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No, the 308 was a poor attempt by one man to curry favour with the royal family. It was vanity and greed that inspired what was first known as the 303 Chichester. Like a lot of things the British did, it was silly idea.

Sir Robert "Poncy" Chichester came up with the idea of using rimless cartridges late in the 19th century. He felt that with the war going on (the Boer War), measures needed to be taken to reduce waste, streamline the manufacturing process, and make him famous. The 303 British was already successful, but politicians being the lawyers that they are, he thought he could improve upon what engineers and designers had already done.



Queen Victoria

If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life,
Never make a pretty woman your wife!
So from my personal point of view,
Get an ugly girl to marry you!
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Chichester was a vain man. He was also cheap. He had the British Ministry of Armaments create a new rifle cartridge similar to the 7x57 Mauser (That disgusting Teutonic design! Chichester, 1898), which was quite popular at the time. He wanted something that had Prussian roots, which would please her Majesty, Queen Victoria (or "Fat Vickie", as the anti-monarchist movement called her at the time). It was completely self serving.

So you understand, prior to World War I, the British monarchy wasn't really British. Their last name was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They were German. It wasn't until WWI when they changed their last name to Windsor. Hey, you're fighting the relatives! Since the British were fighting the Huns, it wasn't good to have a queen and royal family with close German ties. As well, if you check your history books, you will find that royals did not like to breed with common folk, so they often married close relatives. For example, Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was born in Germany. But enough with the inbred history primer. It makes me queasy.

Sir Poncy thought that he could win the favour of the Queen if he came up with a cartridge that he could state "...was inspired by your Majesty's most glorious homeland - Germany!" He might even get a lordship out of the deal. At the very least, he would become a powerful force in British political and social circles.

In late 1899 or early 1900, he had them remove the rim of a 303 British cartridge and "give it shoulders."

"Why do you want to do that, sir?" a puzzled engineer asked.

"Because the 303 is too fat. Something that will bear my name must have handsome shoulders! Do it!" And he struck the engineer with his riding crop.

The engineer obeyed immediately, of course. The Brits loved to be ordered around and abused by the aristocracy and knights and other persons of authority.

When they eliminated the rim and changed the shoulder angle, the cartridge would not chamber. Today we would probably say, "Duh!", but you have to remember that this was back in the early days of cartridge rifle firearms design. As well, they were British. While they meant well, they weren't particularly bright. It's been suggested that the English have a very shallow gene pool.

So our hapless engineer was stuck, until a lowly custodian suggested making the cartridge skinnier - which they did.

For me, this is the funny part. The day of the first (and only) cartridge trial, Sir Poncy insisted that he be the one to fire it. After all, he claimed, it was my idea! Vanity would be his undoing, but it saved the life of an innocent staffer.

Sir Poncy was never trained in the use of weapons, so he needed assistance from the engineering staff to use the rifle. The reduced size of the case allowed everything to slide into the chamber. As Sir Poncy closed Emily's (MLE*) action, his last words were,

"It feels a bit tight."

When he squeezed the trigger, the action exploded and Sir Poncy was killed instantly. The first casuality of the 303 Chichester was Sir Poncy himself!

Embarrassed, the engineering staff and underlings took the drawings and associated material and hid them away in a vault. Shortly after WWI, American spies stole the plans for the 303 Chichester, which was smuggled to the US.

A few years passed. The Americans had better trained, more talented designers. The 303 Chichester became the 300 Savage. It was marketed as an improvement on the 303 Savage. Like the 30-40 Krag, the 303 Savage was a copy of the 303 British. They wanted something American made. It wasn't actually, but the Brits never complained.

And now you know...the best of the story!

* Magazine Lee Enfield. Emily was its nickname
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Dedicated to Queen Victoria

Never Make a Pretty Woman Your Wife!