25 pdr shell base markings

[rob love]

When I enlarge the first photo, it almost appears as though the primer is pierced and punched outwards, as opposed to the little dimple normally observed on a primer strike. Could the punchout be the result of a fire condition on an unfired primer?

I often will toss unfired but damaged small arms ammunition into the woodstove to make them safe for disposal. In all cases the primer is what pops out of the case. (note: The bullet does not whiz around the room killing everyone like you see in the movies).

[Lynn Eades]

Rob, please don't take this like Will Smith, but were the bullets in the fire anything do with your first wife heading out the door?
On the reloading thing, I would like to know the ins and outs of it. In hand sized fire arms. Military brass is usually harder than sporting ammo. Military ammo is usually sized smaller for auto loaders, For reloading, shells sometimes need annealing, Is this the case with reloading large shells? When are they scrap? In small stuff, shells get sized in a set of dies. I guess munitions factories use big gear to do the same stuff?
Waiting, Out!

[Mike Cecil]

David,

Work on the basis that the markings give enough information to trace each component back to source, so that any defects/defective parts can be traced by batch to the originating factory or filling station.

Primer markings have the date/manufacturer/type (eg No.1 or No.11 in the case of a 25-pdr)/date of manufacture, and a second set giving the filling station/date of filling/batch number.

Cart case is similar. At each refill, the first 'F' is struck out, and another F stamped adjacent. As Adrian said, CR is not applicable to the 25-pdr as it is a separate (not a fixed) round where the charge weight can be varied at the gun. AT rounds are 'fixed' and cannot be varied, hence any reduction in charge weight is done at the factory/filling station.

Cart cases are returnable stores, ie 'produce' where the spent primer is removed, the case cleaned, and then measured for wall thickness/length/ before annealing, full length resize in a die, length trimmed, checked for imperfections, then sent off to the filling station (or scrapped). With a 25-pdr, there was such a variety of charge weights that the stress on a cart case could vary greatly, so it was worth the trouble to return and if within tolerance, re-use.

Mike