.303 identification

[peashooter]

I have just bought a .303 round I am trying to find out some more info and am checking on what I think I have found out about it.

Head stamp - H26 at 12 o'clock and V at 6 o'clock

Now the only H I have found is National Brass and Copper tube co. Hastings New York. so is this a contract round ?

V is usually Mk 5 but I thought Mk 5's had round hollow tip bullets but this has a pointed CN bullet ?

any help will be much appreciated.

Richard.

 

[smle2009]

Hi Richard,
these are thought to have been from Lithuania or Latvia,TonyE id'd one of these for me not too long ago on here.

Tony

just found the post in the id section 24 october

 

[Jimiles]

Richard, I'm almost certain this is from the Baltic area, might be Lithuania but probably Latvia in 1926. I can't remember what the 'V' stands for.
Jim

 

[peashooter]

Did anyone find out the what the V was, My bullet has no magnetic attraction at all not even a faint one.

Rich.

 

[TonyE]

Latvia

These are definitely Latvian and made at the Sellier & Bellot Fcatory in Riga. I cannot remember the name of the factory at the moment, but it began with a "V" which is where the headstamp comes from.

A load of this came into the UK a few years ago mixed in with just about every pre-WW2 headstamp imaginable and there were both ball and AP versions of the " H26 V" headstamp.

With regards to the "H" for the National Brass and Copper Tube Co., these are very scarce as they were of poor quality and the contract was soon cancelled.

However, I have an example and here it is:

Regards
TonyE

 

[peashooter]

Many thanks to all I can now catalogue it correctly and hows the book coming Tony

Richard.

 

[TonyE]

303 Book Part 2

The book is coming along fine. I returned yesterday from a week in Arizona at the Woodin lab checking Bill's collection and now have over 200 new .303 issue headstamp variations to draw and add to the book. I still have a couple of other major .303 collections to check but I don't think they will add much new. After that it is a case of putting it all together so maybe by the summer....

Regards
TonyE