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> Old .303 ammo ID
Old .303 ammo ID
@ 11:33 am (GMT) |
JasonHiLong story short, I am breaking down some old .303 ammo, and just want to double check that none of these projectiles are tracer or otherwise dangerous. Hopefully the picture links work, if not the ammo consists of three 'types', plain copper projectiles, copper projectile with lead tip and full silver coloured projectile. Headstamps seem standard i.e. CAC 38 VII, CAC 50 7. No painted colours that I can see. |
Replies
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@ 11:36 am (GMT) |
Jason SeeleyRe: Old .303 ammo IDTrying different picture links    
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@ 07:42 am (GMT) |
Nathan FosterRe: Old .303 ammo IDHi Jason, apologies for the slow reply.The silver coloured ammo features a standard Mk VII cupronickel projectile. It is not a tracer or AP. The core consists of lead up to the beginning of the ogive, followed by carboard, bakelite (or something akin to) or aluminum within the ogive section to encourage instability after impacting its target. Some tumbled, some produced a delayed result, some did not tumble at all. It generally depended on what was hit. Cupronickel was at one time utilized by military powers for its anti corrosion and anti friction properties. Paradoxically, it can be problematic if used in a rough or tight bore as the fouling produced thereof can be extremely difficult to remove. Hence the gauze pull through supplied with the Enfield which removed both fouling and parent steel. As an aside, this is something to perhaps think about before for example using Federal Edge ammo in a Ruger American rifle. The copper coloured projectile features a jacket made from gilding metal (bronze family) consisting of a copper zinc alloy. You can see from the date (1950) that cupronickel had been phased out by this time. The silver tipped projectile is a commercial hunting load. It looks to be a Winchester Silvertip supplied to CAC (bulk projectiles). It contains a lead core, the jacket mouth being very wide (below the silver tip). A very large lead tip extends forward beyond the jacket mouth. This lead tip is covered with an extra thin metal 'hat' to protect the tip under recoil while being so weak as to encourage optimum terminal performance. The short jacket with its large lead tip produce a mixture of both rapid expansion and fragmentation resulting in very wide wounds. The modern variant of this projectile is the Winchester Extreme Point XP, though the XP differs in that the entire tip section consists of polymer. Hopefully that covers everything. All the best. |
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@ 03:41 pm (GMT) |
JasonRe: Old .303 ammo IDThanks Nathan. no apologies needed, I needed a bit of a break pulling these apart ;-)it seems that even after 85 years or so the tar sealing the projectiles in the cases is still doing it's job!! Let alone trying to pick out the wad and compressed cordite.... |
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