303 ammo

[scharfschutzen63]

How many rounds of ammo are in a British sealed tin of 303 ammo. I have one loose bandolier marked RG27-4-55-8 on strippers in bandoliers. I do not want to open it to find out. Is it good quality? Is it corrosive?

Information

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[browningautorifle]

That should be a bandoleer of 60 rds of Radway Green. Should all go bang. Is there no marking on the case at all?

[scharfschutzen63]

That should be a bandoleer of 60 rds of Radway Green, should be non corrosive since it's 1955. Should all go bang. Is there no marking on the case at all?

How many rounds are in the sealed tin? It has numbers pressed onto the tin that are the date of 1955.

[browningautorifle]

Depends on which "Can" you have, I've seen 288 and 300 rds. One case was bandoleers of 50 rds not 60... Perhaps you can tell us whether it's a top lid ammo box or a ham can with a key? Or exactly which...maybe a pic? Is this it? https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=30887

[scharfschutzen63]

It is in 50 round bandoliers in a sealed spam can.
When did the Brits stop making 303?
When did they stop making corrosive 303?

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The VAST bulk of British-made .303 ammo is corrosive.

If it has a big, (1/4 inch diameter), copper-coloured primer, it is corrosive and Mercuric primed.

In fact, as discussed hereabouts on a few previous occasions, regard ANY ammo from ANY source with a copper primer cup as Mercuric and almost certainly corrosive.

Most of the ammo loaded with these primers is filled with Cordite propellant, which is erosive because of the extremely high burning temperature. Some specialist aircraft gun ammo has granulated nitrocellulose propellant; this was intended to reduce muzzle flash; a useful improvement, especially for gunners in bombers fighting at night..

HOWEVER, if you are not engaged in heavy, continuous combat, you are unlikely to "burn-out' a good barrel in a lifetime of club shooting.

Fail to clean it after a range session with that "classic" ammo and you can wave good-bye to your nice shiny bore.

Basic rule: treat ALL "surplus ammo" of any calibre as corrosive and thoroughly clean your hardware immediately (or near to) after shooting and preferably a couple of days later as well.

This practice kept millions of Commonwealth-owned rifles and machine-guns in good shooting condition for decades.

[Strangely Brown]

When did the Brits stop making 303?

I believe Radway Green stopped producing it in 1973, there after for cadet use Greeek HXP was supplied. IIRC some of this came in sealed tins of 6 bandoleers = 300 rds.

[browningautorifle]

If it has a big, (1/4 inch diameter), copper-coloured primer, it is corrosive and Mercuric primed.

He refuses to open it so we'll never know...

[Bruce_in_Oz]

If the outer case / can / liner is all original and has not been over-painted, information about the origin of the ammo (manufacturer's code and date, type, etc.), should be stenciled there in white paint.

Any advances?

[Roger Payne]

I'd absolutely endorse what Bruce says. Following from the comments about primer diameter, if you look at US contract WW2 303 ammo, or rounds produced in Canada, they generally have noticeably smaller primers, & are boxer primed non-corrosive. I don't know what all Canadian WW2 303 ammo was loaded up with (suspect both Mk7 & 7z produced), but the US contract stuff is definitely loaded with cooler burning nitrocellulose powder. This is presumably why you see Winchester contract ammo in packets marked 'For RAF Synchronised guns', (or similar wording).