Looking for help identifying some .303 Mk VIIz ammo.

Lady Luck smiled briefly upon me today, as an older acquaintance of mine who was cleaning up his basement chanced upon 5 sealed cardboard boxes of .303 ammunition, which he gave to me (he also gave me an all-matching 1945 dated LB No. 4 Mk1* to go with the ammo...but I'm not going to gloat about that).

Anyhow - back to the ammunition question - I am photographically challenged, but the makings on the boxes are as follows:

L-1206C-D.I.
48
Cartridges
.303 Inch
D.I. Mk VIIz
I.G. Canada

The boxes do not have a date or a "C Broad Arrow" marked on them.

Given that the boxes are all sealed, I'm not immediately keen to open one up to look at the headstamps, so I'm trying to figure out what's in there and where it's from just by the box markings. A quick internet search didn't turn up anything on "I.G. Canada" that would relate to ammunition. I am similarly unclear about what the "D.I." might mean...."Dominion Industries" in Verdun, Quebec ? Or does it signify drill rounds?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated...

D. I. does indeed refer to Dominion of Canada. Without looking at a head stamp I doubt one can tell when it was made. If I remember right and I'm saying IF, the ammo should be boxer primed.

Sorry, but that is wrong. The "D I" is Defence Industries, part of Canadian Industries Ltd. "I.G.Canada" is inspector General.

This is Ball Mark VIIz ammunition loaded with nitrocelluose propellant. and the headstamp will almost certainly be either "DI yy .303 VIIZ" or "19yy DI Z" where yy are the last two digits of the year. There should be a rubber stamp with the date of work somewhere on the box.

This is excellent ammo with Boxer primers and is non corrosive.

Regards
TonyE

Great info - thank you very much!

New guy here, just joined last week. Great forum!

I have a single 48rd box labeled exactly as you describe. Got it somewhere, sometime in the 1980's. Don't recall if it was sealed or open, but it is open now! Shot some of it up before deciding to save the rest and glad I did.

Mine are 1944, boxer primed, very reloadable. If you look closely at my 'open box' photo, you'll see that some of them are actually reloads...
Attachment 49590
Attachment 49588
Attachment 49589

I've been using the headstamp reference site below for old .303 ammo. Under the 'D' section, there is a photo of exactly the same headstamp that we discussed in this thread last year. It appears to say that it is from India, not Canada. Am I misunderstanding the site?

Headstamps of the .303 British Calibre Service Ammunition Round

I think the headstamp they use for illustration is Defence Industries.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WW2Buff

I've been using the headstamp reference site below for old .303 ammo. Under the 'D' section, there is a photo of exactly the same headstamp that we discussed in this thread last year. It appears to say that it is from India, not Canada. Am I misunderstanding the site?

Headstamps of the .303 British Calibre Service Ammunition Round

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You are correct !.............
D|, DF, N| or S|
Indian Government Ammunition Factory, Dum Dum, Calcutta, India. This factory manufactured cartridges for use by the British Army in India as well as the Indian Army. In 1918 this factory was capable of producing at the rate of about 10 million rounds per month. The example at right is of their manufacture. The far right image shows the unusual neck crimp consisting of three parts of the circumference of a circle and three small triangular indents. They produced .303 cartridges in... BCMK2, BCMK2 Special, BCMK6 and BCMK7, BSRP I.P. Mk 1*, BLK, Dummy Drill Mk 1. IP,and IP No 2 Mk 1...................
The 'Z' suffix Refers to graphite glazed nitro-cellulose propellant............

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 303tom

You are correct

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So Tom, are you trying to tell me the cartridge base above is an Indian cartridge and not Canadian Defence Industries? Are you quite sure? We've had cases of it here and actually found it in the field in Canadian training areas. The boxes above show the same headstamp and are marked Canada... We didn't import from India for our use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 303tom

The 'Z' suffix Refers to graphite glazed nitro-cellulose propellant............

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Right. But if you look at the types of .303 cartridges that plant is credited with producing you'll see Mk.VIIz isn't one of them. It appears some of the photos/descriptions are out of sequence.

This site supports the 'made in Canada' position. Looks like a small problem with the first website that I posted...

Headstamp Codes - International Ammunition Association

The h/s pictured in post #7 is 1,000,000% Canadian. A h/s with a large 'D' to the left of a small 'I' topped by a Broad-Arrow is for the Indian Dum-Dum Arsenal.

That is unclear in the site info...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

So Tom, are you trying to tell me the cartridge base above is an Indian cartridge and not Canadian Defence Industries? Are you quite sure? We've had cases of it here and actually found it in the field in Canadian training areas. The boxes above show the same headstamp and are marked Canada... We didn't import from India for our use.

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The D with the line (D\) or (D|) is Indian yes, the (DI) is Canadian & the Z Refers to graphite glazed nitro-cellulose propellant & the year of course 1944 !.............

Show us the "DI" you speak of Tom, because that headstamp above in post 7 is Canadian. The rest of these (10, 11, 12) are saying the same thing...further, show us the Indian headstamps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

Show us the "DI" you speak of Tom, because that headstamp above in post 7 is Canadian. The rest of these (10, 11, 12) are saying the same thing...further, show us the Indian headstamps.

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I am NOT going to argue about it, it is what it is, DI Z 1943 - Indian Government Ammunition Factory, Dum Dum, Calcutta, INDIA, .303 Headstamp Cartridge Identification, Headstamps of the .303 British Calibre Service Ammunition Round.................

Strange, you're the only one...and you can't prove it. The pic above is out of place. So that's settled then, and you won't argue any more.

To my knowledge, India has NEVER made .303 ammo with a boxer primer for service use.

The "standard" is the good old .250" diameter, copper-cupped MERCURIC Berdan primer. Long-lasting and "generally" reliable from the poles to the tropics.

Their 7.62 x 51 "NATO" ball uses the more familiar .217" diameter BRASS cupped BERDAN primer. This MAY have changed in the last decade or so.

There is a small production of "sporting ammo in India; not sure what sort of primer they use.

Additionally has anyone ever seen any of the Indian 5.56 x 45 ammo to check out the primer pockets.