Old Wooden Ammunition Box

[Surpmil]

This looks just like the boxes the two wounded guys are pulling around and distributing ammo from during the Battle of Roarke's Drift in the movie Zulu.

Bob

And that's because the basic design was little changed until the end of the .303 era. The tapered lid apparently designed with so steep a taper that it could be hammered out of position no matter how water-logged or covered in dirt and dust.

The one I have here is marked as to be turned in for re-use, but this collection of the brass keys I acquired somewhere suggests either the boxes were getting burned or some thrifty soul was collecting the keys before the boxes were sent back for reuse. [Upon checking I see this box is not so marked - must have been another I saw previously]

Also have an old box dated 1909 which is quite different and may be a Canadian pattern.