Small Arms Ammunition WW1

[Blackblue]

I have couple of rounds of WW1 era small arms ammunition. There are two shells which are heavily corrorded and encased in part of a stripper clip. They appear to be .303 calibre. The projectiles are broken off and the propellant appears to consist of about fifty cylindrical rods (they look like thin electrical wire) with a very small hole in the centre of each. Anyone know exactly what I have here?

Rgds

Tim D

[Guest]

If they are .303, what you have there is cordite. The propellant used in this cartridge was cordite, not powder.

The hole in the centre is a common design feature in cordite, intended to ensure good burning characteristics.

As it is a low explosive, it will burn but will not explode unless the pressure is contained.

[Mark A]

Is that not cordite? Sort of looks like tightly wound spaghetti? It will still be highly flamable so take great care with them- or empty them out.

M

[Ozzie]

Tim,

How was your trip OS?

Kim

[gew98]

I have couple of rounds of WW1 era small arms ammunition.  There are two shells which are heavily corrorded and encased in part of a stripper clip.  They appear to be .303 calibre. The projectiles are broken off and the propellant appears to consist of about fifty cylindrical rods (they look like thin electrical wire) with a very small hole in the centre of each.  Anyone know exactly what I have here? 

Rgds

Tim D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes it's Cordite. The brits used cordite in their SAA ball in both world wars. It burns rather on the hot side and tended to give their service rifles a relatively short bore life. The 303 ammunition supplied by the US in the great war was loaded with a nitrocellulose based extruded powder. In WW2 the canada loaded their 303 with the nitrcellulose based powder. The brits I think as well did some too - for use in MG's to keep them slightly cooler in sustained fire modes and more bore life.That ammo is marked with a "Z" on the base of the case to note it is nitrocellulose based powder.

As a sidenote the brits found that rifles shot previously to any extent with cordite loaded ammo tended not to shoot well with the nitrocellulose loaded ammo as the throat/bore wear was more pronounced and the characteristics of the cordite loadings was as well a big contributor to that detail as well.

[Blackblue]

Cheers guys many thanks. Cordite it is then....actually found in the water at W Beach. The trip was pretty good Ozzie. Stayed at Eceabat and met up with Bill for a few beers. Did Anzac on Day 1 and then Helles and Suvla on Day 2. No where enough time...I would love to go back for a couple of weeks one day...but I was on a schedule as I had to be in Milan for a wedding. As Bill has advised Anzac is an absoloute disgrace and looks like and open cut mine. I found Helles, and especially Suvla far more moving because of this and the relative isolation there.

Rgds

Tim

[MikB]

It'll be Cordite, MDT, 5-2. MDT means Modified Deterred Tubular, ie with a lower nitroglycerine content than plain vanilla Cordite, coated with a surface deterrent to slow down the initial pressure pulse, and tubular so as, whilst the gas-evolving surface-area of the stick is reducing on the outside, it's increasing on the inside. This again flattens the pressure pulse and maintains it for longer - supposedly "progressive" burning, but in reality just less "degressive". 5 is the nominal outer diameter in 100ths of an inch, and 2 the inner.

Ballistically it's a superb propellant, only using 36-37 grains to do what it takes 40-41 grains of modern propellant to do. But it's flame temperature is severe on barrels, and best accuracy lasted less than 1000 rounds.

Regards,

MikB

[Blackblue]

Cheers Mik.

Rgds

Tim