Colours
bullet tip colour
Blue: on some marks of incendiary ammunition
White: Air to air short range day tracer
Grey: Air to Air short range night tracer
Black: Observation bullet
Ordnance board Proceedings of 1941 show that day and night short range tracers were identified by an orange/yellow tip but this seems to have been little used if at all.
Primer annulus colour code
1914-18
Black; Ball MkVII and 7z(changed to purple, 3rd Sept 1918
Blue; Incendiary
orange: Explosive
Green; armour piercing
red; Tracer
Finaly near the end of the .303, the primer annulus was
Purple: Ball or practice ball
Blue: Incendiary
Black; observing
Black: Explosive
Green: Armour piercing
Red: Tracer
Yellow: Proof
Yellow: Standard
Now if you really want to have fun, Cartridges were not always loaded where the cases were made. If you cut the case open a little above the rim, you can see a code between the flash holes.
^ Royal laboratory Woolwich (a broad arrow)
B, ROF Blackpoole
H, ROF Hirwuan
R, ROF Radway Green
S, ROF Spennymoor
C, Crompton Parkinson, Doncaster
P, Crompton Parkinson, Guisley
L, Greenwood and Batley
K, ICI Ltd. Witton
2, ICI Ltd. Standish
4, ICI Ltd. Yealing
5, ICI Ltd. Kidderminster
Last of all, colouration of the cartridge case
Coloured bands painted on the case walls were employed in two instances, one being with the reduced chargerMk7z ball cartridge approved for training purposes in 1918, the other with the practice tracer PG Mark 1 of 1945. In both instances the band was blue in colour.
High pressure proof cartridges in .303 calibre were "stained red" from 1905, this in practice meaning that thecases were copper washed. This practice remained standard from that date onwards.
Drill cartridges had a need to be easily distinguished from ball, as did inspectors dummies. Identification with most of the drill series and all of the inspectors dummy series included either tinning or chrome plating of the cartridge case ir the making the case from a white metal or steel. Drill cartridges, in addition often had the empty cap chamber and any flutes painted red.
Blackening, partial or complete, of the cartridge case was used in a number of different categories of .303 inch cartridge.
1. short range practice ball (upper portion of case blackened)
2. Grenade cartridges (most having cases either fully or half blackened or cases with black rings.
3. Blank, cordite, Mk6. this cartriudge had the case and mock bullet blackened
4. some match ammunition
5. It is believed that some ammunition required for Naval boat service had the cases blackened, presumably to defeat salt water corrosion
