20mm wooden Oerlikon

[Richard709]

Hi, can anyone positively identify these wooden rounds, I believe they are packing pieces,



Head stamp is

OE
D 11 N
C & Co 1951

Richard

 

[ydnum303]

Hi Richard,

They are official British Mk 2 drill rounds, and I have been told that they were used to practice loading the magazines of Oerlikon guns on Royal Navy ships. They were made by lots of firms that had wood-working machinery, so you will find all sorts of different companies initials on them.

Roger.

 

[Richard709]

Hi Roger, Thank you very much for that, They did come from a Naval source and they are quite rough and are not as smooth as I would expect them to be for drill rounds.

Hi Richard,

They are official British Mk 2 drill rounds, and I have been told that they were used to practice loading the magazines of Oerlikon guns on Royal Navy ships. They were made by lots of firms that had wood-working machinery, so you will find all sorts of different companies initials on them.

Roger.[/QUOTE

 

[kahu1]

A lot of these about in NZ,some are painted black with 'DRILL' stencilled in white.All have some sort of stamping on the base.

The used ones tend to be a bit dirty as they pick up grease from the magazines.
When the Oerlikons were being disposed off locally,these where initially being used as firewood, as being wood they thought no one would be interested in them!

 

[gravelbelly]

Hi Roger, Thank you very much for that, They did come from a Naval source and they are quite rough and are not as smooth as I would expect them to be for drill rounds.

Hi Richard,

They are official British Mk 2 drill rounds, and I have been told that they were used to practice loading the magazines of Oerlikon guns on Royal Navy ships. They were made by lots of firms that had wood-working machinery, so you will find all sorts of different companies initials on them.

Roger.[/QUOTE

Further to the above, these wooden drill rounds were used solely for practice at loading and unloading Oerlikon magazines. They must not be cycled through the gun. If a mag containing these rounds is placed on the gun and the trigger pulled then the breech block smashes into the wood round, rams it very tightly into the chamber and the fixed extractor lip bites a big chunk out of the wood base. This makes work for the Artificer who has to fix the gun and clean all of the wood splinters out. The loading of Oerlikon mags is a bit tricky and needs to be practiced to ensure correct functioning of the gun hence these drill rounds.

gravelbelly

 

[Weasel]

Hi Richard,
Nice find, good to see a picture of them after our chat the other day.
Best regards Weasel

 

[Richard709]

Hi Weasel,
The original 3 and some friends. All have identical head stamps.