W.W.2 CANADIAN 303 AMMUNITION INFORMATION

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen.....

I have been shown a belt for a machine gun of some type using 303 ammunition.....

Each round is marked D A and a C with the Broad Arrow and the number 44, two have 1943........

Now I have seen WW2 rounds before but these have an interesting feature that I would be interested in finding out the meaning.....

The head (Bullet end) has been painted.....

Some are GREEN, some WHITE, some RED, some BLACK and some are just plain.....

Also the on the odd one the base has been painted with the matching colour.....

What do these colours mean?????

Mike

hopefully I am not way off base here, but to me the belt is made up.

It is my experience that....
Black is Armour penetrating
Green is Green Tracer
Red is Red Tracer, or if a light red, more like incendiary
White is illumination or phosphorous.

Again, this is what I have come to understand.

Mike,

I would agree with Cliff that the belt is made up as you wouldn't get such an odd mix of ammo types in one belt. That being said, without seeing the ammo, all may be original paints (trace, AP, etc) which would be interesting. Perhaps just added to the belt for a nice display.

Can you post a picture?

Cheers,

Geoff

I don't have the belt but if I remember they were a Red, Green, several regular, a Black, several regular a White and then it repeated itself...... There are about 200 rounds in the belt..... The store owner was wondering if it was legal to have them.....

Mike

Hi Mike,

I think tracer and incendiary rounds are illegal. However, I am not certain.

Geoff

Ammunition
A list of cartridges were declared to be prohibited weapons. The list
includes armour-piercing bullets, explosive and incendiary cartridges,
and exotic shotgun cartridges known as "flechettes" (small pins or
needles).

Actually guys, WW2 ammunition marking is different from current practices. Here is what I have gathered from various references both online and in books: Black tip - observing (small puff of smoke on impact), Green tip - armor piercing, Blue tip - incendiary, White tip - tracer (short range) and Red tip - tracer (long range).

In addition to the color of the annulus there was often a letter on the head stamp... for example W for AP, O for observing, G for tracer, B for incendiary, etc. The main thing is that standard ball ammo had a purple annulus so if it is any other color then do some research before messing with it.

Hope this helps.

Safety note: Marking practices varied somewhat during the war. For example, at one point armor piercing was indicated by green annulus (color around the primer cap) only. Same goes for some incendiary, observing and tracer rounds. Hence, it is important to use caution when using WW2 vintage ammunition as you might be shooting something you don't intend. I have heard stories of guys using inertia bullet pullers to deactivate surplus ammo and the puller blew up as they thought the bullet was a standard ball round when in fact it was an observing round or incendiary!

Here is a website I found that explains it all: http://enfieldking.tripod.com/enfieldking/id12.html

That is really good information. I've got some surplus wartime ball with green painted primers. I wondered what that meant!

Geoff

GCR817 wrote:That is really good information. I've got some surplus wartime ball with green painted primers. I wondered what that meant!

Geoff

Crap, I just remembered that in addition to the color of the annulus there was often a letter on the head stamp... for example W for AP, O for observing, G for tracer, B for incendiary, etc. The main thing is that standard ball ammo had a purple annulus so if it is any other color then do some research before messing with it.

I'll amend my post above to include all info.