20mm 148g Zerl bullet? Swat Inspection stamp, Threaded end?? What does it go to?

[ww1917]

I have a bringback bullet. There's no case but the end is threaded and there seems to be dried up clay red in side. It's stamped with a inspection stamp amd a few other markings. It's alittle over 3" and is heavy for it's size.

What is it to?

[Adrian Stevenson]

Looks like a German 20mm tracer round. If so, that is not mud but is the incendiary filling.

Cheers, Ade.

[ww1917]

Guess the red paint means red tracer..

[ww1917]

I pulled out the calibers and scaled it. It's defiently 20mm and weighs in 5.12oz

[Matt L]

Yup, that's normal 2cm Flak Panzergranate (AP) projectile with an intact tracer element; the wide red band indicates the tracer colour and, I believe, that it's an incendiary round; 'Zerl' would seem to stand for 'Zerlegerzünder'- self-destroying fuze- so since it appears to be live, you should probably be careful with it. I have one that has what I seem to recall being the alternate paint marking- a thin red ring above the driving band to indicate the tracer colour, and red on the point for the incendiary identifier- mine has a very large cavity running almost the whole length, but it's empty. I also seem to recall mine having 'Zerl' faintly on it too, although I don't see it now. You might want to check further into this- I'm not 100% sure I have it all correct...

[ww1917]

Good info. The one that concerns me is the self-destorying. Is that based on firing or impact from teh tip. The powder is rather dry/brittle.

[Matt L]

Well AP rounds have to have a base fuze since obviously the point is meant to punch through armour, so the fuze can't be there. What I don't know is if it's like that of an HE round where the declining rotational velocity causes the fuze to fire, or if the tracer burning down to a detonation pellet or something is how this type works- I have only cutaway images of a non-tracer APHE round which has a base fuze, and a tracer HE round which shows a hole between the tracer cavity and the charge cavity. wk2ammo - Powered by vBulletin would be the place to ask if you can't get an answer here as to whether or not you have something really dangerous...