What in the name of St. James taint is this?

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patriot1

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I was cleaning out my junk drawer and I happened upon 1 round of .303 British. So what am I gonna do with 1 round? So I take it apart, and this is what came out. WTH is this???

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Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance. These produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives. The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, but not so quickly as to routinely destroy the barrel of the gun
 
Cordite.

When I was a kid my dad would pull a bullet, dump the sticks, and then lay them out in the shape of my name on my hockey stick. It would burn my name on. Burns quite slowly.

The cordite is inserted in the case before the neck is formed.
 
It is the same smokless that they used in artillery rounds, the first smokless for the british commonwealth. It is not corrosive but erosive and burns hot, people claim it burns out the throat of rifles but if this were the case there would be no Lee Enfield with a usable throat.

What is the head stamp?
 
Fox said:
It is the same smokless that they used in artillery rounds, the first smokless for the british commonwealth. It is not corrosive but erosive and burns hot, people claim it burns out the throat of rifles but if this were the case there would be no Lee Enfield with a usable throat.

What is the head stamp?
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Here ya go!

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patriot1 said:
Here ya go!
Click to expand...

Here is a link to using the headstamp to figure out what the round is, this is not always right as I have some blanks that are headstamped armour piercing but it is a pretty good guide.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/303headstamps.html

Yours is a 1940 Dominion Arsenal made in Montreal, Mk 7, this was a flat base 174gr bullet, the Mk 8 had a boat tail bullet, since it is VII it is assumed cordite, the powder versions had a Z after the mark, in Canada at least, that is my understanding. The WWI rounds actually denote the month they were made as well, something really easy to get into collecting as it is still cheap to get singles of a bunch of the different ammo.
 
The Brits used Cordite in most everything. One reason it was useful was that it was not temperature sensitive. Ammunition could be loaded in the UK, and stored and used in India.
It is erosive compared with nitro-cellulose. In addition, the throat erosion characteristics are different.
A "Z" in the headstamp denoted nitrocellulose.
 
When I was a kid (still am) we would take a stick or two of cordite, wrap a small piece of tin foil around it, and light one end. It would shoot across the room. Not terribly thrilling outside but funny as hell when you were inebriated in a kitchen with a bunch of similar '70's meatheads. Stinks the house up, though.
 
sahara said:
When I was a kid (still am) we would take a stick or two of cordite, wrap a small piece of tin foil around it, and light one end. It would shoot across the room. Not terribly thrilling outside but funny as hell when you were inebriated in a kitchen with a bunch of similar '70's meatheads. Stinks the house up, though.
Click to expand...

Lol
 
There's tons of it on a beach outside of Halifax harbor where a steamer ran aground in 1942. The place is called Cordite Cove and you can literally pick up a handfull of it on a casual walk.
 
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