30 remington. There is a thread on castboolits about modifying 30-30 brass and turning down the head to size and grooving for extractor.
The Enfield is the original war crime gun. They issued early ones with triangular bayonets and expanding ammo. We should bring back triangular bayonets for conus use of course.
I'm fortunate to live in NZ, ammo and reloading components are ready available for the 303 plus I reload and cast my own projects I'm running a lithgow 1941 SMLE the wood has a few dents but the action is tighter than a nuns legs I can shoot an inch and quarter at a hundred yards, and not that I'm going to need it I have No2-No3 bolt heads which means my granddaughter will have many years of use out of it, now since the SMLE Mk3 and No4 are one of the best battle rifles if not the best? I'm happy to have it as my SHTF rifle.
Yeah in the US the ammo isn't as common, metric 30cal 0.311inch bullets are fewer and more expensive than merica 30cal 0.308 inch bullets and my loading manual recommends not reloading them at full power for more than 2 shots. But if you have a crate of Enfield's and pallet of ammo for the cost of a one or 2 commercial rifles and a few cases of ammo I can't argue with that.
7.7 Jap uses the .311-312 projectile as well, tho hardly a common round anymore. I reload for my #4MKII and use new made cases instead of trying to reload my supply of surplus ww2 Winchester Lend-Lease. In fact I try not to shoot much of that surplus just cuz... I have bought Prvi and S&B cases and loaded ammo and had no difficulty finding primers (large rifle IIRC) or projectiles... I like it for the ten round mag, the fast bolt action, general accuracy, and relatively-hard hitting round. Ammo resupply aside, the .303 would be my preferred bolt action rifle in a shtf scenario. Headspace issues can be dealt with fairly simply if one has spare bolt heads available. Anywhere in the Anglophonic world except USA, the .303 is still pretty ubiquitous... Here in the States of course our choices would be something in either .308/7.62x51 or .223/5.56x45.... or maybe .30-30 for a lot of folks...
