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  #51  
Old 12-24-2021, 04:28 PM
damienph damienph is offline
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Originally Posted by DWalt View Post
As Remington and UMC merged in 1911, the box would have been from around that time if not later.
A little more info on the Rem-UMC .303 British Mk VII ammo box.
The Mk VII cartridge wasn’t approved until Nov 1910.
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  #52  
Old 12-24-2021, 07:19 PM
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DWalt DWalt is online now
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Originally Posted by shil View Post
For corrosive or suspected corrosive ammunition: Soap and hot water! Bore Tech Eliminator is good and is great for copper fouling. Ballistol and water solution works. Then, there's the old GI bore cleaner, which can still be found; lots of kerosene (?) and lots of "scent". Dry the bore and follow up with your favorite bore cleaner and preservative. It all worked for me.
The GI bore cleaner from WWII was essentially an emulsion of water in oil (no idea what kind of oil). The purpose of the water was of course to dissolve the corrosive salts from chlorate primers used by the military at that time. When I use any corrosive ammo, I clean the bore afterwards using hot water before doing anything else.
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  #53  
Old 12-24-2021, 07:23 PM
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Originally Posted by damienph View Post
A little more info on the Rem-UMC .303 British Mk VII ammo box.
The Mk VII cartridge wasn’t approved until Nov 1910.
Note the aluminum slug at the point of the Mark VII bullet. It is there to make the bullet base heavy, so it will yaw when passing through human body tissue, thereby causing more damage. Not a lot different in purpose from the bullets used in the 5.56x45 NATO.
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  #54  
Old 12-25-2021, 07:17 PM
desi2358 desi2358 is offline
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Originally Posted by teletech View Post
Yep, it's cordite.
No, it's not old movie film but an extrusion like very fine angel-hair pasta.
The smell of burnt cordite might well be my favourite burnt powder smell.
I've been tempted to reuse the cordite from the dud rounds, though getting it back into a case would be challenging as it's packed in there pretty tightly
I have reloaded cordite from dud rounds as well as from a small lot of ammo that had been water damaged (the clips rusted onto the cases and could not be easily cleaned off). I found it easy to put the largest part of the load into a new case then start the remaining sticks in part way and seat them with the aid of a pencil.

They shot quite well and I didn't have to worry about the extra step of cleaning up corrosive primer residue. And for those who don't know, it is the old style chlorate primers that are corrosive, not the powder. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about this subject. It is easily cleaned with a water based cleaner but needs cleaned promptly as the chlorate primers basically leave a salt in the bore which absorbs moisture and leads to rust.
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  #55  
Old 12-25-2021, 07:42 PM
GypsmJim GypsmJim is offline
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Originally Posted by shil View Post
For corrosive or suspected corrosive ammunition: Soap and hot water! Bore Tech Eliminator is good and is great for copper fouling. Ballistol and water solution works. Then, there's the old GI bore cleaner, which can still be found; lots of kerosene (?) and lots of "scent". Dry the bore and follow up with your favorite bore cleaner and preservative. It all worked for me.
I've been shooting corrosive surplus for over 50 years. I use home-made GI bore cleaner on a patch (50/50 ammonia and water), followed by a patch of Hoppes.

Most of my old surplus rifles already had fouled bores. Now they look the same and have not rusted at all.
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  #56  
Old 12-26-2021, 12:24 AM
teletech teletech is offline
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Originally Posted by 2152hq View Post
Corrosive primers,,,,
Then add Cordite Powder which is Erosive to gun barrels,,
At least it's much more erosive than later smokeless powders are because of less heat buildup (as I understand it).

There are several formulas of Cordite as well. The orig formula (CMkI) is the most erosive I believe.
I think the old specs used to site betw 5k to 6k rounds of Cordite 303 would make a 303 Lee bbl ready for scrap.

Love those Enfields!
Indeed, the early double-base cordite was very hard on barrels, the later (much of WWII) double-base was much kinder but still a bit harsh, and the later triple-base I think is about on-par with regular propellant. Most or all ammo made after WWII was triple-base.
Cordite - Wikipedia
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