At least one Auxiliary Unit Patrol had a double barrel 12 bore shot gun. Did the WD issue 12 bore ammo ? What type was it. One round in the photograph is brass - what type was this? A WD arrow and SG. what does that mean? Thanks for your help
Any letters or numbers on the bottom? We call those "Low Brass" cartridges in the US as a very general type.
SG is a large shot - 8.4mm diameter according to one site - with around 9 shot in a 12-bore load. IWM's write- up is: 12 bore cartridge, SG shot, war-time issue, Eley-Kynoch (SAA 2360)
If I remember correctly the designation of fishing line lead weights corresponded with shotgun cartridge designations - thats in my day of course not today as lead weights are illegal when fishing - so Swan, BB, B etc were common sizes between the two sports. TD
I now have more information on the markings and a photograph To quote: " "The Brass case has U.M.C.Co and No 12 on the base with no markings round the side of the case that I can see. It might be the 4th one with very faint MoD markings on the side that has SPECIAL 12 and SMOKELESS on the base. Three of the others have ELEY-KYNOCH 12 and the ICI trademark of ICI in a circle underscored with waves. Two of these have on the other end SMOKELESS.DIAMOND with SG in the middle. One of them has a hole cut in the end and a large piece of lead visible. On shaking it sounds like there are a few large pieces of shot in the cartridge rather than regular small shotgun pellets. I recall Dad telling me about a MoD shot gun cartridge that was loaded with a single large lead ball which was deemed a vehicle stopper as it would take out a radiator hit front on. The same effect could be reproduced by carefully peeling back the top of a regular cartridge and dropping melted wax from a candle onto the shot so that it essentially fused together". Can anyone expand on the 12 bore ammo that Aux Units and Home guard was issued - solid shot?
https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/.../1/Clarke D M PhD.pdf (pages 103-107). Three types of cartridge issued SG, LG and Lethal Ball. Tim Edited to add: By end of 1940 Home Guard had around 47,000 shotguns.
Bala IIRC - Swanshot/Swan Gauge or Buckshot normally had about 8 - 10 balls of lead inside and was generally used for stopping large prey - but that phrase can be used for people. It is possible to have shoutgun cartridges that only contains 1 'shot', I would suggest they had a selection of cartridges dependant upon what they needed to do. Shotgun shell - Wikipedia If you scroll down to the table the SG is shown as having 8 pellets per ounce. The British system is based on the amount of shot per ounce. The sizes are LG (Large Grape - from grape shot derived from musket shooting), MG (Medium Grape), and SG (Small Grape). For smaller game SSG shot is half the weight of SG, SSSG shot is half the weight of SSG, SSSSG shot is half the weight of SSSG, and so on TD added: Shotgun slug - Wikipedia
