A question of bullets

[Plynkes]

.303 to be precise. I don't know nothing about bullets myself, but I'm hoping someone else does.

Looking at pictures they seem to have brass casings but the bullet itself comes in a variety of colours. For instance, sometimes they look like they are steel, and other times like they are made of something else, more of a copper colour. Sometimes they are painted, presumably indicating some special type of round like tracer or something.





Which way should I paint them to represent bog-standard ammo in the era of the Great War? It's ammunition for Martini-Enfields I'm doing, though that ought not to make any difference I wouldn't have thought, as they used the same ammo as the Lee-Enfield. Got some bandoliers to paint, see, and some of them are of the sort where part of the bullet is exposed.

Fank you. 

[Adam]

I can't give you a definite answer but I did a search and found this:

"Bullet envelope material

With the exception of the wood bulleted rounds detailed above, the majority of .303 inch service ammunition produced from 1888 to 1943 used cupro-nickel as the bullet envelope material. This is a silver coloured non-magnetic material.

The exceptions were:
Round nosed copper (sometimes nickel plated) Incendiary Buckingham Mark I
Pointed turned copper (sometimes nickel plated) Tracer mark VIIT

Both of these rounds will only be found with 1915 – 1917 dates in the headstamp.

Like cupro nickel, CNCS is silver coloured but magnetic as it is a “sandwich” with a core of steel clad on both sides with a thin layer of cupro-nickel. Similarly, gilding metal and gilding metal clad steel are both copper coloured and the latter is of course magnetic."

From this thread:
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=89762

I'm not sure whether that answers it although the fact it says that the majority of bullets produced were 'silver coloured non-magnetic material' would indicate that you have a case for painting them silver. Also the copper coated Tracer mk VIIT might be what the bullet in your photo is as it has a roman numeral VII on it. There's more on the markings on .303 ammo here:
http://home.scarlet.be/p.colmant/303.htm

It's an interesting subject. I never realised ww1 bullets were coated. Theres more about the different coating used in this thread:
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=70464&hl=nickel


Edit: Or maybe different factories used different coatings depending on what was more readily available to them. The copper coloured one in your photo is from an Australian factory.

[Plynkes]

Thanks, Adam. I think I'll go with the cupro-nickel look, then.