Reloading .303 British : Mk VII 174 grain Bullet Section

A little of both IMO. Plus it saved on lead, a strategic metal, The aluminum tips were a later development, the earlier filling was a sawdust based "woodpulp" composite! With typical British ingenuity & daftness in a 505/50 mix they sterilized the filling before loading to prevent the possibility of extra infection from the wound!

If you're gong to use them as target bullets there are a few things to consider.

They are notoriously irregular for weight, so sort em & batch em+/- 1gr.

Depending on HOW they were both crimped & pulled they may, or may not be pristine. Check for any even minor defects particularly at the 2 positions where crimps were applied, & for "scraping" or "dinging" marks from collect or hammer tool removal.

Now having said that these same bullets (minus the pulling stresses) shot "match for many, many years very successfully.1,000yd groups of around 15" were normal for expert marksmen.

Some really skilled (& maybe a bit lucky) ones shot "clean" (everything in the bullseye.)

I've scored Queen's Marksman with them & re-qualified several times back in my younger days with them.

So, based on that they can't be really terrible!

I actually have a batch of 240 of them still loaded in some "RL 1945" stamped brass (Royal Laboratory, Woolwich Arsenal, Kent). Its Cordite & corrosive so I'm keeping it as an emergency stash, they're destructive little devils downrange. but I'll use the bullets after pulling them if the primers deteriorate.