Educate me on 303 milsurp ammo

[Craig0ry]

I've been collecting ammo for quite a few years now, Milsurp .303 of course not a plentiful as it once was. I've only ever shot factory and my own reloaded ammo through my Enfield's.
Acquired some more surplus in an auction on Saturday.
2 boxes of DA mk VII from 1950
one box of DA mk VII from 45
and 2 boxes of DA mk VII from 43 which have had the bullets replaced with some lead tip and old Imperial copper tips.
All loaded with cordite of course.

Question is, I am at the stage of my collection where I have a good amount and wouldn't mind actually shooting some. I've heard many stories about hang fires in old milsurp .303 and was wondering if this ammo falls into that category?
Other amounts of ammo on hand are

DI Z 1944
RG 1953
DI Z VII 1942
R^L 1954
and quite a few other various handstamps in small amounts

For anyone who cares here is what I was able to get away with from the auction. And no the .303 was not a steal or a deal by any means, averaged almost $1.50 a round.

 

[LawrenceN]

The Radway-Green stuff will probably go "bang" but if my own experience is anything to go by, it'll all neck split. Not that it'll affect function at all, but the English brass seems to be poorer quality than the Canadian stuff. I don't recall the RL and if I fired any. I never had any problems with the DA or DI-Z ammo. I keep all my non reloadable brass and take it to a scrap dealer when I have enough to warrant the trip. I put the few dollars toward reloading supplies. BTW, the DI-Z stuff is reloadable. I have a good whack of '44 and '45 put by and it's always performed well for me.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

Canadian wartime .303 was loaded with ball (or small stick) powder, not cordite. The difference is cordite is long sticks the length of the case not little chopped bits.

Your mixed box of soft point etc should become primed donor cases. Don't try to fire it. Think of shooting someone else's handloads like drinking someone's homemade wine - risky.

In your situation with the other three boxes, you are sitting on $60 to $75 auction price worth of ammo each. They're not making that stuff any more, and the Canadian .303 is very good, especially compared to everything .303 we run across in Canada. That ribbon tied around means it was the last box packed into the crate, and the ribbon makes it easier to pull it out. That's all, nothing to do with shooting Tinkerbell fairies.

 

[fire@will]

Not sure if something I was told years ago is true or not - cordite burns much hotter than the smokless powders that are currently around and a steady diet of it could be detrimental to the bore. Someone will come on here soon - and say, that's true - or I'm talking out my hat.

 

[Craig0ry]

Not sure if something I was told years ago is true or not - cordite burns much hotter than the smokless powders that are currently around and a steady diet of it could be detrimental to the bore. Someone will come on here soon - and say, that's true - or I'm talking out my hat.

Thanks for the info, But all of this DA mkVII is definitely loaded with cordite I just pulled a bullet to confirm. The SP and CPE bullets also loaded with cordite so it was a bullet swap, I have not weighed them yet.

Another very odd and interesting thing, Going through my loose rounds last night I found 2 rounds that match up with some I just got from the auction loaded with the same CIL CPE bullet. Both cases DA 1943. This almost leads me to believe that there was a sizable outfit replacing bullets on surplus ammo back in the day for hunting needs, I would have acquired these round at least 10 year or more apart. In the photo the old round is on the left and the new on the right.

On one of the boxes of the "reloaded" rounds there was remanence of a yellow sticker, I cant quite make out but I think it said "Cartridges" and "bullet" but I could be wrong.

 

[cosmic]

It was fairly common to reload military rounds with hunting bullets back in the day. Bear in mind that ammo was expensive, so this was a practical alternative. I have some Cogswell and Harrison branded ammo that my father bought in the early 60's, a box of 10. One round was expended on sight in, and one round was used to harvest a deer.
BTW - Most of that ammo has corrosive primers, and should be treated accordingly.

 

[Craig0ry]

The Radway-Green stuff will probably go "bang" but if my own experience is anything to go by, it'll all neck split. Not that it'll affect function at all, but the English brass seems to be poorer quality than the Canadian stuff. I don't recall the RL and if I fired any. I never had any problems with the DA or DI-Z ammo. I keep all my non reloadable brass and take it to a scrap dealer when I have enough to warrant the trip. I put the few dollars toward reloading supplies. BTW, the DI-Z stuff is reloadable. I have a good whack of '44 and '45 put by and it's always performed well for me.

