A cartridge

[SatansCabanaBoy]

I do not collect weapons...but this was given to me with a far out story. I think i will wait to tell the story, if someone can confirm what this is please. I think that it is from the Metallwerk Odertal G.m.b.H. but other than that, I can't really read head stamps.

Is this a practice cartridge, or is it something more?

..and sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

[Steve T]

Hi there

Yes it is a German ww2 7.92mm practice round.

The 'P' number is indeed the manufacturer you have quoted. The XIa1 denotes who made the case, plated it and lacquered it. The 7 is the batch number. The 40 is the year of manufacture. Check out my sticky thread in the ordnance forum on headstamps.

Cheers

Steve T

PS If you don't collect weapons I'll gladly take it off your hands

PPS Now....what's the story ?

[SatansCabanaBoy]

I read this somewhere which made me think twice when I was told the story, but I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a practice round but...

story goes, trying to cut back on costs of executions, wooden bullets were used.

..like I said, really far out.

Anyway...good to know that it's the real deal. Should I be concerned that it still may be live? The centre has not been struck...or are these powderless..?

[SatansCabanaBoy]

Cool thread Steve...I hope someone moves my thread over to that forum soon

I have some other shells and cartridges that I will be able to id now.

(You know it's funny, when you google " German cartridge" a lot of posts from this forum come up)

[Peter S]

It is not a practice round.....it is a standard blank cartridge. Normally the hollow wooden bullet is dyed a red-purple color.

[SatansCabanaBoy]

Thanks Pete...I'm glad that story I was told is bunk.

[Steve T]

Yes....it's definitely bunk. The force of the charge going off actually totally disintegrates the wooden tip. There is no way, and I mean NO way, that a wooden bullet of this calibre would survive the cartridge discharge, let alone have enough velocity to enter a human body.

An interesting story none the less, obviously perpetuated by people who have no knowledge of ballistics and probably believe everything Hollywood tells them as fact

Cheers

Steve T

[Canuck63]

Yes....it's definitely bunk. The force of the charge going off actually totally disintegrates the wooden tip. There is no way, and I mean NO way, that a wooden bullet of this calibre would survive the cartridge discharge, let alone have enough velocity to enter a human body.

An interesting story none the less, obviously perpetuated by people who have no knowledge of ballistics and probably believe everything Hollywood tells them as fact

Cheers

Steve T

That story is a hurban legend and as such it's 24karat crap!This is a Platzpatrone33.
These cartridges were used,amongst the other things, to train recruits but according to what I've read in some books and heard from the voices of vets I had the luck to meet here on the Italian Riviera as a boy (many former German soldiers who used to be stationed here came back on coming back for their Summer holidays starting in the early 50s,and quite a few of them were friends or relatives to my German aunt) there were other interesting uses for these cartridges!I remember reading on a book on the German 7,9 service ammunition that these blanks(in their MG guise of which I own a box or two) were sometimes used to force the enemy to keep their heads down while the Germans were attacking=no risk for the Germans to be hit.I then asked if this thing was true to a former soldier and he told me that it was true,but when the terrain the soldiers had to run across was sorta narrow because the Germans rightly considered that the "other guys" would have soon realized that there were neither the typical "Swoosh" of low-flying MG burst flying past nor debris slung here and there or stone and bullets whizzing from ricochets,not to talk about the complete absence of tracers!Further...the shoots were "softer" and just one MG used this kind of ammo because jammings were frequent in case of softer loads due to too hard a recoil spring in spite of the recoil accelerator...the other weapons were ready to open it up big time when the attackers were safe though!This gentleman was a very kind man who fought at Salerno and who has passed away in 1998....with all the first-hand info and details a soldier brings with him when he dies and that we hardly if ever find in books.
Other uses for these cartridges were A)first cartridge in the magazines of the rifles of sentinels at Ammo/Ordnance/Fuel depot for obvious reasons,B)Cigarette lighters (I'm not joking...the wooden bullet is a breeze to pull from the case) C)they were loaded in MG ammo belt every tenth round to reduce the number of rounds shot for each burst and I'm sure many of us have seen the German MGunners reloading their weapon whit the cocking handle while shooting...this is one of the reasons!D)..........
HTH
Manny