Odd .303 ammo I had

[geberl]

When i was a young man the neighbor gave me several boxes of .303 ammunition and told me it was expoding bullets and to be careful with it. I shot up most of it and never did see any of it explode but haven't been able to figure out what it was.

The bullet itself had cutouts in the jacket and you could see a pin like object in the center. I believe there were three or four of these circular cutouts in the jacket but don't exactly remember. The tip was painted if I remember correctly but don't recall now the color.

I had these given to me over 25 years ago and honestly don't recall them that vividly but they were unique as they have been the only ammunition I've ever seen with cutouts in the jacket of the bullets. I had a few hundred of these cartridges and didn't save any, anyone out there know what they were or how to get one. I wish I'd have saved one or two to put in my collection but was too young at the time to think that far ahead.

I do most certianly thank you for your time.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[gew8805]

Do you by any chance remember the headstamps?

[Dan M]

Does cartridge number 4 look familiar?



It is a .303" Incendiary B Mark Z (Smoke).

[jonnyc]

They might also have been Italian 7.7x56R Incendiary rounds.

[geberl]

Do not remember the headstamp but it was military dated in the 1950's if I remember correctly.

They do not not look like any of the ones in the photos, these cartridges had cutouts in the jacket, you could see through the bullet. There appeared to be a pin in the bullet between the tip and the base. The old timer told me they were designed so that when the tip collapsed the pin fired a primer that caused the bullet to explode. I honestly don't know just remember what he told me. I fired them all and didn't keep any of them, he supposedly got them while in Europe post Korean War from another soldier.

What does a 7.7x56R incendiary round look like?

I do thank you all for your input.

[Surpmil]

Look closely at No4. It does have "cut-outs" in the bullet jacket.

[Peter Laidler]

I had some 1939/40 .303" taken from the remains of a crashed plane, recovered near to the old RAF Station at Abingdon in the mid 80's. It was packed into belts of 4 ball, 1 tracer, 1 incendary, 1 AP and so on and on. It was all VERY clean as it'd been stashed in the boxes in the folded up wings. I fired a load of it off and it all sailed down the range but was quite erratic in flight. The tracer would only ignite part of the time and the AP would certainly penetrate the steel 'falling plates'...... occasionally! I pulled an incendary and got it burning on the bench and it seemed to burn for a while so I thought I'd blow it out! Mistake number 1 because it whooshed into life like a good 'un. Then I remembered a quote from my days as an apprentice.
'Armourers don't do ammo and Ammo Techs don't do guns'

Totally irrelevant of course but this stuff is still around and buried deep in the ground

[Terrylee]

How about this one? Four holes and copper liner. Italian incendiary

[geberl]

TerryLee,

That is the about the most similiar cartridge I've seen, might have been it as it has been a while but not sure if you can see daylight through the example you have. I thought mine had a painted tip but that or one of its cousins could be what I was given. So now my next question is are the things scarce? I would like to get one example similiar to what I had but haven't seen them.

[Terrylee]

Dear Geberl,

So far, its unfortunately the only one I've ever come across. I've also had it so long that I can't even remember where it came from!

Terry