Ok it's not reloading but not sure where to put it; Some discussion about cordite lately and I figure most guys have never seen it. So I disassembled a 1950 dated.303 MK VII ball cartridge for you: I have cases of it, and it never fails to fire.
As you can see, the propellant is spaghetti, and will not fit into the case as is; the case was necked After the cordite and the .364 fiber wad were inserted. Followed by the .310 bullet. Why did they use this odd and cumbersome method? Why did they not adopt what was standard propellant profiles like flakes and chopped strands, used by the rest of the world?

That's neat.

Never actually seen it.

I've been told it has a very distinctive odor when fired- but I don't know. Never fired a round of cordite to the best of my knowledge.

Just about everything that went bang was loaded with cordite. By changing the die hole size and length cutters they could make a strand for anything in their arsenal.It would be cost prohibited to change over and retool all the armories and factories to a new powder type.
They did later on after they realized the damage the Cordite did to the throats and leads of the weapons as it burns so hot.
Cordite is extremely stable for long term storage.
I'm still using some cordite from WWI that is as good as the day it was made.

I think I've seen such a pic before as I had an idea of what cordite looked like.
If so it was a long time ago and I don't recall for sure.
Thanks for posting this pic. It clarified in my mind what cordite looked like. I'm sure lots of others will like seeing this pic.
Leo

Thanks for that. I'm another who has never before seen cordite. And the story about the sequencing of cartridge loading and sizing is fascinating. Sure hope someone can explain the "why" of it all.

I do not notice the odor.
Why did the British do that? Just to be different; they did a lot of things that way. No good reason. No way is Cordite easier to load than flake or chopped powder. Very inefficient. How do you chop off a piece of rope and get the charge weights the same? I should pull more and weigh some....hmmm.
If it was so good an idea, why didn't anyone else use it? Because it was a bad idea from the start. They forced it to work.
One positive thing; they kept the coils of rope in a room separate from the loaders; if they had a fire or explosion, the loaders would be protected.
OTOH, if it wasn't 1/3rd pure Nitroglycerine, it wouldn't have been a problem.

Here is a concise article:

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

Seems like I once read about some ammo that was retrieved from a WW2 Ship that had been sunk and the powder was still good? Is that possible?

Yes; Hodgdon keeps the original batch of Bullseye from 1890 under water, as a quality control measure.

Never seen cordite? We kids of the 'Empire' found it common as muck, and maybe half the boys in the country pulled a .303 cartridge to bits at some point and saw the pieces burn like a fuse.

Strange as the 'spaghetti' concept sounds, it was probably one of the first efforts to slow down smokeless burn rates. Cut short it would probably have only worked in pistols.

I've not noticed anything particular about the smell but 'a whiff of cordite' is a cliche beloved of hack writers.

Cordite will burn wet.

Pity you cant post the smell of burnt cordite, that was sure a drug to us old timers

Lots of why did the Brits do this or that. Why did the Brits build the best doubles and bolt actions ever made for dangerous game, because they could, and nobody else has ever emulated that yet.

A matter of national pride; once you invent something, you won't change it, even when it proves to have serious deficiencies. Every country does it; I can name several in the US Army.
True, if they had chopped it up, it would have been dynamite; early recipe contained 58% Pure Nitroglycerin. Again, there is a reason NO other country used the stuff.
And it burned the barrels out on many of those fine double rifles too.
Ever wonder why the Enfield type rifling has such wide lands? Look it up.

I pulled some bullets off of old 6.5 Italian Carcano ammo from WW2 and earlier. The powder looked like chopped cordite with hollow centers, similar to short macaroni.

Anyone know if the powder used was cordite?

Geoff