Some .303 Drill rounds I scored today.

I was given these at work today. Any comments welcome.

Current theory is:
Pic 1 and 2
Wood tipped .303, one with headstamp : K 1942 and WI
Wood tipped .303, no headstamp.

Silver drill rounds Headstamps:
RG 50 D10
R (crowsfoot) L 1946 D7

Pic 5
Fired .303 (struck primer) filled with a red painted wooden dowl, a new bullet and the case drilled to reveal the wooden dowl.
Headstamps as follows:
F . A and 29
F A and 29 (larger font)
F A and 31
DEN 42
R A and 42
SL and 42
W.R.A. and 42

note the length of the case of the latter rounds is longer than the wood tipped rounds and the silver drill rounds.

drill rounds

The red wood bulleted drill round with the fluted case is a Drill D Mark VIII, and expedient drill round made at the beginning of WW2. These used reject cases so that is why a drill round has an armour piercing (WI) headstamp.

The chromed case with the plain wood bullet is a lash-up and is not a proper British drill round. As the headstamp is for a D Mark 10 it should have a metal jacketed bullet. The D Mark VII you mention (but no picture?) was a naval version of the D Mark VI.

The others with the longer case are .30-06 British drill rounds made for the Home Guard from fired US cases for use with all the Lend Lease weapons that were issued to them.. Their correct designation is " Cartridge SA Drill .30 inch D Mark I"

Regards
TonyE

oops, my bad

D10 left/D 7 right

The chrome cases don't have the wooden bullet, plain copper.

I'll have to have another ratch through the box overflowing with more of these before they are destroyed

I'll have to have another ratch through the box overflowing with more of these before they are destroyed

Click to expand...

NNNNOOOOOOOOOO

Send them to me..... :tinysmile_cry_t4:

Drill

Sorry, I misunderstood and thought the chromed cases looked like they had plain wood bullets in the pictures..

Some, but not all, D VII included an "N" for Naval in the headstamp. They were usually undated, but the later ones were dated. I have 1944 and 1946 as well as several different undated ones. They are slightly unusual in that they have a special bullet with an aluminium core.

The D Mark 10 appeared in 1950 and remained in service until the end of the .303's life. All were made at Radway Green (RG), the last lot being in 1961 AFAIK. Both bright and satin finish chrome was applied.

.303 drill and dummy collecting is an interesting field. There were ten marks of drill plus the last BPD contract drill rounds for the cadets, five marks of Inspector's plus two for MG inspection and there are many variations of each one. And that is not counting the Local Pattern drill rounds in India, Canada and Australia. I have over 100 different .303 drill/dummy rounds in the collection.

REgards
TonyE

LCplCombat said:

I was given these at work today. Any comments welcome.

Current theory is:
Pic 1 and 2
Wood tipped .303, one with headstamp : K 1942 and WI
Wood tipped .303, no headstamp.

Silver drill rounds Headstamps:
RG 50 D10
R (crowsfoot) L 1946 D7

Pic 5
Fired .303 (struck primer) filled with a red painted wooden dowl, a new bullet and the case drilled to reveal the wooden dowl.
Headstamps as follows:
F . A and 29
F A and 29 (larger font)
F A and 31
DEN 42
R A and 42
SL and 42
W.R.A. and 42

note the length of the case of the latter rounds is longer than the wood tipped rounds and the silver drill rounds.

Click to expand...

Hello,
These are the only wood projectile .303's I have. They were for use in the Bren. The projectiles were shredded by the rifleing allowing the weapon to be used in full auto exercises with relative (!) safety.

I would very much like some drill round examples for my collection. If you have any to spare I will willingly buy from you?
Cheers,
navyman.

navyman said:

Hello,
These are the only wood projectile .303's I have. They were for use in the Bren. The projectiles were shredded by the rifleing allowing the weapon to be used in full auto exercises with relative (!) safety.

Click to expand...

I have come into this quite late, having only just registered. But to be accurate, they were certainly for the Bren, called bulleted blanks, but they were not fired through the normal bren barrel. That would be quite lethal. They were fired through a barrel fitted with an angled deflector at the muzzle. When the wood bullet hit this, it deflected it down and mashed it. We called them masher barrels.
I loved firing the Bren. Best LMG in the world IMHO. But I did not like carrying it for long periods!!

Bulleted blanks

Welcome to the Forum, you will find it a great place.

Full title of these rounds was Cartridge S.A. Blank .303 inch L Mark 10z, and as you quite rightly say these required a barrel with a muzzle ramp to act as a deflector.

There were a number of attempts to produce a satisfactory bulleted blank for use in MGs from WWI onwards, but the only one to enter service was the Blank L Mark VII which had a wooden bullet filled with copper oxide dust. The idea was that would give sufficient weight to the bullet to operate the action but would break up on hitting the muzzle deflector. Unfortunately, if there was a misfeed the bullet broke and filled the gun action with coppers oxide dust. It was not successful and was only made for a couple of years just prior to WW2.

It was supposed to have a yellow rounded bullet but most examples have a green/blue bullet and both round nosed and spitzer are foune. See attached picture.

Regards
TonyE

Here is the picture.