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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

.303 base of bullet


auchonvillerssomme

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A while back TonyE told me that there were makers marks stamped on the base of .303's. At last I have found a decent one plus another variation which i havent seen before, the base is divided into sections.

Mick

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Looks like KN,

Kings Norton Metal Co I think

I have seen similar on 7.92 rounds and 8mm Steyr Mannlicher

What was the reasoning behind this marking?

Gaz

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Guest KevinEndon

Stands out a mile Garron the KN, shame I left my specs at Chavasse, I can't for the life of me see a K nor a N on either of the rounds.

Kevin

edit, I see it now, at first i thought it was just scoring,

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Its the first opportunity I've had to check a large number of unfired bullets (200+) that was the best marking.

Mick

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As Garron says, the KN is Kings Norton Metals Co. I have seen the other one before and it may be Royal Laboratory at Woolwich but that is not certain.

I have done a quick scan of some others, but they are very difficult to show up on a scanner. Also they are not oriented correctly, but here goes.

Top row, l.to r.

B - Birmingham Metals & Munitions Co.

G VII - Greenwood & Batley Mark VII

B - as above

Broad Arrow - Royal Laboratory

* - Royal Laboratory

O - Royal Laboratory

Bottom Row l. to r.

+ - Unknown

S?- if S then Indian Southern Circuit.

K - Kynoch

KN - Kings Norton

S - Indian, Southern Circuit

R - ROF Radway Green (WW2)

The reason that Royal Laboratory had several codes is to identify the different Cartridge Factories within the RL complex, e.g. CF2, CF 4, CF6 etc.

The purpose of the stamp was to enable any problems to be traced to the factory of origin. Components were moved between factories as they were needed and in the event of say a batch of ammo failing accuracy proof it enabled the originating factory to be identified.

Regards

TonyE

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I will clean up a few more.

But in the meantime heres another puzzle. What is the round 2nd from right next to the lebel

Mick

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I notice that the markings shown by TonyE are on the filling whereas the segmentation referred to by Mick are in the jacket. ( probably not the correct names but I think you will know what I mean). Could the segmentation be functional?

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That was the only one of its type i found.

Mick

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As you can see i had a lot of time on my hands that day.

Mick

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I will clean up a few more.

But in the meantime heres another puzzle. What is the round 2nd from right next to the lebel

Mick

Check it with a magnet Mick, it could be a Lebel AP.

As for the .303 with the markings on the envelope rather than on the core, it will not be functional, more likely a different method of closure. Interesting though.

Regards

TonyE

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Guest albrown

Amazing posts ,i never knew that the rounds were also marked untill now,think you may have got me into another area of ordnance collecting now.........

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