Australia

It should be noted that the two Colonial Ammunition Companies in Australia and New Zealand were separate entities, although there were some common shareholders, including a Captain Whitney. The New Zealand company used the same CAC headstamp but unlike the Australian production did not include the month in the headstamp. It is almost impossible to differentiate between the two companies production prior prior to May 1906 when Australia introduced the month into the headstamp.

The practise of including both month and year in the headstamp continued until August 1938 when an interim style was used of “MF 36 8 VII”. Thereafter the month was not included and the headstamp became the familiar “MF 36 VII”.

This continued throughout the production life of the .303 inch cartridge, and in addition there were further factories set up during the Second World War. These all used a similar style headstamp.

¹ Although reported, this may simply be a poor headstamp not showing the broad arrow.

² Utilised for a very small quantity of .303 inch ammunition in early 1940 before the No.2 Factory adopted the MG code and the No.1 Factory reverted to MF.

³ Used for a single lot of 4 million .303 inch Tracer G. Mark IIz loaded utilising metallic components from No.3 Factory Hendon.