303 Cartridge Mechanical Pencil?

Bolivar

Bolivar

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
87   0   0
Location
Outside Barrie ON, Native to South Shore of NS
My father-in-law gave me this mechanical pencil some years ago. He said it was made by convalescing soldiers as an activity to give them something to do as they spent time in hospital after being wounded.

Barrie-20121102-00546.jpg


Barrie-20121102-00545.jpg


Has anybody seen something similar and/or can you confirm that is where it came from?
 
Was the contractor "B" the one who made the bad ammuntion that caused a lot of the problems with Ross Rifles? Seems to ring a bell.

I have a lighter made using a '30s dated French 13mm round. I'll take a photo.
 
As Wheaty says, although both Eley and Kynoch carried them in their catalogues at one time.

Yes, it was alleged that the cartridges made by Birmingham Metals and Munitions Co caused problems with the Ross, but of course if the Ross chambers had been the correct size in the first place the problems might have been far less.

Regards
TonyE
 
That bad ammunition also gave functionning problems in SMLEs, and 1914 Colt machineguns, in addition to the Rosses. The SMLE chamber drawings were revised.
 
tiriaq said:
Was the contractor "B" the one who made the bad ammuntion that caused a lot of the problems with Ross Rifles? Seems to ring a bell.

I have a lighter made using a '30s dated French 13mm round. I'll take a photo.
Click to expand...

Lots B 14 and B 15 were made by Birmingham Metals and Munitions Company. These two lots of .303 ammunition were condemned by the British Inspectors as Unserviceable, but were issued to the Canadian Troops in France. Canadian ammunition was made to tight tolerances, so it was scooped by the British for machine gun use. The jamming was then attributed to the mud and the design of the Ross Mark III rifle, but accounts of soldiers differ from that view.

It was later found that these British Cartridges had softer brass cases and larger shoulders than Canadian made ammunition.
.
 
I have seen similar items which definitely WERE "Trench Art", also letter-openers and such.

One such was a letter-opener with the bullet slit and a piece of sheet copper inserted and soldered in, filed into an ornate blade and decorated with punch marks and an engraved word ARRAS in large letters. We definitely know where that one was made!

Others: reversible bullets in .303 rounds with a steel straight-pen nib soldered into the open base of the bullet. It was better than NO pen but best as a souvenir. Letter-opener from a French 8mm case: BETHUNE on the brass blade made from a 75 casing. I have a 37mm trench gun round decorated with soldered-on .30-06 rounds and .45ACPs on top of my mantle right now: obviously American.

What I would really like to see is some of the things that Fritz made.
 
Here is the lighter.
004-12.jpg
003-14.jpg
005-11.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 003-14.jpg
    003-14.jpg
    30.3 KB · Views: 26
  • 004-12.jpg
    004-12.jpg
    33.2 KB · Views: 24
  • 005-11.jpg
    005-11.jpg
    33.5 KB · Views: 26
TonyE said:
As Wheaty says, although both Eley and Kynoch carried them in their catalogues at one time.

Yes, it was alleged that the cartridges made by Birmingham Metals and Munitions Co caused problems with the Ross, but of course if the Ross chambers had been the correct size in the first place the problems might have been far less.

Regards
TonyE
Click to expand...

I was with Herbie one time when he scooped about 5 or 6 at one place. They were turned in to the "olde Bill"as live or dud ammo. The smile was from ear to ear and the old bugger never even gave me one !!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom