6,5mm Japanese question

[Tmine35]

I'm no specialist in small arms ammo and when cleaning my boxes found this 6,5mm Japanese round among usual ones.
I have no idea if it is a military round or civilian. It rather looks original factory load than reload. Soft nose bullet. headstamp K 18 indicating British origin.
Any help?

 

[TonyE]

6.5mm

Your round was originally a .256 inch Ball Mark II made by Kynoch. It is actually headstamped "K 16" but it is a poor strike, as production stopped in April 1917 after some 600 million had been made for Russia by Kynoch and Royal Laboratories.

Yours has been reloaded with a soft point bullet. Much of this ammo ended up in Finland, and they sold millions of rounds of this and .303 to Sam Cummings of Interarms back then. He had it reloaded with sporting bullets for the US hunter market.

It is possible though that as you found yours in Finland, it was reloaded in Finland by Lapua for the same purpose.

Some were used by the Royal Navy and army in the 6.5mm Arisaka rifles Britain used in the war.

Regards
Tonye

 

[Tmine35]

Thanks TonyE,
Normal 6,5mm ball ammo headstamped K 16 and K17 are pretty common here, I have plenty of them myself but was wondering this one as the marking rather looks K 18 than K16.
As we had plenty of Japanese rifles in hunting use in Finland it's understandable that this ammo was brought back here after we first sold all surplus to Interarmco.