Looking for help identifying some .303 Mk VIIz ammo.

[macdsc]

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...

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.

[Bruce McAskill]

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.

[TonyE]

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

[macdsc]

Great info - thank you very much!

[WW2Buff]

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

[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

[browningautorifle]

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

[jonnyc]

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.

[browningautorifle]

That is unclear in the site info...

[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.