Interesting Tobacco tin. 7609577 J. Lawrence. R.A.O.C.

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by High Wood, Apr 18, 2021.

  1. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    South Shropshire, but they may have come from as far afield as Herefordshire, Staffordshire or Warwickshire. I didn't ask the seller at the time, but I will be seeing him again next Sunday and will ask him.
     
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  2. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Thanks for vote of confidence. I'm just an amature hobbyest but I'll give it a go.

    I don't think the damage to the cases was the result of loose or worn chambers. The case failures I've seen have almost all been in cases that have been reloaded and/or resized by hobbyists one or more times. Depending on the pressures, chamber design, powder properties, case material and many other things, the case will stretch enough to need trimming to length before it is reloaded. The means that the walls get thinner with every fire/reload cycle. You can usually get three to five reloads out of the case. Failures that I've seen weren't catastrophic and were usually small splits at the mouth of the case. I don't think any of this would be applicable to military ammo but don't have any idea if it was ever reloaded.

    'Virgin' cases are very robust and can stretch to fit very worn chambers without failure. I saw a 6.5 Mauser after it was fired with snow in the barrel. The barrel was split, the primer backed out and the action jammed but the bolt remained closed and the brass case was intact.

    My guess is that the High Wood's cases were in a fire. I'll amend my previous statement that they are very robust to be 'they are very robust when in the chamber.' They fail quite easily when the propellent goes off outside of a gun. The bullet doesn't go anywhere with any velocity when this happens. .303 is a typical 30 caliber and has a chamber pressure of ~50,000 psi. A brass case inside a steel chamber can handle it but acts more like a fire cracker if it goes off unencased .

    I agree with Hebridean Chindit that the primers have firing pin marks on them. As he said, maybe they were made safe later?

    The one case with the throat blown sideways might (wild speculation) been in a stripper clip next to others that cooked off in the fire?
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2021
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  3. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    is that the bloke in Ludlow market on a Sunday
     
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  4. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

    7609253 Russell enlisted 1st Sept 1939
    7609388 Moulton enlisted 15th Sept 1939
     
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