Here's a list:
http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/h...adstampcodes#S
--Wag--
Here's a list:
http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/h...adstampcodes#S
--Wag--
"Great genius will always encounter fierce opposition from mediocre minds." --Albert Einstein.
curdog: After looking up the meaning of the S L on the cartridge case, I looked up the info available on the St. Louis ordinance plant and saw the very buildings you refer to on that web site. Thanks for the info. Big Boomer
Wag: That's the list I found that put me on the trail of the St. Louis ordinance plant. Shame it is virtually all out of commission now. Big Boomer
The St. Louis plant that made ammo for ww2 is in north St. Louis. The federal building that I went to for my new Id had a plaque on the wall. It showed the different steps on making 50 cal bullets and cases .It showed the copper discs then the drawing proses to make them . This was about 6 years ago. I don’t know if this was the only place in St. Louis that made them but it was still open then as a federal building offices. I thank it was right off the highway heading north before the airport. I thank it said on the plaque that ammo was made there until Korea or Vietnam.
The building that I went to was a smaller office building.with other smaller buildings around it. The main building was torn down a few years before that
If the 147 gr bullets where boat tail then they where probably M80 Ball (for 7.62x51) M2 Ball 150 gr where flat base.
There is a tungsten AP round M993 for the 7.62. It weighed about 127 gr I think.
The problem with the magnet test is a lot of jackets where made of steel.
I don't recall seeing barbs on any of the AP cores, interesting. Drawings for the 30 AP M2 show it as being smooth sided.
Those AP cores are HARD. Used to use 50 AP cores for a center punch.
Paper Puncher: It so happens that I do have one of those 147 gr. bullets left … sort of. I had forgotten about it. They were boat tails but in one of my mis-led moments, I cut the tip off some of them to identical lengths and hollow-pointed them. Only one left. I shot most of them as they were originally out of a Win. M670 .30-06 and gave the remainder to a young friend. Don't remember the load but they shot pretty well. Don't remember how the hollow pointed version shot except that in a water-filled milk jug they were pretty violent. The black-tipped "penetraters" weigh 161.5 grains. The hardened inner part that I shot into the sand rock was so hard a new file would not make a mark on it. The file would only "polish" the surface. Big Boomer
The old gunsmith who had the cases of SL-54 brass lived in an old house with about a 300 ft high hill behind it. He let locals shoot there a bit. I always noticed the dozens of 30 cal penetrator cores exposed by rain run off water carrying away soil at the backstop. The cores were always rusty because of the steel content. Tungsten does not rust.
EDG
EDG: Thanks for the info. Stands to reason. If not fe, it will not rust. Big Boomer
I'll have to dig up a picture and post it here but I found a .50 BMG casing laying in the desert near Rachel, Nevada just outside the current day bombing range at Nellis AFB that has the S L 4 headstamp and you can still see the marks where it was linked. I figure it was a pilot in a P51 training for the Pacific theater, maybe straifing antelope or wild horses.
Raisin' Black Angus cows, outta gas, outta money, outta tags, low on boolits, but full 'a hope on the Rocky Mountain Eastern Slope!
Why does a man with a 7mag never panic buy? Because a man with a 7mag has no need to panic!
"If you ain't shootin', you should be reloadin' if you ain't reloadin' you should be movin', if you ain't movin', somebody's gonna come by and cut your head off and put it on a stick!" Words to fight by, from Clint Smith
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |