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8mm Mauser ammo question Now with pics
dcinffxva
Member Posts: 2,830 ✭✭
I was given a box containing several hundred 8mm rounds. The majority of it is marked FN 40, and has a steel colored bullet with a green tip that is attracted to a magnet. The rest has what appears to be arabic script, and the letters VO, or possibly DA with the letters appearing Greek in style.
There is one complete box of 100 rounds of the FN 40 that is labeled as the FN Herstal Belgium.
Is there any collectabile value to this stuff, or is it just shoot it up stuff ?
Any concerns about shooting the steel jacketed rounds on my K98 ? Or are they steel core rounds ?
Thanks
There is one complete box of 100 rounds of the FN 40 that is labeled as the FN Herstal Belgium.
Is there any collectabile value to this stuff, or is it just shoot it up stuff ?
Any concerns about shooting the steel jacketed rounds on my K98 ? Or are they steel core rounds ?
Thanks
Comments
I reccommend saving the ammo and selling it later for 100 times its' current value. I have a few rounds like you are describing and have shot a couple here and there. If it is the true old school stuff then it is steel jacketed and not steel cored. Steel cored is a dime a dozen compared to steel jacketed. Even better, A lot of the older stuff was made to look like soft tip, but, was actually steel jacketed with a hardened high tin content lead core.
This was a really Butt kicking AP combination, in violation of the Versailles treaty, that really hasm WUMP!
Example: GEW88, made 1891, 100 yards at a 1" piece of I-beam in NC, near Fayetteville.
Boom, . . . . . . . . . . Chinck
Slow bullet mind you!
Couldn't understand or believe what my eyes were seeinf so I went down range to check.
I saw a 1" hole, with spaulding on the backside, through the I-beam.
Shoot it if you want; but, you'll never be able to get it again!
Just remember that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The FN stands for Fabrique Nationale Herstal, Herstal, Belgium. The FN is the same FN that makes machine guns for the US military in Columbia, South Carolina. Sometimes it is difficult to identify FN ammunition. FN manufactured tons of ammunition by contract for other countries and usually followed the contracting country color code. The ammunition could have even been made for England (they used the 7.92mm in one of their tank machine guns) at the brink of hostilities in WWII or it could have been made for their neighbor Germany. Rounds with green PA and green tips are usually AP, and generally weight around 395 grains (total cartridge weight). A photo would help. I have a reddish purple tipped FN 40 cartridge that is a tracer.
As far as the other rounds are concerned, it sounds like they are of middle eastern decent and I would need to see the entire headstamp to try to make an identification of the country of origin. The VO was used as well as OV by the Iranians, Egyptians, and Syrians. Oddly enough FN made contract ammunition like this for the Egyptians. The Egyptian rounds will say "Misr" (in Arabic) at 12:00 o'clock which is the Arabic word for Egypt and carry the date using the Arabic numerical system.
Hope this helps.
Heavyiron
Thank you for posting the great photos. I am a student cartridge collector and it is always fun for me to help other people identify their finds. I am not very good at identifying all types of cartridges but I like to learn. I remember when you first posted your question on the forum.
The cartridges are in order:
1. 7.92x57mm(8mm Mauser) Armour Piercing made by Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre (FN), Herstal, Liege Belgium
2. 7.92x57mm (8mm Mauser) Egyptian
3. 7.92x57mm (8mm Mauser) Egyptian
As for the FN cartridges, the box says 100 cartridges for the 7.92mm Mauser on chargers or clips. The box label also states "a balle perforante" which means armour-piercing bullet. Then the label states Fabrique Nationale (if I read all that correctly).
Below is a headstamp ID for your Egyptian cartridges:
The top of the headstamp does in fact say "MISR" meaning the country of Egypt and was used between 1952 and 1958. The cartridges were produced in the Shoubra (Cairo) Arsenal. The date of manufacture is in Arabic instead of Farsi. The "O" is the Arabic numeral for "5" and the "^" is the Arabic numeral for "7". So the cartridges were produced in 1957.
Individually these cartridges are not worth much. An interested collector might pay between $2.00 to $4.00 for each cartridge. I purchased similar 303 British FN cartridges last years for about $2.00 to $3.00 per round at a cartridge show. The full boxes might bring the most cash and I can't estimate the value of those very well, but will hazard an opinion of $30.00 to $40.00 a box for the right buyer. If you have any unopened boxes, don't open them, they have more value based on being unopened and the condition of the box itself.
Hope this helps.
Heavyiron
I am a student cartridge collector and it is always fun for me to help other people identify their finds. I am not very good at identifying all types of cartridges but I like to learn.
Hope this helps.
Heavyiron
Ditto for myself.
HeavyIron
Should I tell them what Bill Wooten (a published author of cartridge reference material, owner of the largest cartridge museum in the US, recognised by courts across the world as an expert witness on cartridges, and all around nice guy) told you, when you called him a expert? [:D] Edit: Bill's reply was "I'm no expert, I'm just a student".
At the cartridge shows, guys will bring in totes of "misc" cartridges, and price the contents at anywhere from 5/$1 to $10ea (depending, the further into the show, the lower the prices). After you dig out what you want (this time through), you put your money in the coffee can on the table. HeavyIron was happily digging through one (and I was pointing out interesting ones that he'd missed), when he looked up to see who owned the hands that were digging through from the other side, Yep, Mr Wooten was digging for treasures right along with us.
I won't be making SLICS this year, are you going?
TG
Please share Mr. Wooten's comments. I think it would be enlightening for all to hear.
I am humbled by the knowledge of the people associated with the International Ammunition Association.
Not going to SLICS this year because I have commitments at work during this time period. I wish I was going because now I know what I am going to miss.
Hope you are doing well TG.
Heavyiron