Rifle case ID request from Afghanistan

[grammaton76]

So, one of our esteemed Calgunners is off in Afghanistan, and came across what I THINK is 303 British. He sent me this message and some pics:

Here is a weird one. Can you ID this case with no headstamp? I don’t have a caliper, but it is in the pics with a 9mm, 5.56 and a 7.62x54R for comparison.

The pics are attached. Note the unusual "starburst" pattern on the bottom of the case. Also, it's Berdan primed.

http://cheapspeech.com/Pics/Guns/Analysis/UnknownCases2010//s_20100515-165543-0.jpgimg]
[img]http://cheapspeech.com/Pics/Guns/Analysis/UnknownCases2010//s_20100515-165606-0.jpg
http://cheapspeech.com/Pics/Guns/Analysis/UnknownCases2010//s_IMG_0200.JPG

A few more pics and higher-resolution versions of these pics may be had at:

http://cheapspeech.com/Pics/Guns/Analysis/UnknownCases2010/?viewpos=1

If I'm wrong in saying 303 British, let me know.

[pullnshoot25]

A perfunctory look has lead me to believe that the case in question is a .303 British case. However, the cartridge bottom is new to me.

[KCDS]

a khyber pass home-made maybe??

[JPurp]

I corpsman I talked to a few weeks ago at the range said they came across a lot of .303 British rifles in Afghanistan.

[kendog4570]

Looks British.
+1 for .303.

[1988]

A few more pics and higher-resolution versions of these pics may be had at:

http://cheapspeech.com/Pics/Guns/Analysis/UnknownCases2010/?viewpos=1

If I'm wrong in saying 303 British, let me know.

It looks like the case had been stamped/knurled to sanitize the source of production.

[NeoWeird]

Looks like .303 British to me too. The heavy taper on the case was a good indicator.

Just a thought, but it looks like you can see the knurling raising the case up slightly from the deck. I wonder if this was done to address a headspace issue. Perhaps a gun had excessive headspace, so instead of rebarreling, they simply knurled some cases before reloading to make essentially a wildcat with a slightly longer overall case length to make it safe to fire. I've also heard of some of the booby trapped guns guys are seeing. Maybe it was intentionally made with long chambers with reloaded cases so that if it were ever used by someone who didn't check, they would eventually put the wrong cartridges in and have a bad day.

Just a thought, as I've never seen a knurled cartridge head before.

ETA: Or the possible answer listed above.

[reidnez]

I vote .303 as well...the fact that it's rimmed narrows it down a lot (and it makes sense historically). Also, compare to this picture: .303 is second from left, 7.62x54R is next to it on the right. Looks about right compared to the above pic.

http://www.gunpics.net/bullets/bullets.JPG

[smle-man]

It is a .303 case, maker unknown.

[MustangO4]

Thanks guys, I thought that sounded right, it was the headstamp and berdan primer that threw me off. You can almost see there was some kind of mark under the knurling.

PS the weather here is rediculous.