RAF contract .300"

[smle2009]

Hi to all,
Picked this .30"-06 up the other day or more correctly .300",believe it to be a RAF contract round manufactured by Remington Arms,headstamp is RA 1941 300Z.
has anyone info on the amounts manufactured and period of time until they were manufactured by the U.K.?
Cheers
Tony

 

[TonyE]

.300z

The British Purchasing Commission placed orders with Remington in 1940 and 1941, but then the Lend Lease Act was passed and the US government took on the responsibility for supplying ammunition. Prior to that we had also purchased .30 and .50 ammunition direct from the US government.

Total orders were 395 million ball, 95 million AP and 40 million tracer. There were also un unknown number of incendiary.

We never made .30-06 in the UK during the war except in trial lots. There were plans to do so and ROF Hirwaun were given large orders for tracer , AP and incendiary, but in the end the supply from the US proved adequate and there were higher priority calls on UK manufacturing resources. The orders for tracer and AP at Hirwaun were cancelled, but some incendiary was made. It is believed that these were probably loaded in American cases, although Hirwaun did make some experimental cases.

The principal demand in the UK for home produced 30-06 had been for incendiary for air service, as the British design, based on the .303 B Mark VII, was considered superior to the US M1 incendiary.

There were also many thousands of drill rounds made, mainly for Home Guard use, from fired US cases.

Regards
TonyE

 

[smle2009]

Many thanks TonyE,
do you know when the U.K. started manufacture of .30", the ones I have are 1960(tracer) and 1965(blank L10A1),both RG
Cheers
Tony

 

[TonyE]

British .30 production.

Post war ball Mark 4z and tracer G Mark Iz were both approved for service in 1956, but some production of ball had occurred in as early as 1953.

In addition to Kynoch and RG, we bought both ball and tracer from FN during the 1960s and this was given the nomenclature of Ball Mark 5z and G Mark 2z.

Regards
TonyE