.30 inch Tracer
WWI Contract Tracer
In 1918 Royal Laboratory loaded .30 inch ammunition on contract for the United States Army, based on the assumption that the war would continue into 1918. These rounds were loaded in American cases but with British projectiles.
The tracer round was loaded with a Mark VIIG type bullet with a copper tracer cup but weighing about 150 grains. The headstamp could be any contemporary type but the case mouth was sealed with a thin line of red lacquer for identification.
Left: RL loaded tracer. Note red neck seal.
Tracer G Mark Iz (WW2)
"Cartridge S.A, Tracer .30 inch G Mark Iz" was not approved for British service nor shown in Lists of Changes. It was the U.S. M1 tracer and as such in accordance with British policy to align Mark numbers with American Model numbers it would have become the Tracer G Mark Iz.
The case was the standard American case with Boxer primer. Contract supplies from Remington had a special headstamp for the UK of "R A 1940 .300Z", but later Lend Lease supplies carried a normal U.S. headstamp.
The bullet was flat based but had a slight chamfer, a gilding metal envelope and one cannelure. The front core was lead/antimony and the 17 grains of tracer composition was pressed directly behind this and not in a tracer container. Bullet weight was 152 grains and traced for 750 yards. The bullet had a red tip.
Propellant was about 50 grains of nitrocellulose and observed velocity at 90 feet was 2,640 fps when manufactured to British specification. For U.S. government ammunition the observed velocity was 2,715 fps.
Tracer G Mark Iz (post WW2)
The above tracer was the only one issued in WW2 although some experimental work with British made tracers with degraded ogives was carried out in 1942 to try to improve trajectory matching with ball and AP rounds. Nothing however came of this work.
Post war a new tracer was approved for use with Browning machine guns and was awarded the same nomenclature as the previous tracer. Logically it should have been the G mark 2z but as the previous mark had never been formally approved it may be that the awarding authorities were unaware of this.
"Cartridge S.A, Tracer .30 inch G Mark 1z" was approved to design DD/L/21612/GF/427 (later S1/12394/GF/1347) for British service and shown in Lists of Changes paragraph C.8074 dated April 1957. drawing Reference was QV19GF and it was declared obsolete in October 1993.
The case was Berdan primed with 0.5 grains of VH.2 cap composition. The cap was not ringed in and had a red primer annulus. The headstamp did not include the mark number but did show the calibre (.30)
The bullet was flat based with a GMCS envelope and a single milled cannelure. Another milled ring was added above the cannelure for further identification and the bullet had a red tip. The front core of the bullet was lead/antimony and about 11 grains of SR390A tracer composition with about 1.75 grains of primer composition SR867 was placed in a gilding metal container in the rear of the bullet. The container was sealed with a brass washer. Bullet weight was 150 grains with dark ignition to 90 yards and then a bright trace to a minimum of 1000 yards.
Propellant was about 50 grains of nitrocellulose with ballistics to match the Ball Mark 4z.
Tracer G Mark 2z
This round was manufactured by Fabrique Nationale of Liege in Belgium on Ministry of Defence contract and was approved prior to mid 1970. It was declared obsolete in October 1993.
The case was as for the G Mark 1z with Berdan non-mercuric primer. The headstamp included the manufacturer's code "F N".
The bullet was similar to the G Mark 1z, weighing 150 grains with a red tip.
Propellant was about 50 grains of nitrocellulose and ballistics matched the G mark 1z.