A Growing Collection of Cartridge Cases & Inert Rounds

[brickie501]

Half of this, I've previously posted in a Battlefield Archaeology thread - but probably of more interest / relevance here!

I have always been interested in weapons / ordnance & so have slowly acquired a few spent cases & inert rounds through various means... Many are fairly recent but hopefully of interest anyway?



The 3x charger clips of .303" in the top row (& the few 'bright' cases below) were fired from the 'sporterised' Lee-Enfield No4 that I owned when I lived in the States. Cheapest stuff I could get was Iraqi government surplus - some of which appears to have been made in 1938!

On the bottom row, the .338 cases came back from a tour in Afghanistan. There, for the first time in my experience, troops were allowed to bring back a limited amount of spent 'brass', providing they had a 'Free From Explosives' chit; whether they were 7.62mm turned into cufflinks or 105mm arty cases

The 3x 'old' .303" may have been 'dug', along with the .45ACP case further to the right; .303" are 1916, 1942 & 1943 dated with .45 ACP bearing a headstamp typical of early WW2 UK issue. The case mouths are slightly eroded & they were very tarnished (although much improved by a bath in ketchup!) but impossible to tell for sure since came via eBay. Assorted 5.56 & 7.62 NATO (blank cartridge & empty cases), more .303", plus 9mm stuff were in the same lot too.

The 7.62x39 Russian (3x blanks & an empty case - Chinese & N Korean made respectively) were picked up when I was on a training team out in Africa

Some selected headstamps from these are shown below.
(7.92 'Kurz' - not shown in pic above - is a purchased inert round):



Finally are some more recent Drill & Inert purchases. I generally prefer to gather my collection items myself but I snapped these up from Dealers cheap / 'in bulk' / because they are relatively uncommon types that I was unlikely to stumble across... Main pic: .303", 7.62x51 NATO & 9mm Para Drill Rounds Inset (clockwise from L): .55" Boys charger clip, 9mm Makarov training x2, SP3 Russian silent (? - case headstamped Mauser), .300 Blackout, 7.62 NATO L42A1 'Match' x5, Greener Police 14 Gauge:


(Apologies for slight scale mismatch - I've tried to get inset close to main pic based on 7.62)

[MAP]

Those 338 are pretty beefy. For snipers?

[brickie501]

Those 338 are pretty beefy. For snipers?

Anti-materiel

[MAP]

Anti-materiel

LoL!

[brickie501]

Thanks for all the likes & other interest so far!

I've realised (because I was concentrating on WW2 rounds for the other thread) the first picture above is quite an old overview of my collection!

I haven't got an up to date photo of everything because its not all in the same place at the moment (hence 'composite' picture of recent additions) … therefore a few parts of my collection have been missed out above!

So, with apologies for the 'overlap', here is a newer photo of the main collection, showing a few more items (mainly large calibre "Small Arms" cartridges & 'packaging' parts) that I have:



Top (L to R): Signal Flare pack (empty), 40mm GMG Practice x2, 37mm 'Baton Gun' blank & "Rubber Bullets", 105mm Light Gun primer (vent tube cut off), 3" Mortar fuse covers x2, trays for 9mm Para rounds.

Bottom (far left): 30mm Apache 'Area Weapon System' cases x2. (far right): various (smoke & practice) Grenade pins, .22" LR boxes.

(Before anyone asks, yes - there is a bit of 'Photoshop' going on, I made a more compact picture having cropped out some items irrelevant to this thread )


And, for completeness, some misc bits & bobs bookended by "Trench Art" from two British Army Campaigns 90 years apart! The "Souvenir from Poperinge" match box case came from a late relative's house but the .338 Cufflinks & 30mm RADEN case "Shot Glass" are mine :



Can I coin the term "FOB Art" for the modern stuff? OK, mine were made in Camp BASTION but "Trenches" aren't where we're at these days )

[brickie501]

Few more items added to my collection The holster, 'magazines' (larger one is actually for Vent Tubes to fire tank main gun) & cartridges (less 40mm GMG cases) were all picked up at a "4x4 & Vintage" autojumble yesterday... the rest from eBay over last few weeks

[brickie501]

I've just acquired (eBay) some charger / 'stripper' clips for my collection

It was fairly straightforward to find out more about the first...

DWM (Berlin - Borsigwalde) manufactured "Ladestreifen 3c" clip:



I've refurbished it with a replacement 'spring clip' (since the original crumbled away) & it's displayed here holding my inert post-War 7.92x33 round (7.62 NATO clip in background for comparison).


The second is a clip for the MAS 36 (or Gewehr 242(F) since this one was allegedly for these French rifles captured & in German service):



I've been searching for info but drawn a bit of a blank on this one (since must references show what I assume are post-War clips, more obviously marked with 'MAS' & other info ). My question is, can anyone decipher the markings for a date or place of production for this one?

Many thanks in advance!

[zwerge]

Hi,LM is the maker...Atelier de Construction du Mans,France....2-38 is the date,the second quarter of 1938,and DF or is it DE can`t tell,is the metal supplier,could be ..Societe Electrometallurgique de Dives,France.....Pete.

[brickie501]

Thanks Pete

It is an F rather than an E

[brickie501]

I'm steadily adding to my collection of cartridge cases etc but haven't been able to get them all together... so you will have to make do with a picture of just the 'updates' I'm afraid.

It's probably for the best as there were already too many for me to show enough detail in an 'overall' picture



Most of my recent additions are in the top of the picture (L to R):

.455 Webley MkII or MkVI case - unsure of manufacturer / date; if anyone can help from headstamp, please let me know
44-40 Imperial 'blank' (cable spiking gun) cases x6
.303 Ball MkVII case by Greenwood & Batley, Leeds, Yorks, dated 1942
7.62x51mm inert Ball rounds by CBC of Brazil x2
'Beehive' artillery shell flechettes x10
7.62x39mm case by Chinese state factory #81, dated 1965 ('photoshop at work I'm afraid - cropped & inserted from a separate picture)

The .455 & one of the 44-40s also feature at the extremes of the lower part of the picture, as well as another .45 ACP case (Western Cartridge Company dated 1986) I've obtained, but primarily you get to see the headstamps of all of my large calibre pistol ammo