a 303 blank- type and date?

[rmarg-jim]

Some Items from the RMARG collection. The fellow who origionally owned most of these has passed on, so we don't know what half of it is any more. Any help would be appreciated- further photos can be provided, but may take a week or so.

Base markings very hard to see, 'c' 'II' and ?

Thanks,
Jim.

 

[TonyE]

.303 blank

It is a "Cartridge S.A. Blank .303 inch , with mock bullet, Mark VI", introduced by List of Change Paragraph 11317 dated 1st November 1902.

The idea was that it would feed through the magazine rifle better than either the earlier paper bulleted blanks or the short crimped Mark V blank.

The Mark VI consisted of a normal short rosette crimped blank over which was crimped a thin brass mock bullet. The body of the blank should be blackened for identification. The headstamp is probably "R (arrow)L C II", indicating it has been made from a converted Cordite Ball Mark II round made by Royal Laboratory, Woolwich.. However, it may have been made by any of the contemporary makers, Kynoch,(K), Kings Norton (KN), Greenwood & Batley (GB), Birmingham Metals (B) etc.

It was not very successful, as often the mock bullet blew off and became stuck in the rifle bore, or at worst the mock bullet left the barrel and injured a soldier. In 1906 the Navy received permission to remove the mock bullets and in 1907 the army followed suit. It then became "Cartridge S.A. Blank .303 inch , with mock bullet removed, Mark VI".

After all were used up, production reverted to the Mark V which continued in use until after WW2.

If there are other items that you need identifying, post them here and I and others will do what we can to help.

Regards
TonyE

 

[rmarg-jim]

Thanks Tony,
That's excellent. I have dug up some as well, so do you know roughly when they were all gone- it would help date the periods of Army excercises locally?
Thanks again,
Jim.

 

[TonyE]

Blank Mark VI

As the Blank Mark VI after removal of the mock bullet was effectively the same as the Blank Mark V, it is impossible to say when they were all used up. It is quite likely that there were still some in use at the beginning of the first World War.

I can tell you though that Woolwich issued 10 million Mark VI in 1904/05 but had reverted to the Mark V in 1905/06, which gives an indication of how quickly it was dropped. It was formally made obsolete by LoC 13544 on 1st December 1906 for Naval service and by LoC 13737 of 1st June 1907 for Land Service.

May I ask what RMARG stands for?

Regards
TonyE

 

[rmarg-jim]

Thanks,
So I can fairly safely presume I'm not looking at 1920s or later excercises- excellent.

RMARG is the Ridgeway Military and Aviation Research Group, an off-shoot of the Friends and Veterans of Welford Airbase- where we have a small museum. I'm a part-time archaeologist and have been trying to see if I can tell anything about this area's military activity by the cases they leave behind- so far it's proved mildly fruitfull, but also terribly frustrating!
Thanks again.
Jim.