1941 .303 Ammo Question

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Originally Posted by TonyE

ROF Steeton & Thorpe Arch was mothballed at the end of WW2 and placed in reserve, but Thorpe Arch was re-activated in 1954 to rebuild stocks after the ammo demands of the Korean War. It made and loaded 9mm Mark 2z with the "TH" headstamp in 1955,56 and 57 until it finally closed in 1958.

One small addition to Mark VII's post about air service ammunition. In 1942 it was ordered that only the last two digits of the date would be headstamped, even though it was air servcie quality.

Regards
TonyE

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Tony,

Whats your understanding of UK's current ability to manufacture small arms ammunition? I.e. is there still native manufacture of all of the separate components (particularly propellants) or does Radway Green now only assemble ammo from imported components?

They buy the brass cups from South Africa because the brass foundry's been closed. They buy the powder from Muiden Chemie in the Netherlands, which BAe purchased for the purpose. The 9mm packaged as RG for the police was actually made for them by Federal. They now refuse to sell ammunition at all to anyone except governmental agencies. Don't know how long they'll make a living out of that.

I know our 7.65mm stuff is IMI headstamped.