Don’t forget gallery loads.
This week I dusted off my Lee Enfield No.1 MkIII (SMLE) that had not seen the light of day for a few years. Having some leave from work I took some ‘me’ time at the range and conducted some informal lead redistribution therapy. Prior to departing I discovered 5 remaining rounds of .303 British loaded with 113gr (in WW), 3 groove .311 diameter Lee round nose bullets over 6gr of Unique left over from previous testing. A cursory check of records reminded me that this load, with a technically slightly under sized projectile, shot reliably into an inch at 50m/55y when the operator did his part. Four of the 5 rounds that had been in moth balls for too long reinforced the records though for some reason mid group one shot dropped rather low. Such is life. Of course recoil in the nearly 10lb rifle was nil as the load produces not quite 1100fps and report equally as mild. All in all a very pleasant experience that served to jog my memory about ‘gallery loads’.
So what is a gallery load? Essentially a very lightly loaded (powder and lead) round suitable for short range (even indoor shooting) shooting with mild muzzle report. The benefits of such loads are they are an absolute joy to shoot, cheap to load, easy on the ears and shoulder and allow us to take a full sized rifle and repurpose it for other than a full power load. In the case of my SMLE such a load is a nice plinker for the range when using the RN bullet as shown in the accompanying photos however replace that RN with a FN and the load becomes an ideal 50-60 yard small game cartridge simulating lighter .32-20 loads. I recall many years back taking my No4 MkII out on a rabbit hunting trip where cresting a ridge in an area I knew there would be small game happened on a warren of bunnies. By the time all 10 flat nose 311008 rounds from the battle rifle had been fired the old war horse had accounted for 7 rabbits.
This week I dusted off my Lee Enfield No.1 MkIII (SMLE) that had not seen the light of day for a few years. Having some leave from work I took some ‘me’ time at the range and conducted some informal lead redistribution therapy. Prior to departing I discovered 5 remaining rounds of .303 British loaded with 113gr (in WW), 3 groove .311 diameter Lee round nose bullets over 6gr of Unique left over from previous testing. A cursory check of records reminded me that this load, with a technically slightly under sized projectile, shot reliably into an inch at 50m/55y when the operator did his part. Four of the 5 rounds that had been in moth balls for too long reinforced the records though for some reason mid group one shot dropped rather low. Such is life. Of course recoil in the nearly 10lb rifle was nil as the load produces not quite 1100fps and report equally as mild. All in all a very pleasant experience that served to jog my memory about ‘gallery loads’.
So what is a gallery load? Essentially a very lightly loaded (powder and lead) round suitable for short range (even indoor shooting) shooting with mild muzzle report. The benefits of such loads are they are an absolute joy to shoot, cheap to load, easy on the ears and shoulder and allow us to take a full sized rifle and repurpose it for other than a full power load. In the case of my SMLE such a load is a nice plinker for the range when using the RN bullet as shown in the accompanying photos however replace that RN with a FN and the load becomes an ideal 50-60 yard small game cartridge simulating lighter .32-20 loads. I recall many years back taking my No4 MkII out on a rabbit hunting trip where cresting a ridge in an area I knew there would be small game happened on a warren of bunnies. By the time all 10 flat nose 311008 rounds from the battle rifle had been fired the old war horse had accounted for 7 rabbits.
.303 British gallery load
.311 Lee 3 groove bullet in clip on WW, Lee liquid alox lube, CCI large rifle primer, 6gr Alliant (Hercules) Unique.Powders for gallery loads favour the very fast end of the burn rate spectrum; Bullseye through Unique though not limited to said. Plain base light for calibre (eg: 90-130gr for .30cal) bullets are the norm as velocity and pressure will be in the very low range precluding the requirement for a gas check. Bullet alloy can be very soft again due to very low pressures involved in gallery loads; increasingly I am shooting a lot of 40-1 binary lead/tin alloy with a nominal 8 BHN. Minimal amounts of lubricant are required, in the case of the Lee 311 or Lyman 311008, just one lube groove was filled or a single, thin coat of liquid Alox. Powder coating does away with need for any lube and thus reduces any smoke which is a bonus should your gallery load be used indoors.
A quick search of the CBA forum using the key word “gallery”came up with dozens of posts. Ed Harrishas written a great deal on the subject and I encourage anyone interested toresearch his material for reference.
Jeff.
Jeff.
The search function on the CBA blog can be found on the right hand side of the page immediately under the list of catagories.