Portuguese 7.92 x 57 ammo matters.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I have just been given a bag of 7.92 x 57 ammo; about 150 rounds.

It is a bit "grubby" but not corroded. By the marks on the cases, it has been stripped out of MG 34 / 42-type belts.

Headstamp is FCPQ / 46, so Portuguese made.

Almost every primer had been hard-struck but not fired, so, out with the trusty RCBS bullet puller.

It is loaded with the heavy "sS" boat-tailed bullet and filled with 44gn of "square" flake propellant, similar to a lot of German ammo. This is not altogether surprising as the Germans apparently built this plant in Portugal, pre WW2.

Projectiles have steel jackets with a gilding-metal coating.

Now the tricky part: going through the bag, I turned up several rounds with what appears to be traces of red lacquer on the bullet tip.

Tracer? Not a hard-core ammo collector, but I understood that black was the normal German tracer tip code, but, as Portugal has long ties with Briitain, did they use the British ammo codes?

I have NOT pulled any of these "odd" ones, yet.

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