Ever wonder what was in .303 British ammo?

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Cool - thanks. Glad to have modern powders to keep the old girl running longer with less erosion :)

Berdan priming makes sense to get better and more even ignition on multiple strands.
 
Looks just like the 1945 MKVII rounds I pulled.The Brits built this stuff to last and resist harsh environments.My question is,how did they get those strands into the bottleneck case??I can only think the cordite was "inserted" into a pre-formed case before finally shaping into the bottleneck and loading the bullet.
Anyone know??
 
Thanks for sharing! Neat pic's and an interesting bit of history.

Jenrick said:
The plan was to remove the powder, deactivate the primers, drill out the flash hole (and removing the primer at the same time), and put the bullet back in.
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Be very careful with that. There's no way I know of to reliably deactivate a primer. You may get a nasty surprise when you start drilling. Do you have a gun you could pop them off in? Cleaning the residue afterwards would be safer that having one go off in your face.
 
I had a couple British .303 and I also had a French MAS 7.5 x 54...That was one Hot Rockin rifle even compared to my .303!

I suppose it had Cordite as well? I miss that Rifle.....Hunted deer with it one time! Just made a mess out of the deer...sigh!
 
Some of the mk7 bullets had a wooden insert in the nose which was sterilized to prevent infections in eneny troops. Now that sounds "British".
 
bigedp51: Joined up over there, thanks for the info. Ought to be very helpful.

Sport45: Soaking a primer in either water or oil kills them normally. I did however chamber and drop the hammer on each round, just in case. All of them failed to detonate, though 1 did smoke a bit like it had tried to. Was interesting. I also cleaned my rifle just in case it had spit something out into the barrel or chamber.

Whatever kind of primer crimp or sealant they used to hold them in there, it's serious business. I was only able to get to out of the primer cup. The rest I just drilled completely out.

-Jenrick
 
Dr. Rob said:
Pretty neat, I've only seen old pics of 'safari' rounds broken down to show the cordite strands. I recall them being 'black' as well.

Cordite and gun cotton are long 'forgotten' steps in the evolution of gunpowder.
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Ah, guncotton! I believe it was with that that an American scientist discovered what would happen if you left a hollow area in the charge, facing the target. Thus was the basis for the shaped charge concept utilized on various anti-tank rocket systems.
 
The biggest fault with Cordite was it was hot burning and would erode the throats of weapons that used it.
 
I pulled some 1958 POF FMJ rounds apart last week and reloaded them with modern propellant and 311 JSP bullets. Took them with me this last weekend to see if the ole 303 was still on target. Not a problem I plan on using it to hunt with this year just to be different. If I don't get my deer with it in the first two weeks I will go to the 500 S&W for the last two weeks of the hunt. Cordite might be the reason they coined the term Spaghetti Western.:D
 
In April '09, Samco sold me 1,000 rds. of it.

Weeks later they had no more .303 and although the owner is reportedly either Indian or Pakistani, he must not have found any more in Asia, or wherever his original sources were:scrutiny:.

This ammo was produced in England in '43.
 
Very cool to see what cordite looks like. Do be careful when pulling bullets out of surplus ammo. I knew a guy who once pulled a APIT 7.62x51 bullet. It exploded on him. Also I know that in the 90's there was some bulk 303 brit ammo around that had PTEN explosive in the bullets. You could not tell the diff between the pten ammo and regular steel core stuff. That is until the projectile hit a steel plate, went bang and there was a little cloud of smoke. Very cool..... But yeah they stopped importing it long ago.


R
 
I had a batch of old British surplus .303 (click.........bang) and some just (click). The duds I disassembled and that is what I found: a card wad over spaghetti stings.

Why is cordite obsolete?
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Not only did cordite generate higher temperature and erode barrels, it did not stand up to long term storage as well as most nitrocellulose based powder.

Cordite contains nitrocellulose, 42% to 58% nitroglycerine, and vasoline, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordite) which would make it a double base (nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine) propellant. Americans prefer rifle powders that are single base (nitrocellulose) in short rod or ball form, easier to reload with.

I think the "smell of Cordite" meme started with British mystery novelists, and was copied by other crime writers influenced by them.
 
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First, interesting thread, thanks for posting it.

Second, a good way to deactivate primers after pulling the bullet and dumping the powder is to squirt some WD40 down in the case and let it sit awhile.
 
As I was looking at the picture of the cordite, my wife walked over and asked why there was spaghetti next to the bullets :D

Thanks for the post, very cool!
 
I have 1960's Iraqi ball that is loaded with Cordite.

Awful stuff, the cordite and the Iraqi ball.
 
I owned an Enfield jungle carbine for a while. I found several boxes of British military 303 ammo at a gun show which I found to be loaded with cordite. It was dated in the '40's.
That ammo shot very well in my Enfield. Good accuracy at 100 yards.
 
I think the "smell of Cordite" meme started with British mystery novelists, and was copied by other crime writers influenced by them.
Click to expand...

I don't care for the smell of burning cordite. I much prefer the smell of our modern smokeless powders.

The novels are another matter.
 
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