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Head stamp question.

nick357nick357 Member Posts: 61 ✭✭
edited November 2007 in Ask the Experts
Hi can anyone Identify this headstamp.

p442
s* 4 38

7.92 K98 round, the only code I could find was p442 which I found on google as "P442 Zieh-und Stanzwerk GmbH, Schleusingen, Th?ringen (hlc)"
But the Round looks too new for ww2 and has mill crimp on the Primer.
Thanks.

Comments

  • heavyironheavyiron Member Posts: 1,421 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hi,

    Your cartridge was loaded in 1938 by Zieh-und Stanswerk G.m.b.H., Werk Schleusingen, Th?ringen, Germany.

    From the mid-1930s to the end of the war in 1945, military cartridges produced either in Germany, or in occupied countries, or for German military use in other countries, normally utilized an unsegmented four-element layout.

    Headstamps included a manufacturer code intended to hide the identity and location of the producing ordnance factory. Until 1940, with few exceptions, this code used the letter P (P code), either alone or more usually, followed by two or three digits. From 1940, this code was generally replaced by an alphabetic code (dou, aux, am) usually consisting of three lower-cases letters and sometimes two letters, and in rare instances, a single letter. Not all manufacturers of the P or alphabetic codes have been identified because of record destruction in WWII.

    The normal four-element headstamp has the manufacturer code at 12 o'clock.

    A code at 3 o'clock indicates the case material :

    For your cartridge S* indicates a brass case.

    A lot number appears at 6 o'clock, and a two-digit year code at 9 o'clock .

    Your cartridge appears to be an authentic 7.92x57mm Mauser produced prior to the beginning of WWII.

    Hope this helps.

    Heavyiron
  • nick357nick357 Member Posts: 61 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thanks for the Info. I am Speechless, I have been asking people all over the place and never got anywhere.
    Thanks again.
    Nick.
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