Lewis Gun

[RCS]

Someone I.D. the cartridge in my quiz in the lower section so I can add another cartridge to the list of known Lewis m/g cartridges. It'sAttachment 58249 the 303 Lewis which used the standard 303 Mark 7 total length but a different profile. The idea was to rechamber the 303 cal Lewis machine guns to this cartridge to improve performance

[Colonel Enfield]

Do you have a reference for that? I've been studying British/Empire small arms for well over a decade and I've never heard that one before.

[RCS]

I have a reference from George A. Hoyem's "The History and Development of Small Arms Ammunition" page 166. Now, I do not know which volume the 303 Lewis is listed in as there are four volumes ?

All of the examples of the 303 Lewis machine gun cartridge that I have seen have the Royal Laboratories Woolwich headstamp (1918) but there could be others.

JonnyC said he was going to look for data on the bullet weight and velocity and post the data

[browningautorifle]

From what I've been able to find, they only made a run of 5000 rds? Is that right?

[303tom]

Someone I.D. the cartridge in my quiz in the lower section so I can add another cartridge to the list of known Lewis m/g cartridges. It'sAttachment 58249 the 303 Lewis which used the standard 303 Mark 7 total length but a different profile. The idea was to rechamber the 303 cal Lewis machine guns to this cartridge to improve performance

Yes the Japanese used their 7.7x58SR in the Lewis Gun & it worked !..............

[Badger]

Although not directly related, check out the new documentary posted in The Screening Room...

The Machine Gun and Skye's Band of Brothers (2014) - Full Length Documentary (1 hour)

Regards,
Doug

[emmagee1917]

Just to go out this holiday season and pick some nits :

Japan had 3 7.7 rounds used before and in WW2 . The 7.7x56 rimmed , the 7.7x58 semi-rimmed , and the 7.7x58 rimless. They were not interchangeable at all . The rimmed was a direct copy of the British .303 used at the time and used in the Lewis and Vickers copies they made . The semi-rimmed was a higher pressure round used in a few machine guns. The rimless is the common rifle ( and some machine guns ) round we are familiar with.
Chris

[Colonel Enfield]

Interesting. Like I said, I've never heard of it before and none of my reference texts, including some "primary sources" like the 1929 Textbook of Small Arms or the 1915 Treatise on Ammunition make reference to an experimental round for the Lewis Gun. I know the British were working on the .280 Enfield round when WWI inconveniently got in the way (the Pattern 1914 was originally designed for the round, as I understand it) so I'm not saying it didn't happen or anything, I'm just surprised I've never encountered a reference to it before.

[RCS]

Col Enfield, There were at of interesting cartridges before WW1 like the 280 Ross and 276 Enfield. I found a short list of pre and post WW1 cartridges around 303 cal with ref to both Fleming and Hoyem. Here is a short list:
303 Swift, 303 Adder, 303 Mauser (7,65mm), 303 Fraser, 303 Marksman, 303 Magnum, 303 Jeffery. 375/303 WR and 303 Enfield rimless (used to around 1930)

[Colonel Enfield]

I believe there was also a .303 Savage round too that had nothing to do with - and was in no way interchangeable with - the .303 British round, too. Used in one of the Savage lever action rifles (the Model 99, I think) and pretty much nothing else, as I understand it. Pretty sure it was produced from the mid-1890s until the 1930s or thereabouts.