300 Adrian

The 300 Adrian is a fairly unknown cartridge which is more popular than one might think here in South Africa.

It's a wildcat formed from the 303 British case necked down to 308 (down because the 303 uses a .311" bullet).

Dr Adrian de Villiers, founder of the SA Handgun Hunters Association, designed the 300 Adrian in 1978, while hunting with JD Jones of SSK Industries. They chose the 303 case because Thompson Contenders work better with rimmed cases, and 30 calibre (rather than 7mm) because there were many 30-30 Contender barrels available for rechambering in South Africa at the time.

The reamer was made by SSK and RCBS produced the dies. With light loads one can neck size with a 308 die but with heavier loads full-length resizing is required.

My hunting buddy schemes this is still OK...

As a TC handgun hunting cartridge, it works well. With one carefully unspecified load, I obtained 2650 fps with a 130 grain monolithic bullet. From a 14" ported barrel. The recoil wasn't bad and if I had an unlimited supply of TC frames I might consider it a good load but I won't do that to my gun. Note that 2650 fps is more than one of my shooting buddies gets with his 308 rifle using 130 grain bullets (that's his accurate load. 130 grainers should get 3000fps in a rifle). The Farmer's Weekly article below mentions 2400 fps with a 165 grain bullet -- can be done but I don't think I need that much velocity for springbok hunting.

Another application for the 300 Adrian is rebarrelling your sporterised SMLE rifle. 30 Caliber barrels are easier to get than 311 caliber barrels, and by keeping the 303 brass you don't need to change the boltface. I know of quite a few people shooting this combination.

• Uniquely South African, Farmer's Weekly 12 June 2009.
• Overlapping Calibres and Other Licencing Issues, Jurie Nel, Handgun Hunters Association of Southern Africa.