From what was this bullet fired?

[Terrylee]

I picked up this bullet many years ago on an old shooting range while on an exercise with my commando in the Natal Midlands. At that time we were still equipped with the No.4. The range was used by both the military and the local target shooting club.

Both its appearance and weight strongly suggest that it is an older .303 Mk.VII. I have often wondered from what firearm it was shot and have periodically tried to find out. The only guess that I've had so far is a Lewis Gun. Can anybody on this forum provide any certainty?

The first two photos are of the bullet itself and the third shows it in comparison with a more recent Mk.VII picked up at the same time on the same range and two Boer War Mk.IIs found on a nearby battlefield - Lee Enfield and Lee Metford.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Lewis guns had conventional rifling. I'm sure of it. That's more like a Metford rifling.

[Simon]

Looks like it's been fired from a Whitworth Rifle.

[Peter Laidler]

Looks whitworth to me too!

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Five-sided Whitworth rifling!

At least the fouling can't hide in the corners!

Heckler and Koch did it all again in the fifties and sixties with their "polygonal" rifling.

Glocks have something similar, though you have to swap a "real" Glock barrel out for a "conventionally" rifled one if you want to hit anything with cast (non-jacketed) bullets.

With the advent of buttoning and hammer-forging, you can have any form of rifling you want, fairly quickly.

So, back to the bullet in question; was the 'Whitworth" company busy making VERY custom Lee Enfields, or did other adventurous makers offer this sort of thing?

[Terrylee]

Well, the mystery remains. However, it would seem that South Africa may have developed a Lee Whitworth!

We did start manufacturing .303 barrels during the Second World War and perhaps this bullet could have been fired from an early prototype. We should remember one of our sayings: " 'N Boer maak 'n plan"...........

If so, the idea was obviously soon dropped since I have never seen a South African barrel with such rifling or found reference to it in the Military Archives. Perhaps the recoil was was found to be excessive?

[Peter Laidler]

We, and I'm sure Simon agrees, that it LOOKS like whitworth poly rifling. Not saying that it's from a whitworth rifle. Clever that those sprinboks are, they weren't that clever then!

[browningautorifle]

I should think it could have been fired at practically any time from anything. Yes, Whitworth, but the only criteria would be .303. Doesn't have to be a military pattern at all I should think.

[Surpmil]

I recently sold a pair of barrels from a percussion express rifle built in Chicago, probably in the 1860s or 70s with Whitworth form rifling of about .45" bore. The barrels might well have been made in the UK, but the smith was a British immigrant to the USA, so was probably keeping in touch with home developments. Weighed over 9lbs those barrels.

But that bullet appears to be jacketed AND the lands are quite distinctly projecting into the bore in very different way from a typical Whitworth, which could be said to have no lands in the modern sense of the word. It really looks like Enfield form rifling lands in a Whitworth sort of bore, which is a pretty odd combination.

Would be interesting to know more about this.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Five sided Metford?