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.303 round

earni74

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Sent to me for identification, a .303 round, bullet length is 33.58mm, 227.3 grains, 7.85mm diameter, the bullet is magnetic and has a styalised M on the base, headstamp is K.12 V11, I cannot find reference to this particular loading, any help appreciated
 

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What you have there is a M88 7.92X54 bullet made by Spandau works I believe and has nothing to do with the 303 case, its been made up.
 
Hi Andy, that was his initial thoughts as there is hardly any crimp cannula on the bullet itself, i will pass your comment to him, thanks
Mick
 
Hi Mick,

I have been told that Kynoch had a load of 8mm bullets, and swaged them down so that they could be loaded into .303" cases and sold to rifle club members for practice. I have seen Kynoch's commercial packets that have these round-nosed, mild-steel jacketed bullets in. All the headstamps I have seen have had dates from 1912, 1913, and 1914 (last two digits only), and the cases all appear to be surplus military contract.

Roger.
 
Hi Mick,

I have been told that Kynoch had a load of 8mm bullets, and swaged them down so that they could be loaded into .303" cases and sold to rifle club members for practice. I have seen Kynoch's commercial packets that have these round-nosed, mild-steel jacketed bullets in. All the headstamps I have seen have had dates from 1912, 1913, and 1914 (last two digits only), and the cases all appear to be surplus military contract.

Roger.


Well I never new that you learn something new every day, but there is no crimping marks on the bullet that's why I thought it was made up, it would be nice to see the rest of the case.
Andy
 
Hi Mick, Andy & Roger. In April 1914 the Ulster Volunteer Force, a unionist militia (not linked to the modern loyalist terrorist group using the same name) smuggled in 2,000,000 million rounds of unheadstamped 7.9mm M.88 rounds into Larne, Belfast, Bangor and Donaghadee in to what is now Northern Ireland (along with a 1,000,000 rounds of clandestine 10.4mm Italian Vetterli rifle rounds, and the guns for both types of rounds.) At this point of history the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, with nationalists wanting 'home rule', a regional parliament in Dublin for the whole of Ireland, supported by a nationalist militia known as the Irish Volunteers. The smuggled UVF 7.9mm rounds used cupronickel clad steel jacketed M.88 bullets with the Spandau gothic initial 'm' on their base. With the outbreak of World War One a short time later, the 'home rule crisis' was put on hold with the UVF reforming as the 36th Ulster Division of the British Army and the Irish Volunteers joining the war effort for Britain as the 16th Irish Division. A large proportion of this UVF 7.9mm was handed over to the British government, where it appears to have been passed to the ammunition trade, with the broken down bullets being resized for .303", loaded into these Mark VII cases, and I believe a large proportion were returned to Ireland for issue to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) who used the Mk.VI cartridge as the principal rifle round up until 1920. For info, I also pulled an old Kynoch 7.9mm commercial head stamped round that had a similar case and primer to the smuggled rounds, but had slightly different propellant, and had Spandau's gothic 'm' on the base of the bullet, suggesting Kynoch also reworked the complete 7.9mm rounds, changing the propellant and headstamping the cases. A magnet quickly sorts these reworked .303" bullets as originals are cupronickel versus the Spandau cupronickel clad steel ones, Pete.
 
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Hi Pete, Andy and Roger, many thanks to the three of you for the I.D of this round and the History, the guy will be very pleased and on his behalf Thankyou and have a Happy new year
Mick
 
Hi Muskey,
Thanks for that info; now I know where Kynoch actually got the bullets from! Very interesting and useful bit of history.

Regards,
Roger.
 
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