TonyE
HONOURED MEMBER RIP
I picked up a couple of new items this weekend.
First is a factory dummy for the .5 Vickers made at the Three Rivers facility in Canada. Although the Vickers was more or less obsolete by 1944 in warships, the guns were being transferred to the merchant marine for AA defence and the Three Rivers factory was set up to produce ammo for them. They produced some non standard loads such as APIT but they are very hard to find. They used a "universal" headstamp with no load details and relied on coloured tips for identification.
The factory dummy has no core in the bullet and I was surprised to find it is Berdan primed. I expected Canadian ammo made by a subsidiary of a US company to have a Boxer primer that late in the war. Picture of the headstamp is attached.
The second item is an original projectile for the 11/7.92mm Janacek squeeze bore, as tested in the UK in the immediate pre war period. Although nothing came of the smaller calibre trials they led eventually to the 2 Pr Littlejohn. The case was like a fat .5 Vickers with a stylised "J" as the headstamp.
Regards
TonyE
First is a factory dummy for the .5 Vickers made at the Three Rivers facility in Canada. Although the Vickers was more or less obsolete by 1944 in warships, the guns were being transferred to the merchant marine for AA defence and the Three Rivers factory was set up to produce ammo for them. They produced some non standard loads such as APIT but they are very hard to find. They used a "universal" headstamp with no load details and relied on coloured tips for identification.
The factory dummy has no core in the bullet and I was surprised to find it is Berdan primed. I expected Canadian ammo made by a subsidiary of a US company to have a Boxer primer that late in the war. Picture of the headstamp is attached.
The second item is an original projectile for the 11/7.92mm Janacek squeeze bore, as tested in the UK in the immediate pre war period. Although nothing came of the smaller calibre trials they led eventually to the 2 Pr Littlejohn. The case was like a fat .5 Vickers with a stylised "J" as the headstamp.
Regards
TonyE
