quote:

MkVII was always Berdan-primed and Cordite loaded.

Yes. Confirmed this morning by autopsy .
There was a cardboard cap between the cordite and the bullet. Also the bullet itself was tarred/lacquered in place. A pain to pull with a pair of vise grips.

As a fisherman and water enthusiast I believe I'd rather it go to the landfill than the pond.

Another possible option may be to turn it in to your local P.D.
Mine took about 400 rounds of mine that had the same problems and was severely corroded.
Once a year they sent whatever ammo they had collected during arrests and other situations to the state police for destruction.
This was quite a few years ago, don't know if they would do it anymore.

Does the primer have mercury? Would that be a concern for the means of disposal?

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
is that rim angled

Sure looks that way. I cropped and rotated the photo about 5 degrees so that the base was square to the picture and this is what that looks like:

No, not angled. Must be a trick of the way I set it at an angle to the floor.

I am impressed with the thickness of the brass and how tightly the bullet is pressed in place.

I had a bunch of that that I bought in bandoliers. Out of every 10, I had 1 failto fire, and 2 that were hang fire. I still used them all up, and had no issues. I may just be lucky.

My suggestion would be, if you don't want them, gift them to someone who reloads for that caliber.

Remember, it was a .303 MK VII that brought down the Red Baron!

I agree with those who say sell / give it away.
If you don't want to go to a gun show, put it in the Forum Classifieds. Offer to give it to anyone who will just pay the shipping. Or karma it.

By the way, RG is the headstamp for the Royal Ordnance Factory at Radway Green.

quote:

I agree with those who say sell / give it away.
If you don't want to go to a gun show,

Actually I am going to get a table at a gun show in May. I may just take this with me.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Could be just me or the angle of the picture but is that rim angled as all go get?

I think that is photographic distortion. It wouldn't even chamber right like that.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Odd that it is so unreliable - ammo is normally very stable and will last a very long time. Maybe it got exposed to some really extreme condition or had a bad batch of primers from the start.

Not odd at all, for cordite ammo.

Cordite degrades much more quickly than powder, and is less tolerant of less-than-ideal storage conditions like heat and moisture.

Most old surplus .303 that's made with cordite will be rife with hangfires. Kinda like shooting a muzzleloader: Click... Bang.

Unreliable:
These rounds are almost 80 years old.
Very likely stored for decades in third world warehouses, almost certainly in conditions of high humidity and temperature extremes.
It's a wonder that any of them fire properly.

The trash company gets pretty pissy when/if they find it.
Most ranges have a collection can for unfired rds and then will dispose or sell it.
Think some police departments also accept ammo.