warning about Browning machine gun ammuniton

[bill smith]

i saw a crate of ammunition the other day and it had a strange warning on it. i hope someone here can help me out. the warning is as follows...."South African ammunition for army use only. Not to be used in Browning Machine guns."

i know that there is some concern by some shooters that ammunition suitable for Vickers, or other, machine guns is not safe to shoot in a standard infantry rifle. apparently this concern is not valid for use in a P-14 rifle. that's my understanding.

my question is....apart from the concern that some infantryman might grab the wrong crate of ammunition and mistakenly use it in his infantry rifle, why is this ammunition singling out the Browning machine gun and ignoring all others. i appreciate comments. thanks.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

It might be easier if you knew EXACTLY what the type of ammo was. There's ammo for the Barret that isn't for the HMG. If you shoot standard .50 ball in the Barret it shoots off POA.

[bill smith]

sorry...the ammo is 303 British. the crate doesn't call out the load except to say that it is on a Vickers machine gun belt. i think that makes it MkVIII. does that help any? thanks for your reply.

[bill smith]

Jim....i'm sorry. my mistake. the crate says Mk7.

i hope these links work...

https://p1.gunbroker.com/pics/894332...x663509174.jpg

https://p1.gunbroker.com/pics/894332...x599718519.jpg

[rcathey]

Did they make Brownings in 303?

If the South African army only had 30-06 Brownings, it would make sense why they’d want to make sure you didn’t run 303 through it!

[browningautorifle]

Brownings in 303

Yes, Inglis made .303 Brownings for things like the aircraft. If you look at commonwealth aircraft of WW2 you'll find them almost all using Browning .303 guns at the beginning of the war. Developments required more power as time went and the .50 and 20mm were installed in lots. The .303 gun was a very high speed gun, I had a chance to fire one back in about '95 and enjoyed it immensely...

In answer to the OPs question, yes there was ammo specifically made for the .303 guns. I just had a box or two go past me here matter of fact. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15652440

[Daan Kemp]

South African 303 Brownings were used in the gunships until replaced by 20mm. All the other Brownings were armoured vehicle and 7,62x51. Heard about .30 Brownings but never saw one.

Vickers used to use cloth belts, which wouldn't work well in Brownings. Possibly why the warning.

[Gil Boyd]

Ferrets...we had the M1919 .30 Brownings in NI

[Daan Kemp]

Brand new Ferret.

[Gil Boyd]

We like to please