Where does the 303 brass exit?

[Nealius]

I noticed only four ejection chutes for the eight guns, and assumed they were probably connected somewhere internally so that both the 303s and Hispanos dumped their shells through them. But when firing I only see HIspano brass coming out. There's no brass disposed from the 303s. Was 303 brass dumped into an internal container and reused or something?

[No1sonuk]

From what I've read, the 20mm casings (and, I presume, the belt links) are ejected out the bottom of the aircraft, but the .303 casings and links were collected in the nose under the guns.

[Sealpup]

That would make sense. The 20mm ammo is stored closer to center of gravity, so just dumping the casing overboard won't hurt the weight and balance too much. The .303 is stored in the nose, and there is a lot of it. Losing all of that weight could make the aircraft much more tail-heavy. And as the saying goes: 'A nose-heavy aircraft flies badly, a tail heavy-aircraft flies ONCE.'

[Nealius]

Sounds similar to the A-10's ballast issue, then. Why isn't this a problem in the bomber Mossies that don't have any weapons in the nose?

[Euan Emblin]

20mm brass was ejected through the chutes whilst the .303 was collected via chutes into a collecting receptacle. Nice to see the Mossie being at least partially litter conscious. From my reading the reason why the .303 was collected internally was that De Havilland worried about the potential of damage to the aircraft, presumably the nose, from large amounts of ejecting cartridge cases. 20mm brass being heavier would more reliably fall clear of the airframe. 

Edited September 27, 2021 by Euan Emblin