New Zealand

The only producer of .303 inch ammunition in New Zealand was the Colonial Ammunition Company of Aukland. Originally known as Whitney & Sons and founded in 1888 for the production of .577 Snider ammunition, it was owned partly by George Kynoch of the United Kingdom.

The only code used was “CAC” and it is difficult to distinguish early production from that made at the similarly named (but separate) Colonial Ammunition Company in Footscray, Australia.

For cartridges manufactured after 1906 it is relatively easy to distinguish New Zealand production as from this date Australian production included the month and the year in the headstamp whilst from 1908 the New Zealand production only showed the year.

Between 1908 and 1914 the letters “NZ” were included in the headstamp as the government ownership mark, corresponding to the period when the broad arrow was included in British military headstamps.