Some 303 oldies

[satan18]

Hi
In my hey day of shooting and owning most of the best marks of
SMLEs No 4s and Long lees i used get through quite a bit of
ammunition on Bisley days.
Apart from saving the good stuff for the longer ranges i used
to top up with rounds from a very well known Armoury in
shenfield essex,which is long gone now.
You used to be able to buy it as mixed rounds in bags of 100
for 9.00. hense its nick name pick a mix.

I used to sort through and see what i had and these were some
which i considered to old to shoot,so off with there heads and
put into the collection as totally inert rounds.
I know one is a ww1 tracer and two are pre mk7 but the one with the
short neck was fired but some of the makers stamps are familiar to me
but some info on the two round nose cartridges would be helpfull.

These rounds are totally inert containing no cordite and the primers
have been oil soaked with the Tracer head. FFE

 

[TonyE]

Oldies

The round headstamped R^L C II is a Cordite ball Mark II, originally introduced in 1893. It was re-introduced for the Boer War when the ball Marks III, IV and V hollow nosed rounds were deemed illegal under the St. Petersburg convention. Your example was made at Royal laboratory Woolwich.

This continued as the main service ball load until 1904 when the Ball Mark VI was introduced with a slightly thinner bullet envelope. That is the other round nosed example you have. That particular one was made at Dominion Arsenal in Canada in 1911.

Now for the tracer. It is a Mark VIIT made at Royal Laboratory and was also known as the SPK Tracer. The bullet is turned from solid copper rod and nickel plated. It was developed by Aerators Ltd and was based on the French 8mm Lebel bullets they were making on contract for France. It remained in service for most of the war, even though it was superceded by the Mark VII G SPG tracer in late 1916.

It is quite a scarce round, and in good condition with an unfired primer would fetch over 100. As it is, I would think it is easily worth 50.

The fired case is an armour-piercing W Mark I made by Kynoch in 1938 for Air Service, as indicated by the four digit date.

Regards
TonyE

 

[MissingSomething]

NICE :tinysmile_fatgrin_t

Thanks for the pictures.

Thanks for the info TonyE!

 

[satan18]

The round headstamped R^L C II is a Cordite ball Mark II, originally introduced in 1893. It was re-introduced for the Boer War when the ball Marks III, IV and V hollow nosed rounds were deemed illegal under the St. Petersburg convention. Your example was made at Royal laboratory Woolwich.

This continued as the main service ball load until 1904 when the Ball Mark VI was introduced with a slightly thinner bullet envelope. That is the other round nosed example you have. That particular one was made at Dominion Arsenal in Canada in 1911.

Now for the tracer. It is a Mark VIIT made at Royal Laboratory and was also known as the SPK Tracer. The bullet is turned from solid copper rod and nickel plated. It was developed by Aerators Ltd and was based on the French 8mm Lebel bullets they were making on contract for France. It remained in service for most of the war, even though it was superceded by the Mark VII G SPG tracer in late 1916.

It is quite a scarce round, and in good condition with an unfired primer would fetch over 100. As it is, I would think it is easily worth 50.

The fired case is an armour-piercing W Mark I made by Kynoch in 1938 for Air Service, as indicated by the four digit date.

Regards
TonyE

Thanks TonyE for the info on the 303s
Amazing what can be read just from headstamps alone:tinysmile_fatgrin_t
And i stand amazed at what you said about the prices as i shudder to think what i have shot and dumped for scrap:sad:

Best Satan