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Yes agreed John,DI did indeed manufacture WW2 7.92mm ammunition.
As mentioned earlier the IAA website has discussed this subject in length and is probably the best place to seek info without copying and pasteing all their comments here.
In summary it appears that the WW2 - MM 7.92 4X - DI headstamps were duplicated in the 1950's for 7.92mm production for covert use.....plus headstamp dates before DI was even making 7.92mm ammunition ?
This example with a 1940 date -
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...10/79240-1.jpg
(pic from IAA website)
I'm sure the ammo gurus at IAA would be happy to debate any further questions relating to covert ammo :)
ATB Kevin
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Kevin is on the mark. This is not Canadian ammo made for BESA guns during the war, which was well identified in its packaging. That came, if I recall correctly, in brown metal cans marked with its contents and "For AFV Use Only".
The postwar stuff was absolutely unidentified, in 1144 rd. wooden, tin-lined cases, containing 26 cardboard boxes, 44 rds. to the box (with not even a manufacturer's symbol on the paper). There were three lots of this ammo. The first two were rejected by the Agency, at least one allegedly for excessive soot. Successive lots were distinguished on the headstamp by the addition of one or two asterisks.
Only the first lot, sans asterisk, was ever released, "sold" by AFAC to Interarms in the early 60s. I still have several unopened cases of it. Some are brown stained, later the wood was treated with green cuprinol, possibly to protect the wood from rot if buried. Unlike the wartime BESA ammo it is non-corrosively primed, but is not of the highest quality. The bullets are not tightly crimped and tend to drift, and the jacket material produces copious copper fouling. It's not bad in a Bren gun, but a few hundred rounds through an MG34 or MG42 loads up the muzzle booster with a thick layer of copper that has to be chipped out with a knife.
During the same period 9mm Para ammunition was produced by the same source, similarly unmarked with bogus headstamps, presumably for the M1950 Madsen submachine guns procured by the tens of thousands. This latter ammo was of uneven quality, quite variable (and high) in extreme velocity spread. Often the bullets are seated crooked and bulge the casewall on one side, though the most unappealing trait was that the outer chamfer on the rear of the case rim was omitted, leaving a sharp edge that causes feeding problems in pistols.
M
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And just to toss a cat among the pigeons..... Here is a small selection of gauges from a machinists tool box who worked at Canadian Arsenals during WW II in the ammunition division. The chest sat in the garage until I got it and was not used since the war. Look at the small selection of gauges I grabbed out of one drawer.... :-)##
Sorry I could not be more active in this discussion but a family bereavement has kept me busy
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