.303 with plastic bullets

[Stinkpotpete]

I found this box at a gunshow this weekend. FN 52 head stamps. This is the second box of FN ammo I've seen from the 50s, the other one was for a Bren gun, it said on the box. Would this have been for practice, or is this the rubber bullet they talked about being used in NI? I have some Czech plastic core ammo with a copper jacket that I heard was for training, but can't find any definnate info on it so I'm not sure if any of this was really for training.

[GIZMO8Z]

Perhaps a less than lethal method of crowd control?

[Thanatos]

This may help you Pete,
International Ammunition Association {iaaforum.org} - View topic - .303 Sec Plastic M63

Cheers
Dave

[Adrian Stevenson]

These are not "rubber bullets": they are called baton rounds and are big!

I suspect these are more likely similar in nature to a wooden bulleted blank.

Cheers, Ade.

[Eric Zentner]

Good link Dave
Eric

[Stinkpotpete]

That was one of the ideas bandied about, but from what I've read on a couple other sites, it sounds a bit too fast

"Do you happen to know what the muzzle velocity was for the .303 rounds? The cartridge I broke down had 15.8 grains of a grey (aren't they all) flake powder, and the 0.791" long bullet had a crimping groove (cannelure), weighed 12.1 grains and measured 0.315" in diameter in front of the case mouth and 0.313" on the shank. It seems like the bullet would be moving much too fast for riot control work, even using ricochet fire. In a test, four five-shot groups averaged 2 inches at 50 yards from No. 1 MkIII* with 600 yards on the rear sight putting the bullets 3 inches above the point of aim at the same range. "

But it sounds odd for training with the sights set so high.

They did make other calibers

.303 ( F N 52 ) 7.62x51mm ( F N 68 ) .30-06 ( F N 62 )

[Stinkpotpete]

Thanks Dave, I think we found it about the same time lol. Thanks Ade, I'd never seen any of those before, I've got some actual 12 bore slugs made of rubber, but I didin't think they were the same as used in a military application. Back to google I go hehe

[m3bobby]

I've seen similar rounds in use by the Police, they used them on an indoor range.

[lithgow]

'Rubber Bullets' are very large and usually launched from riot guns of 40mm cal or so that are used for gas grenades, illumination flares etc as well. Anything that's rifle calibre and moving at speed will be lethal whatever it's made of!

[Panzer 3]

Hi
I read your post on the Rubber bullet for the .303, and thought i would show you the Riot control ( rubber Bullet used in N.I, ) you will see a vast difference.
Dave.