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.303 blanks

P

peashooter

BOCN Supporter
I have aquired some .303 blanks & I was wondering if someone can shed any light on 1 in particular which is stamped with the broad arrow of [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Royal Ordinance Factory, Radway Green, Cheshire. Also has date 1941 but what I am confused about is it has BVIZ now I know its a mark 6 with nitro in but I thought B signified an incediary round.

I allso have one with no stamps on at all & a mark 8 headstamp on the last one , I am afriad I cant put any pici's up at the moment as camaera broke.

Also on .303 did kynich make a hunting round with a big softpiont bullet. Head stamp KYNOCH 303 but no date

thanks
Richard.
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Your blank may have been double stamped or a ball case made to a blank. You are correct about the broad arrow but I think the B stands for Birmingham Metal Munitions IV & Z as you say MK6 & Nitro.

I have several with no HS also

I also have a soft point .303 by Kynoch. This is a sporting or hunting round for civilian/commercial use.

Did you want the Air Marshall rounds?
 
.303 cases were eadstamped before loading. Your blank was due to be an incendiary round but was rejected before it was loaded. WW2 era Blanks can be found with any headstamp that would be on any other case for this reason. The meaning of the headstamp becomes irrelevant when loaded as a blank.
 
What does the 9mm Air Marshal round look like. I may be very interested in a trade for that!!!
 
Blank

Just to add a couple of points to the post Falcon made.

As he said, blanks were made from reject cases that could be headstamped with any load. I even have a grenade discharging blank that has actually been loaded as a training blank. Cases that were rejected before the headstamping stage were often made up into unheadstamped blanks. I presume the one you say is marked as a Mark 8 is actually headstamped as a Mark VIIIz ball round?

These are all Blank L Mark V or Vz depending whether they were cordite or Nitrocellulose loaded. Again with wartime blanks, just because it has a BVIz headstamp, (NC powder), it does not necessarily mean it is actually loaded with NC.

What is surprising is that given the number of reject/over run cases that must have been available, there are actually WW2 Blank Mark V made from new cases with the correct headstamp. I have Woolwich and Spennymoor made examples.

Hicky1300 - Birmingham Metals & Munitions Co. (who used the "B" headstamp) had long disappeared by WW2. They were absorbed into Explosive Trades Ltd in 1919 which eventually became ICI.

With regard to the Kynoch commercial round, they offered both the 215 grain (round nose) and 174 grain (spitzer) bullets in soft point right up to the end of their commercial production. Once out of the box, it is impossible to date a Kynoch round. If in the box, there is a letter code rubber stamped on the box which can be translated into a date.

Regards
TonyE

PS I would also be interested in what you describe as a "Sky Marshal" load if it is British.
 
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Have had a look definitely got the 9mm in my collection - seem to have mislaid the .38
& looking for any other 9mm`s as Im sure I had a few.
Why is it when you are looking for something specific you don`t find it & find stuff you forgot you had - anyone into black powder (UK only) as found a load of cleaning/lube stuff??!!!
 
Air marshal

Can you post details of the Air Marshal load you have in 9mm please.

Thanks
TonyE
 
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