With the vernier on, it looks more like an 8mm (7.92) mauser type bullet to me. (MG17 & MG81 machine guns fitted to many German aircraft in the 1930's/40's) Used standard 7.92mm ammunition.
May not be deformed due to low velocity impact..i.e. spent bullet with no bullet impact on target. I've seen many .303 & 7.62 fmj bullets fired and not deformed on military sand backstop ranges...picking them out when I was a kid, some looked as good as new at times. ATB[/QUOTE
I like the sound of it coming from a German plane letting loose some rounds as it flew from wales under a barrage of gunfire,but unfortunately I don't think that's the case.
8mm (7.92) would have been .322" so the original suggestion of .303" and allowing for errosion would fit better to my way of thinking. I am slightly surprised that it is not boat tailed making me think that perhaps this is an older .303" round that perhaps originated from one of several old mainly military ranges that were once dotted along the coastline in this area rather than being a round fired by one of our fighters chasing raiding luftwaffe aircraft over the Bristol channel. Pretty much all the ports in the Bristol channel were bombed at one time or another by the luftwaffe but as Eddi suggested Pembroke docks and the associated oil terminals and RAF Pembroke were targeted more than any other.
P.S. RAF Pembroke Dock had according to some the largest concentration of RAF aircraft of any "airfield" in the U.K. In actual fact it wasn't a field at all as all the aircraft were seaplanes and it was where many of the Sunderland flying boats were based that covered the Atlantic conveys.[/QUOT
I think this is the most plausible,does it make me a bad dad if I tell my son my own made up story
Thanks again all,
dave