30mmx165 Honeywell Experimental Durable Dummy Cartridge.
This interesting cartridge purchased at Malvern Military Convention in March this year was a most welcome find Its a US 30mmx165 honeywell manufactured durable dumy cartridge-as used in the 30mm Philco Ford rival to the GAU-8/A Avenger cannon. The weapon lost out in the competition to the General Electric GAU-/8A due to numerous technical problems mainly associated with the ammunition and the Philco-Ford 30mm gun never got past the experimental stages. These Durable Dummy rounds were used in the actual weapon cycling tests where cartridge rigidity was important. The projectile is a genuine Target Practice type with broad polyurethane driving band and case is aluminium material. There is a steel rod which runs from the primer pocket and screws into the projectile base to prevent it from being pushed back into the case under repeated use. In total about a 100,000 rounds were produced by the time the project was cancelled and quite a few were retained as souvenirs afterwards. You dont see these that often in the UK and price of £65.00 is steep but was worth it as i had never expected to get one of these.
