Kynoch 303 british surplus

[Eagleotto]

Has anyone had a problem with 303 british milsurp, especially Kynoch, Keyholing? EVERY shot produced a keyhole. I have slugged my barrel, but havnt had a chance to get an accurate reading on the diameter because of the 5 grooves.

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[Eagleotto]

This is the picture right side up.

[bigstick61]

Sounds more like something that has to do with your bore than your ammo, unless the ammo you are shooting is undersized. I have only shot a small amount of Kynoch ammo, but I never had keyholes and I have not had any with any other .303 milsurp ammo.

[smellie]

It is quite easy to get keyholes with ammunition which is too light a load; there is enough pressure to spit the bullet out, but not enough to give it the velocity, and thus the spin, it needs for stabilisation.

As to ammunition manufactured by the George Kynoch company, I have always found their ammo to be of the highest quality. I have shot a bit of it over the years (it was SUPER expensive here when we could still get it) and have never had a problem.

What I think is happening here is an old batch of ammo in which the primers have got dodgy through poor storage. Ammunition loaded for the Army was loaded with a quarter-inch primer in which the actual priming compound was a mixture of fulminate of mercury and potassium chlorate. YES: horrible thing, it was actually MERCURIC AND CORROSIVE at one and the same time.

It wasn't stupidity that led the Brits to do such a thing. Rather, it was the fact that they had to be able to make ammunition in England which they KNEW would work anywhere in the world. And this is where it gets to be fun. Fulminate of mercury primers were known, in the old days, to start going bad after 2 years but, if they were still good, they would give good, hot ignition. Chlorate primers were not as good for lighting up the Cordite, but they would work in most weather conditions and they were relatively stable.

I have no idea where you might be, friend, apart from the clue offered by the US quarter in your photo and even this could be a false clue, so to speak: I am looking at a Spade Guinea right now and I am not in England, nor am I in the 18th Century! One thing, it might be useful to know the conditions in which you were shooting. Even more important, it would be far MORE useful to know the date of this ammo.... and how it has been stores since Year One, so to speak.

I think what you have is dodgy primers. The Fulminate has degraded completely and you are relying on the Chlorate to ignite the stuff..... and it is entirely possible that it has been degraded by the decomposition of the Fulminate.

On the other hand, there could be another problem. I have seen this come about with a lot of GB (Greenwood and Bately) 1955 ammo which was sold around here. It was known to be so awful that bandoleers of it were given away at shoots as door-prizes. I noticed light strikes on the primers of rounds which had shot poorly (this was in cold weather) and tried to say something, but nobody wanted to listen. Took a bunch home and shot it through a rifle which I KNEW had a good, hard strike.... and all the problems disappeared. Your problem MIGHT be in the ammunition, friend, but I would take a really good look at the RIFLE you were shooting this stuff in. These old primers tended to last pretty well, but they DID need a good, solid smack to set them off.

Check that out and get back to me here.

We'll solve this somehow. Kynoch is usually VERY good stuff.

[enfield303t]

Have never had any problem shooting surplus .303 ammo in any Lee Enfield I own and if things "seemed/felt" ok when you fired them then I would have to think it must be a barrel problem. We did encounter this problem with 112 gr .308 bullets as they would not stabilize in a 1/12 twist barrel but fired in a 1/9 military gun worked perfectly. The surplus bullets you are shooting are far heavier than 112gr so light bullets are not the problem. I think smellie might have hit on the problem ie. poor ignition. Another thing, what distance were the targets? Please let us know the end result when you figure it out.

[Terry N.]

I bought some '40s-'50s vintage UK milsurp ammo from Sportsman's Guide several years ago; it was real crap, badly discolored, with many 'click---bang' rounds in it. Some of it was Kynoch ammo, but I can't recall the year. I had discovered several oblong holes through the target the one time I took this crap to the range with one of my No. 4 Mk 2 Lee Enfields, but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

Anyway, I decided the best use of this stuff was to pull it down for components, and then reuse the bullets. I was having great difficulty getting adequate neck tension to hold the Kynoch bullets in place, so I miked one: .306". Thinking that I'd obviously misread the mike, I picked up another, then another. They all miked .306"! Do you suppose it was those grossly undersized bullets causing this crap ammo to keyhole? I dunno; I scrapped the undersized bullets, and shot the rest; burned the cordite, and recycled the brass. Oh, and never, ever did business with Sportsman's Guide again!

[Parashooter]

"K50 7" (Kynoch 1950, Mk.7). Bullet major diameter is .3105" beneath sealant, consistent from base to cannelure.

[spinecracker]

I have been fortunate to have 5000 rounds of 1960's Kynoch that unfortunately, for various reasons, I have had to sell off (oh, my poor dwindling stash!!). I did shoot about 200 rounds of this ammo at ranges from 25 yards to 300 yards in temperatures ranging from 25 F to 90 F, and did not note keyholing, misfires or any other problems. I wish I could have kept the ammo lol.

[daengmei]

I bought some of the SOG listed ammo recently and have yet to shoot it. Would slow firing this cordite ammo do anything to limit it's throat wearing properties? I have fired some RG cordite and havn't noticed any but I wouldn't really expect to see any throat wear until it's bad. Or is it just gonna happen reguardless of rate of fire?

[Eagleotto]

Hello guys, thanks for all of the ideas. I'm coming to the conclusion that it might be the bore, although, the problem that injure with that is it is a practically brand new '26-'29 barrel (can't remember which at this time but the rifle is dated 1917), and the headspace is very very tight. My friend tried a few of these rounds from his jungle carbine and got straight shooting. I am also having problems with Prvi Partizan shooting "patterns" at 50 yards too.
Also, those keyholes happened at roughly 20 - 25 yards. I plan on taking the rifle to a gunsmith and have him check out the bore.