Ammo?
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URL: http://www.enfield-rifles.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=13846
Printed Date: March 26 2026 at 2:51pm
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Topic: Ammo?
Posted By: SteveP02
Subject: Ammo?
Date Posted: February 21 2025 at 10:38am
Saw this for sale locally. It has been a while since I shot .303 but I think it used to look a bit like this. Or maybe not. Could anyone suggest what I'm looking at please? |
Replies:
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: February 21 2025 at 2:23pm
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P.O.F= Pakistan Ordinance Factory. Not highly thought of, & both corrosive primed & cordite. It may, or may not be "click . . . BANG" or worse because of old primers. It would make decent plinking ammo as long as you clean for corrosive & don't expect stellar accuracy.
------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: DisasterDog
Date Posted: February 21 2025 at 2:31pm
| Try a few rounds & see, but there’s an old adage about POF standing for “Percentage Of Failure”, so if they’re bad you’re better off harvesting the projectiles than sitting waiting for them to maybe go bang. |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: February 22 2025 at 5:08am
Shot some of that stuff @ Rhino's number of years back. It was a real treat: Click!...............wait for it....fizbang!! & it STUNK!(stank?)Smelled really bad!  ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: SteveP02
Date Posted: February 22 2025 at 10:26am
| Oh wow, that saved me an expensive mistake. Really appreciate the insight and probably explains why two rounds were used before deciding to sell them on. Life is too short to fire bad ammunition. |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: February 22 2025 at 1:22pm
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POF gave me the weirdest "click . . . no BANG" ever a few years back. Pulled trigger <clik> beat 2 3 4 , nuttin. Pulled cocking piece back & fired again<clik>. Waited the 30 seconds & extracted round. Really solid deep F/P impression. Stood it on end on the front left corner of the bench for later disposal. A couple of MINUTES later I hear an odd noise & look at the case. Its wobbling! Rocking back & forth! Then there's a "POP" & the bullet jumps about 8" in the air & falls over. Then the horrible acrid smell & I get a "Roman Candle" effect from the now fired? case! It continued for several seconds, with the case beginning to glow red! It finally fell over & shot off the bench onto the floor, "rocket propelling" itself about 8' I guess. I just stared at it fascinated for the next act of the display.  When I looked up half the range was staring at me!
------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: paddyofurniture
Date Posted: February 22 2025 at 1:52pm
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Back years ago in the 90's I used to get this ammo for free as no one wanted it. I would pull the bullet, dump the powder in a ammo can, and scrap the cases. My sons used to make firecrackers and use it to burn out ant hills with the powder. ------------- Always looking for military manuals, Dodge M37 items,books on Berlin Germany, old atlases ( before 1946) , military maps of Scotland. English and Canadian gun parts. |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: February 22 2025 at 2:02pm
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Mine didn't have actual "powder", as I discovered when i tore one down. There was some oddball flakes with a strange green tint. I looked at one under considerable magnification & discovered it was shredded "Nitrate" Non Safety movie film stock.  Another round had both stick AND flake powder mixed inside it.  ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: SteveP02
Date Posted: February 22 2025 at 2:54pm
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That's so funny I may have to get some now
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Posted By: shiloh
Date Posted: February 24 2025 at 2:55am
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Couldn`t imagine being a solder and being issued that crap...or maybe it was sold to their enemy`s. lol That being said, I was given some Pakky .308 `92 issue for free. Upon inspection it was just as horrible. I used it along with a bunch of 308 tracer and links to make a 220rnd display belt.
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Posted By: Strangely Brown
Date Posted: February 24 2025 at 1:28pm
The British army bought a quantity of POF 9mm back in the 1980's, apparently some of it was so under powered it failed to cock and fully eject in Sterling SMG's. ------------- Mick |
shiloh wrote:Posted By: paddyofurniture
Date Posted: February 24 2025 at 1:51pm
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I have never seen POF 9MM ammo. I would be afraid to try it. ------------- Always looking for military manuals, Dodge M37 items,books on Berlin Germany, old atlases ( before 1946) , military maps of Scotland. English and Canadian gun parts. |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: February 24 2025 at 2:38pm
Rhino had some for his Sterling..you'd get a couple rounds off & then it would "stovepipe" on ejection...OH, & did I say it smelled really bad as well?  ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: Mayhem
Date Posted: February 24 2025 at 3:35pm
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It also depends on how it has been stored. I picked up a 768 round crate of POF 1968 ammunition, still sealed in its tin liner. Of those, I think I had two or three dud rounds and maybe 20 - 30 that were hang fires. Another shooter is using the exact same year and has the same experience as me. Others however, share similar experiences to others here. ------------- .303 - Helping Englishmen express their feelings since 1889 |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: February 24 2025 at 3:59pm
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Some primer compounds break down quicker than others. Even worse if stored in warm/hot conditions. Powder deteriorates too over time and as a function storage temp. You take your chances buying old surplus ammunition, you don’t know the conditions it was stored in. I have a fair amount of WWII Canadian Mk 7z ball that still performs very well, for the reasons stated above. But, I also have some Berdan primed .577 Snider and .577-.450 MH that the primers just fizzle out like a slow fuse.