I've noticed this as well with older dominion/Imperial loads almost every neck split in a variety of rifles.

It was fairly common to reload military rounds with hunting bullets back in the day. Bear in mind that ammo was expensive, so this was a practical alternative. I have some Cogswell and Harrison branded ammo that my father bought in the early 60's, a box of 10. One round was expended on sight in, and one round was used to harvest a deer.
BTW - Most of that ammo has corrosive primers, and should be treated accordingly.

I may have that same box of ammo, I'll check when Iam home from work, but I have a little cardboard box that only has 10 rounds in that have had the bullets replaced. Cent recall the name on the box off the top of my head.

 

[oldstarfire]

Have to chuckle at $1.50
Just sold scrap cartridge brass for $2.65 per pound....

 

[Prewar]

I was bidding on that ammo in redcliff, my home town. Once past $1/round it’s too expensive for shooting steel at my property. And life’s too short to collect it and sit and stare at it without the fun “kaboom” part of firearms recreation

 

[Craig0ry]

I was bidding on that ammo in redcliff, my home town. Once past $1/round it’s too expensive for shooting steel at my property. And life’s too short to collect it and sit and stare at it without the fun “kaboom” part of firearms recreation

Yea when the first box went over $100 I didn't think I would get any of it, inset a mental limit of 85$ a box and got it for $75. Some of this will be shot as well, coming to a realization of my ammo collection.

 

[Craig0ry]

I was bidding on that ammo in redcliff, my home town. Once past $1/round it’s too expensive for shooting steel at my property. And life’s too short to collect it and sit and stare at it without the fun “kaboom” part of firearms recreation

Yea when the first box went over $100 I didn't think I would get any of it, inset a mental limit of 85$ a box and got it for $75. Some of this will be shot as well, coming to a realization of my ammo collection.

 

[smellie]

Your DIZ ammo is Canadian, made by Defence Industries. Bullets will be standard 174-grain, powder is Canadian-produced Nobel Neonite, very smiliar to IMR-4895. Primers are NONcorrosive and NONmercuric, primer pockets take standard Large Rifle Boxer primers and the brass is some of the best ever made.

Ammo with that big British-type copper primer has Berdan caps which are corrosive AND mercuric. Clean your rifle carefully after shooting. Charges are Cordite MD-T 5-2.

Yes the EARLY Cordite Mark I was quite famed for its erosive qualities, leading to the development of Enfield rifling as the manufacturing standard in 1896. The resulting Enfield-rifled barrels could go up to 20,000 rounds before being declared "hopeless" as far as accuracy was concerned. Still worried about barrel life, the British REPLACED Cordite Mark I with the far-less-erosive Cordite MD-T 5-2....... in 1910.

 

[Ganderite]

There are lots of people collecting milsurp rounds. All they need is one of a given type. I am guessing it might be worth $2,00 each at a gun show.

I would shoot the Mexican match ammo.

There are lots of types of 303 Brit.

Not my collection...

 

[Craig0ry]

There are lots of people collecting milsurp rounds. All they need is one of a given type. I am guessing it might be worth $2,00 each at a gun show.

I would shoot the Mexican match ammo.

There are lots of types of 303 Brit.

Not my collection...

I've seen this photo posted a few times here, that's alot of time right there, would be pretty amazing, and such neat history

 

[Craig0ry]

It was fairly common to reload military rounds with hunting bullets back in the day. Bear in mind that ammo was expensive, so this was a practical alternative. I have some Cogswell and Harrison branded ammo that my father bought in the early 60's, a box of 10. One round was expended on sight in, and one round was used to harvest a deer.
BTW - Most of that ammo has corrosive primers, and should be treated accordingly.

Looked in the stash today and sure enough, Same stuff. Only 8 rounds in the box.

Also cracked into one of the sealed box's Dated 1950, all the ammo inside is from 1945