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Remembered Today:

Ammunition box


jgreen

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Hello, can anyone tell me more about this box please? Could it be WW2?

It says 300 CART

.303 BALL

Mk7 BDR

Thank you.

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my interpretation of the label would be

300 cartridges (rounds)

.303 Ball (standard ammunition) Mk 7

in 50 round Bandoliers (BDR) - this last bit would be a guess!

The fact that it says Mk7 rather than MkVII would suggest to me that this would be late/post WWII as I believe the change to Arabic numerals from Roman came in 1944.

Chris

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Loads on the web in auctions some are complete with cartridges and include dates from 1944 to 1957. No broad arrow WD mark would suggest post WW1

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Agree with Chris, that BDR indicates the ammunition was packed in Bandoliers, as opposed to CTN, used when the ammunition was packed boxed in cartons.

LF

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Thank you for telling me this, I know nothing about this subject!! I looked on an auction site and there are a lot of metal ones but this is made of plywood.

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The bandoliers were contained in a rip top tin plate container in this box. Two of these plywood boxes then went in a steel outer box ( a H50 ) the ammunition was accessible without using implements to open the box.

Join

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my interpretation of the label would be

300 cartridges (rounds)

.303 Ball (standard ammunition) Mk 7

in 50 round Bandoliers (BDR) - this last bit would be a guess!

The fact that it says Mk7 rather than MkVII would suggest to me that this would be late/post WWII as I believe the change to Arabic numerals from Roman came in 1944.

Chris

I agree. The 303 I shot as a cadet in the 1960s came in boxes like this. You tore open a metal 'inside' lid at the top like a sardine tin and there were buff cotton bandoliers inside, each with 5 pockets with 2 5-round chargers. You had to set up the cartridge rims 3-down 2-up in the chargers if you wanted them to feed reliably. An all the 303s I've seen from early WW2 and before had the Mark No. in Roman.

Regards,

MikB

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Yes, is WW2 I have one exactly the same, but the lettering has been mostly scrubbed out.

Mike.

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Yes, is WW2 I have one exactly the same, but the lettering has been mostly scrubbed out.

Mike.

How do you know it's WW2? That type of packaging was used through WW2 up to the end of UK government .303 production in the early 1970's. My local surplus dealer (Williamsons of Oldham) had many thousands of them @ 20p each in the late 70's

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Radlad,

Have had this ammo. box since c 1953. Came from a huge dump of army wooden packaging covering several acres, which was being re-cycled for firewood. Would say hundreds of thousands of various ammo. boxes, grenade boxes, 12 to a box IIRC with the defuser in a leather loop on the underside of the lid, .303 rifle and Thompson sub-machine gun import and carrying cases, which definitely WW2, Sten gun boxes. You name it, it was there, we would scratch around on hot Sunday afternoons, finding WW2 gas masks, grenade defusers, cartridge cases and lots of unknown oddments, all now gone. So if not WW2, the .303 box would not be much later. Went back to the site, a few years ago all now cleared, but a gentle dig produced brass webbing buckles, and a few other curious bits....

Mike.

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Radlad,

Have had this ammo. box since c 1953. Came from a huge dump of army wooden packaging covering several acres, which was being re-cycled for firewood. Would say hundreds of thousands of various ammo. boxes, grenade boxes, 12 to a box IIRC with the defuser in a leather loop on the underside of the lid, .303 rifle and Thompson sub-machine gun import and carrying cases, which definitely WW2, Sten gun boxes. You name it, it was there, we would scratch around on hot Sunday afternoons, finding WW2 gas masks, grenade defusers, cartridge cases and lots of unknown oddments, all now gone. So if not WW2, the .303 box would not be much later. Went back to the site, a few years ago all now cleared, but a gentle dig produced brass webbing buckles, and a few other curious bits....

Mike.

Lol, I think we had a similar childhood. There used to be many sites and dumps like that. Our favourites were a rag merchants yard for caps/uniforms and the local training area where sometimes unused munitions could still be found.

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  • 7 years later...

Bdr=bandoleer,   Chgr= charger,     Packingtypes bdr cloth carrier holding 50 rounds  in 10 chargers , 5 rounds to a charger, (or as they call them over the pond clips.)

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