Fired Spitfire .303 Shell

Andy

Our previous communications refer.

Two fired cases picked up in the street during the Battle of Britain, one a .303 and the other a 7.92mm, are on their way to you by post.

Pleased to be of service.

Thanks everyone for the help thus far and clarification of technical terms! Hopefully I’ll find someone who wants to part company with a definite spitfire cartridge…..N.Wotherspoon; I guess you want to keep your example?!?

I’ve got loads from a Biggin Hill crash site – not fired in the conventional sense but certainly ‘gone off’ post crash.

PM me an address and I’ll stick one in the post if that helps your quest.

I can tell you where to find vast amounts of fired .303 bullets:

Beach on the N.E. corner of Whale Island/HMS Excellent in Pompey. No idea why they are there, but when I was a kid & my dad was a CPO Gunnery Instructor there I used to pick up HUNDREDS of them on a Saturday/Sunday morning. Place is probably still littered with them.

Other beaches on the island may also be littered with them, but I never checked elsewhere because it would have taken me months of weekends to pick up just the ones on that corner.

Access may be a bit tricky owing to the place apparently now being populated by RM’s…

I can just about remember going on to the cliff tops in South Wales (near Castle Martin) and picking up canon shell cases, where they used to straff the old tanks. The ones they told people not to pick up 🙂
That must have been over 45yrs ago 😮

How confusing – but far more likely.

Thanks.

Moggy

Thanks

The top one was manufactured in India (Dum Dum India, Z = Nitrocellulose powder)

Moggy

I think that is actually Defense Industries in Canada.

I can tell you where to find vast amounts of fired .303 bullets:

Beach on the N.E. corner of Whale Island/HMS Excellent in Pompey. No idea why they are there, but when I was a kid & my dad was a CPO Gunnery Instructor there I used to pick up HUNDREDS of them on a Saturday/Sunday morning. Place is probably still littered with them.

Other beaches on the island may also be littered with them, but I never checked elsewhere because it would have taken me months of weekends to pick up just the ones on that corner.

Access may be a bit tricky owing to the place apparently now being populated by RM’s…

Alan

As I said above, I have recovered very many of these over many years! Many associated with wrecks. Many not.
!

I wasn’t questioning your expertise on the subject Andy 😉

Thanks for the IDs Moggy

I also have the fuse head from a WWI AA shell, but that’s another story. 🙂

Alan

As I said above, I have recovered very many of these over many years! Many associated with wrecks. Many not.
!

I wasn’t questioning your expertise on the subject Andy 😉

Thanks for the IDs Moggy

I also have the fuse head from a WWI AA shell, but that’s another story. 🙂

True, but the primer will not show the impression of the firing pin.

Very easy to tell the difference.

Moggy

True, but the primer will not show the impression of the firing pin.

Very easy to tell the difference.

Moggy

Some will be discharged at a crash site if there was a fire.

Some will be discharged at a crash site if there was a fire.

I know what you mean, but these are pretty solid.

Alan

As I said above, I have recovered very many of these over many years! Many associated with wrecks. Many not.

Deeply buried (often wreck related cases) are often still shiny brass. Nearer the surface, and where one might expect to find fired examples, the corrosion pattern is typical; the tops become friable and cracked, often cracking off at a point below the neck or further down the case. They tend to crack and shatter along jagged lines. Just as per your examples.

I realise your broken cases look ‘odd’, but I have found many more of these than I have had hot dinners. And they all have the same corrosion damage and break patterns. As did the one I found quite recently in my garden. Often, if they are starting to ‘go’ further up the case, they will break and shatter quite easily between thumb and forefinger under relatively minor pressure.

Note to self; must get out more and find something more interesting to study!

I know what you mean, but these are pretty solid.

Alan

As I said above, I have recovered very many of these over many years! Many associated with wrecks. Many not.

Deeply buried (often wreck related cases) are often still shiny brass. Nearer the surface, and where one might expect to find fired examples, the corrosion pattern is typical; the tops become friable and cracked, often cracking off at a point below the neck or further down the case. They tend to crack and shatter along jagged lines. Just as per your examples.

I realise your broken cases look ‘odd’, but I have found many more of these than I have had hot dinners. And they all have the same corrosion damage and break patterns. As did the one I found quite recently in my garden. Often, if they are starting to ‘go’ further up the case, they will break and shatter quite easily between thumb and forefinger under relatively minor pressure.

Note to self; must get out more and find something more interesting to study!

Thanks

The top one was manufactured in India (Dum Dum India, Z = Nitrocellulose powder)

The lower one is a Woolwich Arsenal manufactured 174-grain load.

Both have been fired.

Moggy

Thanks

The top one was manufactured in India (Dum Dum India, Z = Nitrocellulose powder)

The lower one is a Woolwich Arsenal manufactured 174-grain load.

Both have been fired.

Moggy

I agree with the opinion that it’s corrosion. Try squeezing one between your fingers; it’ll crumble like chocolate!

I know what you mean, but these are pretty solid.

I agree with the opinion that it’s corrosion. Try squeezing one between your fingers; it’ll crumble like chocolate!

I know what you mean, but these are pretty solid.

Not sure about the breaks being due to corrosion though. They all seem to have broken in the same place, and with a similar pattern.

I agree with the opinion that it’s corrosion. Try squeezing one between your fingers; it’ll crumble like chocolate!

Not sure about the breaks being due to corrosion though. They all seem to have broken in the same place, and with a similar pattern.

I agree with the opinion that it’s corrosion. Try squeezing one between your fingers; it’ll crumble like chocolate!