Relic Hunting Finds

[bradanimal]

Combed Southwest Germany around the Prum area. Didnt find anything too spectacular. Some US .50cal and I believe to be some German 7.92's? And an interesting piece of shrapnel.

[Panzer 3]

Hi,
nice finds i would like to go and dig some places out there, the last time i was in germany was on army time so not much for myself. the shrapnel, is a piece of drive band from an exploded shell. thanks for showing them.
Dave,

[bradanimal]

Thanks Dave,
Yeah I'm on AF time so I know your pain a little. So really only weekends. Thanks for the shrapnel info.

[bradanimal]

Am I right that the casings in the 5th picture are from 1924?

[Panzer 3]

Hi,
good eyes, it looks like a 24, and the one above has a 24 also.
dave.

[TonyE]

Am I right that the casings in the 5th picture are from 1924?

Yes, very early inter-war cases made by Poltewerke in 1924.

The .50 BMG cases obviously came form the Ardennes fighting over the winter of 1944/45, so I wonder if the German cases came from the same battles?

Regards
TonyE

[bradanimal]

We found two groupings of these 7.92's. One had about 10 casings, another spot had about 8. Either the shooter was a terrible shot or they had plenty to shoot at. Hard to imagine fighting in a time like that.

[WW2Hunter]

Small detail, the first german cartridge on the left in the 4th picture has been fired by MG.
You can clearly see the ejector and extractor mark on the rim.
Regards,
Steven

[Steve T]

Steven

Am I also right in thinking that 7.92s with a damaged shoulder were probably MG fired as well? I am sure I read somewhere that, due to the high cyclical rate of fire of an MG42, many of the spent cases, when ejected, would get damage on the shoulder due to contact with various bits of the weapon's breech mechanism.

Is that something you've heard of or experienced ?

[WW2Hunter]

The ejector was different of that of the K98 rifle.
Ejector mark of the MG is vertical(like the bren gun), the one on the K98 is horizontal.
On this cartridge you see the ejector mark is vertical at 3 o'clock, at 8 o'clock you see the feeding claw marking.
Most MG fired casings will, as you stated, have the neck and shoulder bend while exiting the breech.( I noticed the same kind of dammage on those 20mm Hispano rounds, you can also see that the bending of the nek is right on the opposit side of the ejector marks and on the same side as the extractor)
With the K98 rifle you would have a small impact in the body of the cartridge aprox. 1cm below the shoulder.
I'll see what I can do for examples pictures of them. i have loads of MG fired cartridges from that MG position I found in Normandy and they all have the same dammage and markings on the rim. The only thing I'm not shure of is if it's MG34 or a MG42. I have to check that with a friend, he has them both.