Cordite

[smle-man]

New C&R shooters may not be familiar with cordite propellant's appearance. I pulled down some 1960 South African .303 ball that was all flintlock speed ignition but very accurate. I got tired of the bang-Bang hesitation and
decided to pull the last 30 bullets for reloading. I got the cordite strands out with an inertia bullet puller and burned them off in a pot lid in the back yard. The ball of flame was pretty spectacular.

It looks remarkably like stale spaghetti strands. Don't attempt to cook and eat it!


30 rounds worth of cordite propellant.

[highpower790]

Just think about all the cordite that was used to fire the big guns from the warships of years past.

[bohoki]

tactical spagetti

[NapalmCheese]

That just seems incredibly weird to me, and awesome!

[Discogodfather]

Looks like the Top Ramen I ate in college every night!

[Enfield47]

Lighting off that much cordite must have been a pretty intense flash and burn. There's nothing like the smell of burnt cordite.

I shot the last of my .303 cordite rounds back in the early 90s - I wish I would have saved some. I still have 100-200 rounds of Iraqi surplus, I shot all the rest.

[SanPedroShooter]

I have some SA .303 too. I pulled one down and couldn't figure out what the hell I was looking at.

The wads threw me at first, after I picked them out of there there were all these packed in strands.

Cordite, duh.

But what does it taste like?

[hermosabeach]

OP
Thanks for sharing. I know the smell but not the look

[Emdawg]

I remember reading an article on Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia). The interview was a few years ago, so relatively recent.

The interviewer asked him, due to all his experiences acting and all the places he went to film, what had been his favorite smell.

He said (I am slightly paraphrasing),

"Cordite." *blank stare from reporter* "What you young people call gunpowder these days. I always loved the smell of it after we used weapons on set. There is really nothing quite like it."

[Whiterabbit]

im sorry you burned it. not easy to find in a store anyways, sometimes I am interested in trying it out.

[SonofWWIIDI]

Never seen what it looks like before. Thanks for posting.

Wish you had posted video of the flash when you burned it!

[Gryff]

But what does it taste like?

Chicken.

[beerman]

wow in my 40ish years of playing with milsurps, I never have actually seen cordite ...thanks for posting this

[smle-man]

Never seen what it looks like before. Thanks for posting.

Wish you had posted video of the flash when you burned it!

When I set it off it looked like a tactical nuke detonating!

[marksmandowntown]

Thanks for sharing!