Interesting .303

[Japes]

I recently obtained what was described as Boer War era .303 for a friend and I came across something different. While the rest were FMJ, this one was a hollow point. Not a modern projectile but something different. It didn't look to be reloaded and the bullet had the same "look" as all the rest. Can anyone shed some light on what we have here. My thought is the "dum-dum" bullets from who knows when of the British Empire days but I'm sure the knowledgeable types on this forum can shed some light.

 

[Falcon]

This is a military round, as it was made before the Hague Convention that outlawed hollow point bullets for military use. This round was approved for service in 1899 and superceded by the FMJ round-nose Mark 6 in 1904.

 

[Fuzeman]

DAC = Dominion Arsenal Canada i believe

 

[ydnum303]

Yes, this is the Canadian-made version of the .303" Ball, Mk. V. This was issued for service, but was replaced very quickly by the Ball Mk. VI.

 

[TonyE]

.303

There were three marks of hollow nosed .303 in British service.

The Mark III of 1897 was the first, and this had a separate cup inserted in the nose of the bullet. It was not successful and only one batch of about 197,000 rounds was made. They were ordered to be used up in practice and today they are the rarest of all .303 rounds.

The Mark IV was next, and this dispensed with the separate cup, the nose hollow simply being punched into the nose of the bullet. The jacket did not cover the base of the bullet and there were problems of the pure lead core being blown out, leaving the kacket in the barrel.

The Mark V overcame this by having a core of lead/antimony which was harder. However, due to the St.Petersburg Agreement they were withdrawn from front line service and replaced by the solid nosed Mark VI.

That was not quite the end of the story though, as in 1905 a last batch were issued for the punative expedition to Somalia, long after they had been considered ungentlemanly to use against a European enemy.

Regards
TonyE