Thread: Identify old 303B Military Rounds

Anyone know about these?
Headstamp
CAC
C VI
Projectile is silver round nose
Interested in approx age and purpose if not standard issue.
Projectile have a stamped crimp in neck at base of bullet, one on each side opposite each other. per photo






Cheers

The last photo was unintended, can't seem to delete it via edit

NZ made (Colonial Ammuniton Company) MK VI rounds loaded with cordite. Standard issue until replaced with the MkVII round. Roughly pre/early WWI era.

Google "Mkvi .303" will give you more detailed info on the round.

Found a few of the projectiles, as well as the MK VII projectiles at the back of the farm which was used as part of a WWI training camp.

Thanks team, appreciate it.

I do remember as a teen firing a ton of those heavy round nosed rounds out of dads' 'Three Oh'. Had phenomenal penetration through native timber. I for one would not be hiding behind a foot diameter tree from someone intending to do you harm with those. Straight through and most of the way through the next tree

215 grain round nose solid.This is the .303 ammo that the old time ivory hunters used for killing bull elephants. Arthur Neuman, WDM Bell et all.

Must have been effective, as there are no elephants left in the wild here anymore.

There you go. Don't know why the extra image appears..

Originally Posted by muzza

You have Gracias book too , huh? A great referance.

As a completely unrelated aside - this cartridge used to be the recommended cartridge for use when euthanising stranded whales , by the Dept of Conservation. Gave adequate penetration through several feet of whale blubber to reach vitals/.

Shhh, copyright infringement ha ha.
Yeah, I have all the books you can on CAC. Cost me a small fortune.
Barry is still alive I presume? I visited his workshop long long time ago back in my black powder days.

The bullets are still good, and I have a number of them. So will probably pull them and reuse. Anyone got a good load they like?

Ken Waters Pet Load for a 215gn Woodleigh was 46gn of RL19 - very accurate apparently.

Another forum guy gave me his load for the same bullet as 43.5 gn of 2209 doing 3100fps out of a Ruger No. 1. He told me "It had a fairly short barrel as the previous owner had put a suppressor on it. It is about mid range load on the ADI handloaders guide. I tried it at 300m with a 100m zero to see what it was like at longer ranges and I managed to get about 1.5 inch 3 shot group...albeit nearly 32 inches low at 300. ES on the speeds was from 2056-2083 FPS averaged 2072 FPS across 5 shots."

And one more, owned for 60 yrs one of the first lot I started my collection with

Jeeze that looks old,scarred and pretty brittle with age....

And the bullet looks pretty old too....

I have string tied pkts from 1919

Originally Posted by Peteforskeet

I have string tied pkts from 1919

Have just reloaded some 1917 dated CAC brass. After tumbling annealing and sizing it’s like brand new. ��

Originally Posted by omark

Have just reloaded some 1917 dated CAC brass. After tumbling annealing and sizing it’s like brand new. ��

Boxer primed?