Description
Physical description
cardboard box & 24 cartridges
Description: buff cardboard box with buff label/seal, printed in black, containing 25 21/2" paper-cased cartridges with plain pale green tubes, rolled turnover and top wad with aperture to show the presence of a single ball.
History note
Description: wartime economy packaging for the War Department. In 1940, spherical ball loads (used in peacetime for deer control in the UK and, further afield, for short-range use against leopard and other dangerous cats of a similar size) were issued to the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) and subsequently the Home Guard for use in sporting shotguns, which were in widespread ownership in the countryside. As a result of an early appeal, c. 20,000 shotguns were recorded as available for Home Guard use, and as late as January 1942 there were 33,623 recorded as being in Home Guard service. The use of a soft lead projectile was, by the Second World War, considered (especially by Germany) as of doubtful legality in warfare. Even the US military, which rated the combat shotgun highly, restricted its use in the European theatre to rear-echelon guard duty, although it did use shotguns in combat in the Pacific theatre. An Imperial War Museum caption of the early post-Second World War period for one of these cartridges states 'Sporting-gun cartridge and lead ball for use against armoured vehicles, August 1940', a role for which it was woefully unsuited. Perhaps, as German wireless broadcasts were threatening that members of the Home Guard would be shot as 'franc tireurs', the question of the morality of the use of unjacketed projectiles did not weigh too heavily on the latter.
1) printed on label on top of box
2) printed on label on sides of box
3) stamped on side of box
4) headstamp
1) 25 // 12 BORE // CARTRIDGES // These cartridges may be used // without fear of damage to // fully choked 12 bore shotgun // barrels
2) SPH. // BALL (in circle)
3) M 10 0
4) ELEY-KYNOCH // 12 // ICI logo // 12