THIS is gunpowder??
 

Today I was going through the last of my late stepfather's stuff and I found a bandolier of clips of 303 Enfield cartridges. Because of their age I set to work using the kinetic bullet puller to deconstruct them.
This is what they were charged with: some kind of yellow/brown sticks.

I've been reloading metallic cartridges for decades and I've used and seen many different types of smokeless powders, but I've never seen ANYTHING like this.

Anyone know what it is? Thanks!

Cordite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordite

Exactly.
Early smokeless known as "Cordite"

Ah so! So THAT’S cordite. I’d heard of cordite but I never knew what it looked like.

Thanks for the I.D.

Yep, it's literally "cords" of Nitrocellulose....nitrated wood pulp.

Yell if you find any Corbomite.


-;)

jeffyjeep,

Looks like you found yourself some “starters”...

Pulverize and mix with Clear nitrate dope for dipping Estes "starters".

Sounds good. When I'm finished deconstructing all of these cartridges I'll have quite a pile of cordite.

I do have my stepfather's old deer rifle: a British .303 Enfield that was sporterized and scoped decades ago, but I'm not going to put any of these cordite rounds through it. Besides being older than water, the rounds are Berdin primed and the primers are probably corrosive mecuric-type.

Jeffy-

Do you know the grain weight by chance on the bullet itself? It looks very long. I used to deer hunt with a Marlin .35 lever action, usually using a heavier 200 grain bullet for passing through any light brush/twigs and such that are common for southern woods.

But that projectile in your photo looks pretty massive.


Earl