Cleaning up Somme ground-dug 303 Great War SAA.

[Roger Payne]

As a child my first collecting of anything Enfield related was limited to the occasional bayonet & picking up cartridges on the beach/in the sand dunes on old wartime ranges & training areas. As time went on I started buying, selling, collecting & working on the rifles themselves, & visiting battlefield sites on the European mainland as well as visiting training areas. I still retain a deep interest in battlefield artifacts & in wandering about the Somme in particular, finding the sites of old trenches & dugouts. I've been lucky enough in more recent years to help several of the battlefield archaeological groups that explore the old Western Front. As a consequence I seem to have amassed a bit of a collection of 303 rounds & find it interesting & satisfying cleaning them up to something like they used to look one hundred years ago. I know it is a little off the beaten track, but is Enfield related & I thought one or two people might be interested to see what you can do with some relic cartridges & a car battery charger!

Twenty-five or more years ago, another forummer here told me about the electrolytic method of cleaning metal finds without damaging them. It has been mentioned here on the forum before, & is most useful. It removes corrosion without removing any of the native metal, & involves no abrasives nor acids. I use an everyday car battery charger set to trickle charge, & have fashioned some bent wire to attach to crocodile clips so that I can hold several cartridges at a time in the bucket of cleaning electrolyte. The items to be cleaned act as the negative electrode & suffer no damage, but all rust (from corroded chargers) is reduced to powder which either falls off or can be scraped off with a finger nail! However, the positive electrode is sacrificial, getting gradually & progressively more corroded as the system is running. You can see what remains of a saw after two or three days' immersion in the system. Periodically, the anode should be scraped clean of corrosion to ensure efficient conduction of electricity. The bucket contains just tap water with a sprinkle of washing soda to ensure conductivity. Caustic soda (NaOH) can also be used, but if you try it wear gloves if putting your hand into the mix!

Before the rounds are immersed for cleaning they are all inerted in a kinetic bullet puller. Unfortunately, due to the prolonged time they have spent in the ground the brass has become brittle, & there is at least a 50% loss rate, usually due to neck splits, when inerting. Sometimes, due to oxidation of the lead at the base of the bullet jacket, the lead oxide expands & splits the cupro-nickel jacket, further increasing the likelihood of case neck splits as the bullet comes out. Even so, I have quite a few that have cleaned up nicely. After the cleaning procedure they are left looking clean but dull, though could be polished up if desired. I've shown a few views of rounds before cleaning, of split cases & jackets, & the finished result when all goes right!

They don't have any great monetary value, but it's enjoyable doing it.

Hope forummers might find it of some interest, & a bit different.....

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[browningautorifle]

Something I have an insatiable appetite for myself. If only I was within range of such old battlefields... I have a German Pioneer axe head that was kicked out of the dirt on the Some, probably dropped in the later stages of the war. I should sort out this electrolysis myself...

[husk]

Very cool historical stuff!

[30Three]

I have a few collectible rounds of .303; a couple of 1916 rounds from WW1 in good condition for the age; these are not battlefield pick ups.
From WWII I have several clips and a bandolier from a parachutage to the local French Resistance; these came with my resistance No4 rifle. The cotton bandolier still has some wheat or oat grains in it from when they were stashed.
Obviously they'll never be fired; but a few of these rounds show signs of corrosion so I may have to de-activate them.
Attachment 112348

[blurrededge]

That's an interesting cleaning tip Roger. I have a few fired .303 cases I pulled from rabbit excavations years ago, atop the cliffs of Ventnor Isle of Wight, close by the radar site that took a pummeling from Stukas in 1940. They're pretty fragile but I'll give your method a go, I know one of them was from a bren due to the distinctive oblong firing pin mark in the primer, might get some dates etc.

[Roger Payne]

I'd encourage anyone with fragile stuff that needs a clean to give it a go. It is simplicity itself to set up. You do need to be patient though, as it takes some hours to work. I tend to leave the charger on trickle all day or over night. It's also necessary to clean all the corroded clag off the anode periodically or the muck tends to impair the conduction of electricity & so the electrolytic reaction. A ready supply of clean scrap steel is also a must if you're going to do this to any extent. Luckily my pal is a builder & gives me his old saws once they've lost their edge......

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Outstanding results !

[usabaker]

I surprized that haven't passed a law making it illegal to dig-up and possess that. Their logic being, you might be able to use it in a rifle you can own.

[BurtonP]

I've used electrolysis on a few firearms including a Bren. It needed a very large tube! It worked very well for me.

[mrclark303]

I surprized that haven't passed a law making it illegal to dig-up and possess that. Their logic being, you might be able to use it in a rifle you can own.

It's generally covered under UK firearms legislation regarding live ammunition, it's a case of application of common sense really.