.303 Cartridges

[malcolm45-120]

I have a bandolier marked EJ.D&S. Ltd 11.3.41 it contains two 5 round clips, one clip marked as follows:
K6 1942 VII which appear to have nickel coating on the head

The other clip is marked as follows:
WRA 1941.303 the primer pocket has 3 notches and the head is has a cooper jacket

would these rounds have a flat base or a boat tail

Information

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[Daan Kemp]

The cartridges looks like they have been cleaned assiduously.

All the military cartridges I have seen have been 173gr spitzer flat base copper jacket, or 215gr round nose flat base white metal/nickel jacket. Lead visible at the base. I doubt the Brits or Dominions made them in anything else than flat base, but as we know never say never when talking Enfields.

Any marks on the chargers [not clips]?

[Sunray]

The 'K6' is a 'K5'. Kynoch, Kidderminster, UK.
WRA is Winchester.
The primer pocket notches are crimps. The stuff was made for MG's as well as rifles.
Mk VII ammo was accepted in 1910 with Boxer or Berdan primer and a 174 grain flat based, spitzer, bullet. Mk VIII ammo had a BT as it was intended for use in Vickers MG's at long range.
Jackets are different primarily because there was more copper available, Stateside.

[CINDERS]

The story I have heard that the primers were crimped for air service only as the crimp stopped the possibility of the primer backing out or falling out after firing & jamming the M G in the wing or gunners mount do not know how true it is but stands to reason as a possibility. (See pic also has domed primer.)

WRA = Winchester Repeating Arms New Haven Conn. USA Known to have made Nitro-cellulose loaded 303 cartridges for 1914-1917 military contracts as.....B, and Mk VII.
During WWII....B, Mk VII Z (Contract Pattern), Scott mulltiball (duplex) and 180gn jacketed soft point sporting ammunition.

The K5 factory was set up as part of the 1939-1945 war emergency expansion plans. Known to have produced 303 cartridges in...Armour piercing, W MkI Ball, Cordite MkVII, Incendiary B Mk VII Z, Tracer, G Mk 2 and G MK 6.

The main Kynoch factory at Witton in Birmingham in England made apart from a plethora of other types of 303 ammunition for war service consumption but also produced the Mk 8Z, Mk 8Z with Aluminium case which as stated in post #3 was for the Vickers MG being a boat tail projectile for long range beaten zones.

[Mk VII]

Winchester either could not or would not make the British compound bullet and substituted a conventional lead core one, which was loaded 'out' to maintain the overall length.

[CINDERS]

Perhaps they saw it MK VII the British production projie as a type of "Dum Dum" the projectile becoming inherently unstable as it moved through the flesh and end over ending once the aluminium nose filler crushed and the heavier lead base took over apparently the wounds inflicted by this type of manufacture were quite horrific the Hague convention banned the use of hollow points perhaps the poms did some pig carcass testing to come up with this combo.

[Mk VII]

I think Winchester just couldn't be bothered to do it. They'd had a bad experience with British contracts in the last war, on which they had ended up actually losing money.