WW1 Ground Dug 303 MkVII bullet base stamps.

[Roger Payne]

I've been filling the empty days over the last few months by (amongst other things) working my way through a large quantity of ground dug WW1 vintage 303 ammo that I seem to have accumulated over the years & 'pulling' it in a kinetic hammer.

It has always proved disappointing, though hardly surprising, that so many of the case necks split during this procedure. One thing that I noticed is that a lot of cases that would probably have survived intact split because the bullet jackets of many rounds had expanded due to the ingress of moisture causing corrosion of the lead & its expansion, eventually causing the cupro-nickel jacket to split. As the bullet comes out its greater diameter proves too much for the ability of the already embrittled case neck handle, & so the case gives way.

Where the bullets do come out intact many of them are in surprisingly good condition, the lead in some of them still looking bright & shiny like the day it left the factory.

We hear a lot about cartridge head stamps, but British & Dominion practice at this time was to stamp identifying initials (or some other marking) into the lead at the base of the bullet. That way the origin of every projectile was ascertainable. There were obviously many manufacturers of 303 ammo in both World Wars, & in an idle moment I lined up a few bullets to show a selection (by no means exhaustive) of bullet base stamps.

First photo:
Bullet with split jacket.
K - Kynoch, Birmingham.
GB over 7 - Greenwood & Batley, Yorkshire. Presumably the '7' relates to a specific inspector or production line??
Circle - This mark was used by the Royal Laboratories, Woolwich.

Second photo:
KN - Kings Norton, Birmingham.
B - Birmingham Metal & Munitions factory.
3 - Government Cartridge Factory No3.
RW - Rudge Whitworth Cycle & Motorcycle company, Birmingham/Coventry & ?Nottingham?
1 - Government Cartridge Factory No1.
S - No idea on this one........I must have discarded the cartridge case without 'clocking' the manufacturer!

All of this ammunition was recovered from the Somme, the Salient, or the Hindenburg Line areas of the Western Front.
The lined up dismantled rounds have all been inerted & cleaned electrolytically. They are still tarnished, but will polish with 'Brasso' or 'Duraglit' if desired! It's surprising how well some do clean up.

Anyway, another nerdy little niche of the 303 for you!

Information

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[Flying10uk]

I wonder if the lead that has corroded has impurities in it that has caused it to corrode more than the other examples? As I understand it lead that is mined out of the ground can have other metals in it.

Alternatively did the British army use both corrosive and non-corrosive propellents in their rifle ammunition during WW1?

[Surpmil]

You have the makings there of an interesting study of the metallurgy of WWI rifle ammo. All it needs is an xray spectrometer for the analysis!

Some of the stuff was rubbish and it would be interest to know which and when.

[Roger Payne]

Oddly enough, purely from dismantling hundreds (possibly into the thousands by now) of WW1 303 rounds I have got a definite view on who produced the better quality cartridge cases, & when. Kings Norton & Rudge Whitworth cases both seem to be particularly good quality, with a high survival rate when pulled. Cases made before 1917 also seem, as a generality, to be of better quality than those made in 1917/18, though there are obviously a number of factors that determine how well a recovered round stands up to cleaning & inerting.

Propellant was cordite MDT 5-2 in MkVII ammunition. Primers were Berdan & corrosive (on UK production ammo). The core of the bullets was 98% lead 2% antimony.

[Simon P]

Going back a few years there was an article by Pete Bloom (RIP) about bullets he had recovered from WW1 ammunition he found in France.

The salvaged bullets, after cleaning, (the goods ones) were used in one of the Historic Comps at Bisley

[Roger Payne]

Hi Simon. Yes, I think I still have Pete's article somewhere. In fact, fellow forummer Nigel & I were with him when he found the bullets - they came from a site in the Ypres Salient. It was a great loss to our sport/interest when Pete passed away. I will always owe him a huge debt of gratitude, as that visit was the first time I'd been over to the WW1 battlefields. I'd wanted to go for years, but was just a bit shy of taking the plunge. Pete's response was; 'I'm going over again soon, you can come with me!' And that started something that has become a major interest in my life, with multiple trips over there each year (Covid-19 not withstanding!).......

Wasn't the article entitled 'McBride's Magic Bullets', or something along those lines....?

[browningautorifle]

Anyway, another nerdy little niche of the 303 for you!

Without you doing this we wouldn't have this sort of information, so thanks for that.

[Simon P]

Wasn't the article entitled 'McBride's Magic Bullets', or something along those lines....?

I think it was.