What is the oldest 303 round you own?

[Matt]

Shot the 1941 Winchester stuff and the 1928 kynoch in the red box (would add pictures but not on the pc at the moment)


Still got a box of each left (fired), from memory I gave some of each to maggot for his collection but I could be wrong

Both shot quite well from memory.

[bradaz11]

Beware of the aircraft ammo. It has a larger primer - enough to clear the round from the barrel & cycle the action to prevent jamming if it fails to ignite.

How does it having a large primer clear the round from the barrel and cycle the action if it fails to ignite?

are they like popping a shotgun primer on a BP pistol, where the primer itself will launch the ball a few foot?

[ArcofZen]

My .303 is all PPU, and new.
But this guy opens up some old ~1940s stuff which is filled with Cordite. Very interesting video if you've never seen it before (I hadn't)

https://youtu.be/gFmInJ9I_OE

[daman]

Shot lot's of 1940's and 1950's dated .303 through Enfields and Brens with the Irish Army some thirty years ago.

IIRC we had to use them up as we were switching to the 7.62 FN FAL and GPMG.

[DaveB]

I have a half-dozen (unopened) boxes of 1944-dated Tracer. Unfortunately none of the ranges I shoot at will allow the use of tracer, so there it sits.

The oldest .303 I have seen was issued to the Army Cadet unit affiliated with my old TF unit In St Catharines, Ontario in 1979 for a range shoot. I had volunteered to be the Range Safety Officer for the cadets at the old (now vanished) Niagara-on-the-Lake rifle range. I do not recall the date of manufacture, as at that time I was not very interested in ammunition. But I do vividly recall that the wooden box was marked "NOT TO BE USED IN SYNCHRONIZED MACHINE GUNS AFTER NOV 1919" They must really have been plumbing the depths of the ammo depot to find that.

[spikedueller]

A bit late to the thread but here's some Mk IV ""Dum Dum" pattern some Mk VI 215 grain, a few from WW1 and a Portuguese 1927 example.
Not too sure of the date of the rounds in the grey packet but guessing 1900's and finally a "modern" pack of 1961bulleted blanks for use in Bren guns.

[HALODIN]

Nearly... I had one failure out of about 14. Having said that 50% of them were hangfires (sub second until ignition).

Did they work? I disposed of a 20s dated blank and it was like a wet f*rt - the only noise was from the primer.

I have a 1910 Mk VI and lots of MkVIIs, one off 1925, 1926 and 1939 and about 30 dated 40, 41 and 42. Some are in better condition than others, and I really need to get rid of them one way or another. I'll either attempt to fire them or pull the bullets, dispose of the cordite, fire the primers and reload them as inerts. I assume that there may be a market for 1940s inerts with the nickel coloured bullets. There are also several Kynoch SPs and around 100 50's dated.
I doubt whether they would be any use to a collector, apart from maybe the Mk VI, and even if they were it would need to be someone within travelling distance of Moray in NE Scotland.

Donald

[Mattnall]

IMG_0124.JPG

That reminds me I also have a packet of the string and paper wrapped 303, I'll have to check the date.

Along with the Winchester RAF stuff these are from my collection and not for firing.

Also found some German 7.92 war dated, one box says "fur MG" the other is for rifles but I cannot remember the exact wording.

[Mattnall]

Just found the paper wrap of 10 rounds of .303 tied with string.

It is dated 1934.

[GeeRam]

Jealous of this find...

A guy on Milsurps forum in France recently acquired these 50 rounds in clips and original bandolier plus other loose clips/rounds from a discovered Resistance cache in France, dropped in 1944!!