.50 Vickers ID Help

[EODGUY]

I have two cartridges I have not been able to find details on. The first is a saboted .303 CuNi jacketed bullet. The projectile sabot is tight, but can be removed from the case. There is no propellant, but the primer is live. Assuming this is a legitimate experimental, is the 1929 headstamped case proper?
The other one with the 1935 headstamp I assume is a CuNi clad steel bullet that someone has placed in a draw step in the formation of a case. Can someone confirm or deny that?

 

[TonyE]

.50 Vickers

I am suspicious of your first round. What is the sabot made of? 1929 is a tad early for a clear plastic sabot.

At that time or a little later, there was a great deal of interest in the Gerlich principle and .50 Vickers were used for these trials.

There were certainly clear plastic sabots used with .50 Browning cartridges in the post WW2 period but I have never heard of a .303 one like that. Most of the saboted .50 Browning used steel fragment type projectiles to simulate missile fragments for testing cockpit armour etc.

The second round may simply be a manufacturing error where the extractor groove was not cut and got through inspection. I have seen similar things in other calibres.

Never the less, an interesting pair of cartridges. Greenwood & Batley Vickers rounds are not that common even in normal loadings.

Regards
TonyE

 

[EODGUY]

Tony, you have expressed my concerns about the sabot round. The sabot is simply a semi-clear piece of hard plastic with the .303 bullet stuck in it. Like you say, early for plastic and early for that type of approach to subcaliber high velocity rounds. No serrations or method for the sabot to break-up, but that is not a requirement for all designs as you know.