Thread: Shaved cordite

Got a bit of a odd one here


So.

My understanding is cordite is like spaghetti sticks.

Which is what 303 mark 7 ball used for its powder.

I know of someone who is wanting to load Shaved cordite for 303 using a 174gr projectile.

Everything I've heard is saying this is not a wise move.

Could anyone shed light on this for me please ?

why on earth would you bother?????
trying to regulate how much you are using would be nightmare,and finding data even more so....case full of trailboss would be safer option...heck case full of black powder would PROBABLY be safer...and I wouldnt be in any hurry to try that either....

A full bundle out of a three foot shell certainly burns well, any more than that and the rubber dinghy gets melted as you run into the sea to escape the heat.


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He might be thinking that the powder in some of the last 303 batches is Cordite instead of gun powder.

I have never seen or heard of "flaked Cordite"

Originally Posted by Rock river arms hunter

Got a bit of a odd one here


So.

My understanding is cordite is like spaghetti sticks.

Which is what 303 mark 7 ball used for its powder.

I know of someone who is wanting to load Shaved cordite for 303 using a 174gr projectile.

Everything I've heard is saying this is not a wise move.

Could anyone shed light on this for me please ?

Sheesh I'd like to see how that turns out, from about 100 metres away....

Mk7z, wra mk 7 and fn bren ammo I have pulled all use a single base nitrocellulose granular powder not cordite. I wonder if this is what he is referring to.
Cordite was double based nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin and a small amount of Vaseline.
The largest sticks of cordite extruded for naval guns were 2 and 3 inches in diameter, these were also used as rocket motors for the 2 and 3 inch rockets for aircraft and land mattress weapons.

Ill have some of that 2" stuff please @Marty Henry

I just have concerns as to how safe it is is the main reason for the post.

It's kinda one those things where why on earth would you do that for all that fuss etc etc?

The cordite I’ve seen in big shells, was 3mm diameter strands, 600mm long bundled together in 100 diameter bundle


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Never heard of this either but if he wants to burn the throat out in his rifle then he should use cordite.

Not something however to muck around with.

You'd have to change ya name to 50mm then

I pulled some long pasta looking bits out of an old 303 cartridge about 40 years ago and gave it the match. Thought it might burn like a fuse but went WOOSH, lucky I knew enough then not to get too silly with it.

Originally Posted by 40mm

Ill have some of that 2" stuff please @Marty Henry

Originally Posted by Rock river arms hunter

Got a bit of a odd one here


So.

My understanding is cordite is like spaghetti sticks.

Which is what 303 mark 7 ball used for its powder.

I know of someone who is wanting to load Shaved cordite for 303 using a 174gr projectile.

Everything I've heard is saying this is not a wise move.

Could anyone shed light on this for me please ?

Clickbangs is a product of Cordite being slow to ignite, and having aged and gone a bit slower still to ignite. WHEN it ignites it is a HOT powder to the extent of severely eroding barrel throats. Nitrocellulose with quite high nitroglycerin content, and a bit of vaseline phlegmatiser. Flaking Cordite sticks (see my avatar) so as to increase the Cordite's surface area (by a factor of 10x? 20x?? more??) sounds dangerous, as in exploding chamber dangerous.

If you must load 174grain bullets in .303 and you have Cordite on hand, why not just get some tweezers and load the Cordite sticks one by one? But use magnum primers.

Originally Posted by hamsav

I got a big jar full of it . I bought a heap of old ammo that turned out to have crook primers so I pulled the bullets and saved the cordite .

Giz....
Will you part with it or some of it?

And when I first read the title of this thread, I thought @Cordite was going to get a Brazilian...

Greetings all,
Assuming Shaved cordite means saved cordite using it is a very bad idea. The cordite is likely well over 60 years old and contains nitroglicerine not something to mess with. It is a highly erosive propellant which would be very hard on todays narrow land barrels. You will not be able to duplicate the standard charge which was loaded befroe the case was shaped. Cordite varied from batch to batch even when new. There is no handloading data. If it is chopped cordite that was used in some pistol cartridges it is even worse. Just don't even consider it.
Regards Grandpamac.