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    South African 7,7x56R (.303)

    I have a large amount of South African 7,7x56R (.303) that I have picked up. The ammo is bright and shiny, and is head stamped "A80 7.7R1M3Z". It is packed in 50 round boxes. I'm hoping that the experts can answer a few questions for me.
    1. Is it corrosive?
    2. Is it reloadable? (Boxer or Berdan primed?)
    3. Is it the aluminum core ammo that was out a few years ago?
    As always, thanks for all the help that I have gotten on this board.
    GB
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    1. No

    2. Berdan

    3. Bullets are lead core, and I believe without the alloy/paper tip filler of normal MkVII ball

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    From A79 up to A81 when military .303 / 7.7x56R ammunition production at the PMP factory was stopped it was loaded with normal Berdan primers and Nitro powder. The bullet was a 174gr FMJ with a lead core. The ammunition had a higher velocity than the original cordite loaded ammunition.
    Here in our part of the Dark Continent we value the A79 rounds very highly, and useally keep it for special compititions, as it was the most acurate batches produced.
    Unfortunatly our Goverment aaparently dumped around 15 million rounds in the sea off the Cape coast.
    You can use it in any Lee Enfield Rifleicon, but use it sparingly as there wont be any more.

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    We got a load of SA .303" ammunition in for a Vickers machine gun shoot and it gave a lot of stoppages. It was particularly greasy and soon gummed up the belt feed mechanism and occasionally the odd round would stick in the belt. Having said that, there won't be that many of you using it in Vickers MMG's. We solved the problem by swopping it for a load of old and tatty RL52 - which both guns thrived on

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    Thread Starter
    Thanks for the replies. I guess that I lucked out because I got a few thousand rounds. Any idea of the going rate for a 50 round box?

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