Gun show purchases: Web gear for newbies, black ops ammo and a Panzerfaust book.

Folks,

Sold a couple of First Edition Civil War books I had and turned the money into:

Chinese SKS Gunner's Aprons (aka "bras")

Bought 3 of these, average price $3.50 each. These will be modified for American sized bodies with the addition of longer shoulder straps and belly bands (with Fastex buckles) and the wooden fasteners removed and replaced with either Fastex buckles or snaps.

Roumanian magazine pouch (with two 30-rd mag pockets and two accessory pockets) for AK-47 or -74.

Bought 24 of these at average price of slightly over two bucks apiece. These will be fitted with D-rings on the backside belt loops so they can be worn on the belt or over the shoulder as a mag bandoleer.

Universal Strap, Type 1, General Purpose.

Bought 20 of these, average price $1.50 each. Can be used to sling buttpacks, musette bags, 2-guart USGI canteens, TA-1 & TA-312 field telephones, and, of course, Roumanian AK pouches.



Paid twenty dollars for one 64 round box (unmarked) of what the owner said was Canadian "Armor piercing" 9 mm ball. Headstamp indicated it was 1940 production (?!?). Intrigued, I went and bought a five dollar combination bore light/laser pointer/magnet and this is definitely steel core stuff. The story, however, gets more interesting from there.

Regarding the Canadian-made 7.92 x 57 ammunition with anonymous headstamps (caliber and date only), there are 9mm counterparts that were not made during WWII, although dated like the 7.9s - 40 thru 45. There is no reason to believe that these 7.9s were made during WWII either. . . It is too long a story to retell here, but it will suffice to say that this was a covert deal involving U.S. agencies. The ammunition went to various places. These were made in the late 40s and early 50s for a US Agency and along with the 9mm version were issued with captured German weapons. As John said, made in Canada. . . Dominion Arsenal made this ammunition. . . The '51 and '56 (headstamps) tend to supoport the "clandestine" theory of the MM headstamped 9mm and 7.92 rounds. . . I know that it is felt some were made as early as 1944, but I don't really agree with that. Everything physical about the rounds - sequence of magnetic bullets and black PA points to 1950s manufacture for all of them. . . There is however some controversy because this ammo also turned up in the 1960s as clandestine supplies to CIA backed insurgents in Central and South America. . . Further in 9mm the sequence of magnetic bullets is correct if you add about 10 years to the dates, and the black primer seal becomes correct, as in the 50s, Canadian 9mm had a black seal and not the purple seal they had in the 1940s.

The ammo I purchased has a black primer seal. Now ammunition that is made of mild steel cores is not, strictly speaking, "armor piercing," especially in the relatively puny 9mm. The decision by "The Company" to procure steel-core for guerrilla use is, however, understandable. Steel core, even mild steel core, will tear up steel car doors and thick auto glass better than lead core. The French Maquis found this out during their guerrilla war with the Germans and Vichy, and would prefer captured steel core ammo to air-dropped lead core. As the classic guerrilla tactic is the road ambush of enemy vehicles, it is perfectly understandable that the CIA would procure steel core in both 8mm and 9mm Luger with deliberately confusing head stamps.

So I have a piece of history, but I rather guess I will pack this up for Hannah's FEG Browning Hi-Power clone, just in case she has to deal with road-bound Nazis.

Mike
III

PS: Almost forgot. Also indulged my fascination with an easily-improvised anti-tank weapon:



I got a copy of Panzerfaust: And Other German Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons by Wolfgang Fleischer. Paid five bucks for it. ;-)