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THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR'S EXCHANGE |
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Home of the Old Ammo Guy's Virtual
Cartridge Trading Table
Picture Page January 2017 Please note: Unless otherwise indicated, the pictures on this web site are my property, and should not be used by anyone without my permission. The Greener Police Shotgun and it's shell variations....
The Greener Police Shotgun was developed from the Martini-Henry lever action, falling block, single shot rifle by the W. W. Greener gun company for the British government. The gun was intended to arm colonial police forces in the various countries that made up the British Empire with a reliable, low tech firearm that would be useless to anyone that the British did not intend to have it. It met these requirements because it was based on a battle proven, single shot action that was modified to accept a unique cartridge manufactured exclusively for the British Government. The modifications included a smoothbore 14 gauge barrel with a 12 gauge chamber that was bottlenecked to 14 gauge, and a firing pin with three points that would project out of the front of the breech block when it was fired; a shorter center point struck and ignited the primer, while points on either side of the primer extended into an annular groove that was cut in the head of the shotgun shell around the primer pocket. If a shell that did not possess the annular groove in it's head were to be jimmied in to fit the chamber, it could not be fired because the outer points of the firing pin would hit the surface of the cartridge head and not allow the center point to make contact with the primer. . .
The pictures here and below are of the four variations of Greener Police shotgun shells from my collection. These include the two on the top left with necked brass cases and grooved heads, the top right with a necked plastic case and grooved head, and the bottom one with a straight two-piece brass case and no head groove, characteristics which seem to defeat the safety features of the Greener police gun concept. I can only assume that this shell was intended for use in another version of the Greener Police Shotgun. . .
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Head stamps of the four shells above are pictured here . .
Top wads include white paper marked SG in black ink and held in place with ten segment star crimps in the first two shells, clear plastic in the French shell held in place with a roll crimp, and white paper marked SMOKELESS with four dashes in a diamond pattern in red ink held in place with a six segment rose crimp in the lower shell. . . .Sources: General information on the Greener Police Shotgun: The Greener Police Shotgun: Engineered Gun Control?, Chris Eger, 3/11/13, Guns.com, http://www.guns.com/2013/03/11/the-greener-police-shotgun-engineered-gun-control
Photo of the Greener Police Shotgun:
http://tonnel-ufo.ru/eanglish/weapon/greener-police-gun.php .
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about 1/3 larger than they actually are to make them more easily read. Note the
annular groove in the head around the primers on the first three. Note also the
date on the first one. The E K stands for Eley Kynoch, the manufacturer of
the shells. The plastic shell is
French; the letters at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions in the head stamp appear
to be a sideways G over V and F over a sideways T.