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Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: February 24 2025 at 7:44pm
| i w0nt shoot old corrosive in my ladst remaining items of my collection , i dont need to deal with that , i dont shoot mucxh black powder either - hate the cleanup . |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: February 25 2025 at 12:12pm
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I have a quantity of old Radway Green British Mk7 that's Cordite & corrosive. I'll fire it in the No5Mk1, & the 1914 BSA when its not set up for .22 RF as both have seen use with it already, but not the newer minty bores that never saw it. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: February 25 2025 at 10:43pm
| all my radway green ammo is 762x51 but its great ammo , |
Posted By: Strangely Brown
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 2:36am
The current RG L42A3 (7.62mm) is excellent although I'm struggling to find the link that says where the components come from. The last time I looked the Berdan primers were of US manufacture and the propellant was Swiss, possible RS52 ? If there is a change in suppliers the new ammunition would be marked L42A4 Since Radway Green was acquired by BAE systems who injected millions into the plant the ammunition has gone from strength to strength. Britrifles and myself have had many conversations on the dire quality of the old L2A2. The one shame about Radway Green ammunition is that it is not available on the UK market; Itar and end user certificates have been cited because the primers have been produced in the US, although I suspect the real reason is a political one! ------------- Mick |
Posted By: Bear43
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 6:51am
| I am slowly going through my surplus stuff in some of my rifles. I have a quantity of 60's POF cordite loaded garbage as well as '40's Radway Green and '50's Kynoch. The Radway Green and Kynoch perform well. I probably should just disassemble the POF but not sure what to do with the cases because of the cordite. Once the surplus on hand is gone then it will be nothing but commercial and handloads. |
Posted By: DisasterDog
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 9:46am
| My friend has one of those little brass cannons, we use the Cordite for fuses, they fit perfectly in the touch hole! |
Posted By: Mayhem
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 3:14pm
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Just remove the cordite and burn it off. Cook off the primers and weigh the cases as scrap brass. ------------- .303 - Helping Englishmen express their feelings since 1889 |
Posted By: paddyofurniture
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 3:34pm
That works for me. |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 4:10pm
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On the 1930’s Berdan primed .577-450 Martini ammo, I pulled the bullets, pulled out the cordite strands, snapped the primers in the rifle (that’s where I found out those primers just fizzled like a slow fuse) and then reloaded the brass. The one thing I missed was to anneal the case necks, they cracked after around 5 reloads. .577-.450 brass is a bit hard to find. Don’t think I would bother doing any of this with old .303 ammo known to have bad primers. Go get new PPU cases and load them up with your choice of primer, powder and bullet.
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Posted By: paddyofurniture
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 4:52pm
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Most of my surplus 303 is long gone. I only shoot reloads, commercial loads, or Greek. |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 5:36pm
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I still have a fair amount of Mk 7 and 7z service ball ammo. I think I have some of that crappy POF .303 too. Accuracy out to 200 yards has been about: Canadian DI ‘42 and ‘43 Mk 7z Boxer Primed 2.5 to 3.0 MOA Canadian DAC ‘41 Mk 7 Berdan Primed 2.0 to 2.5 MOA Canadian DAC ‘51 Mk 7z Berdan Primed 1.5 to 2.0 MOA Greek 1970’s HXP Mk 7z Boxer Primed 2.5 to 3.0 MOA South African PMP Mk 7z Berdan Primed 3.0 to 3.5 MOA DI - Defense Industries DAC - Dominion Arsenal, Canada I don’t think I have any British manufacture .303 Ammunition. |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: February 26 2025 at 8:00pm
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ill have to look but i think i still have a small quantity of brit mfgr 303 , i kept it because ive kept my fathers 1915 BSA mkIII , its what i learned to shoot on
this would be in chargers and the quantity will be limited to what i could stuff into one of the small P37 pouches ..........i still have four of those , one has 22LR in it , not sure whats in the other two but its ammo - most likely one has 762 and the other is 556 , i dont think i put any pistol/revolver ammo in those , ill look tomorrow - dont feel like digging around in it anymore tonight |