.303 case darkning

[smle2009]

Hi all,
had this South African MkVII 303 sent to me with other pieces for a swap with Peashooter(many thanks Richard),my first thought with this to clean up & check if S/A changed the bullet jacket finnish at the same time as Britian(Canada carried on useing cupro nickel much later) if not to replace it with correct bullet...two things stopped me doing so,the first,It looks to me if this round may have been chemicaly darkened,second the cap is very clean.
There is also some wear on the"finish" as though its been like this for some time,the round is 1943 dated.
So I have two questions if any one can help,is the bullet correct for year with South Africa & did they stain the case,if so for what reason...whoops thats three questions now!!
Cheers Tony

 

[TonyE]

Pretoria

Interesting round Tony.

The South African Mint started using gilding metal for envelopes in about 1942. I cannot be exact as I have one with a CN envelope for 1940 but no 1941 round to compare. 1942 onwards are all GM.

Your round definitely looks as though it has been "officially" chemically blackened, so I would certainly leave as is. Check the base of the bullet to see if it is marked. With luck it will be and may even have a "U" to confirm its origin.

When the IAA site is back up and running, I will ask Will in South Africa if he knows anything about these.

Regards
TonyE

 

[peashooter]

cheer's Tony it will be nice to find out about these as I have quite a few more left so I would like to know a bit of background aswell

Cheers
Richard.

 

[MissingSomething]

Fyi

I have a '42 and '43 marked ones and they are brass....

 

[relbut]

303 Case Darkening

Just a point, I thought that 1943 ammunition would have a neck crimp rather than mouth crimp, also with a snapped primer the crimp would not be so clear. Was it some type of grenade blank?? that has been fitted with a bullet at some later stage for use as an Inspector round??

Les

 

[TonyE]

Blackened

That is certainly a possibility I considered, but the round does have a ball headstamp. Another point is that the profile of the bullet does not look right, it seems more like an VIIz or commercial bullet.

I presume that South Africa made H Mark II grenade cartridges, but I have not seen one.

In 1970 Kynoch made a batch of ball ammo loaded in blackened K70 H2 cases that were surplus from Royal Navy Line Thrower production, so it is not unheard of. However the 1943 date and ball headstamp make it an oddball.

Regards
TonyE

 

[smle2009]

Hi TonyE & Relbut,
There is no mark on the bullet base & indeed it does look like a commercial bullet,Peashooter would be able to confirm or put us straight on this,there are faint neck crimp marks,as the norm on S/A rounds of this date,so has been "reloaded" using mouth crimps, Find this a lot when buying inert ammo,but unfortunatly I cannot collect live examples.
All the best Tony

 

[peashooter]

I am afraid I can shed no light on these rounds as this is as they came to me, I have added heads to cases in the past if someone has asked for it but I normally keep or pass on as they come to me. I have asked the person who gave me them and he has no idea's either as they cam in a bulk lot he got in.

Richard.