The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Someone sent me a picture of these 303 Rounds the other day showing amongst other some nice examples of pre war MkVII ball, exactly what these and others are I will find out when they are dropped off. Anyway it made me think about the age of some of the 303 I have here and if any forum members have any really early examples.

So my question is what is the oldest 303 round you own and equally, what is the oldest 303 round you have knowingly shot?

Not exactly "My bullet", but whilst metal detecting on a mound of earth dredged from a pond at a country-park not to far from where I live one of my mates found a single .303 round stamped 1941. This was handed over to the park head ranger. The bullet was nickel plated and in surprisingly good condition. The crazy thing is that there are three of us who metal detect as a group, two of us own Lee Enfield rifles....the guy that found the round only has an air rifle.

I had a 1940s 303 incendiary handed in end of last year, stamped as containing nitro cellulose propellant and with the blue marker still clearly visible. It came from the garden next door and was in very good condition, certainly good enough to chamber.

I have two boxes of early war (1941 IIRC) dated Winchester .303, both marked "R.A.F." and one marked "Not For Use In Aircraft" the other "Red Label, Synchronised Gun".

A 1917/18 fired case that was made locally at Blackpole, Worcester. A few years back our club armourer was shooting some .303 that had been passed to him to dispose of and as the fired rounds showed a mix of headstamps so I took one of each for interest. The newest was 1958 Egyptian there was a 1941 Indian and a split case from 1917/18

The case wasn't dated but Blackpole factory only opened in 1917 and closed in 1918 and it makes you think where had that round been for nearly a 100 years?

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. They are rather powerful & not designed to be used in No4's etc. also the bullet heads are heavier 186 grain & above? very old can be 215grn

There are people recovering it in lead cans from sunken ships (its pristine & been stored at 3 degrees max) but you dont know what it is.

I have fired 1919 ball ammo it shot well & 1942, also shot fine & 1955.

From memory the oldest I have shot was 1957 Mauser Ball, it worked superbly at 1000m and was just above the frame for the half dozen shots I took.

hitchphil wrote: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?

I found some 1904 .303 blanks in our armoury and disposed of them at the range.

HALODIN wrote:I found some 1904 .303 blanks in our armoury and disposed of them at the range.

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