9mm Luger Egyptian, 1978, Factory 27, Bad Berdan Primers -- any collector value?

A friend has a couple of ammo cans full of what turns out to be Egyptian 9mm Luger. 36 rounds per blue cardboard box.

Translating the headstamp says the ammo was built in Cairo Factory 27 in 1978. It is Berdan primed, has 115gr FMJ hollow base bullets and holds 5.0 grains of extruded powder.

Problem is that the Berdan primers have seriously degraded. If they go off at all, they fizzle and smoke. Firing them in a pistol is like shooting a flint lock: pull the trigger and it fires a split second later, if it goes off at all; like a fast hangfire.

So, unless someone thinks these things have any collector value to anyone, I'm pulling the bullets to reload plinkers, and putting the powder and shells aside. Can't deprime Berdan and if I did, where could one locate Berdan primers? Not worth the effort.

If I dump the 5.0 grains of unknown extruded powder into a resized 9mm shell with a new Boxer primer and reseat the bullet, the powder still goes "bang" but often fails to lock the slide back after the last round. Seems a bit underpowered. Didn't do a chronograph speed check yet. Probably not worth reusing 43-year old powder, but it was an interesting experiment.

Anyway, before I disassemble them all, is there a market for this old unreliable Egyptian ammo?

I would advertise it in a online forum that catered to liberals , after all they should expect lots of misfires and it is a fitting place for it to go at current prices to . Maybe when they contact see if they voted for joe

Ha! You're absolutely correct. It's definitely Democrat ammo: costs a lot; doesn't work when you need it. Sorta like windmills in a deep freeze.

You can de-prime using the hydraulic method (check You tube). Casings can be converted to boxer, use what cases you have and try new methods. YMMV.

Slim

I had a case of Egyptian 9mm with the same issues I bought back about 1990.
It got shuffled around for years untill I finally just pulled it down for the bullets.
Same 36rd size boxes, but mine were gray, not blue and the bullets were 124gr fmj with a concave exposed lead base.
I didnt know there were actually different flavors of 9mm Egyptian...

Had a quantity of same stuff about ten years ago.
Short answer, ZERO collector value.
Ran most of the Egypt ammo through a couple of SMGs and had no problem. Open Bolt SMGs do smack the primers pretty hard and that was 10 years ago.
Found some of it in stash a couple months ago and tried a few in a Browning Hi Power copy. 3rd round went fizzle and stuck bullet in the barrel.
As far as converting 9mm Para berdan to boxer primed WHY ?
Unless you really have an excess of spare time .

Had a similar experience in VN. One of our Warrant Officers carried a 9mm Colt Commander and he was proud of it. We were working with SOG and they were using Italian 9mm in the old 25 round boxes and he'd bummed a bunch of it. We were on the range just plinking and generally shooting and he wanted me to shoot it. I finally did and when I cranked off the first round I got a pop. Cleared it and looked. Yep! Bullet in the barrel. He was heart sick. We took it back to my shop and with a new wooden pencil pounded it out with no adverse affects.
Since that day, I only trust my reloads, commercial, US Military or Israeli military. That odd ball stuff is an accident waiting to happen./beagle

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Originally Posted by Pertsev

Had a quantity of same stuff about ten years ago.
Short answer, ZERO collector value.
Ran most of the Egypt ammo through a couple of SMGs and had no problem. Open Bolt SMGs do smack the primers pretty hard and that was 10 years ago.
Found some of it in stash a couple months ago and tried a few in a Browning Hi Power copy. 3rd round went fizzle and stuck bullet in the barrel.
As far as converting 9mm Para berdan to boxer primed WHY ?
Unless you really have an excess of spare time .

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I bought several hundred Egyptian 8MM Mauser ammo 30 years ago or more and the primers have totally degraded so I have been pulling the bullets and saving the powder. The powder is similar to 3031 and I have been using it as 3031. It works very good in my 219 zipper. I an sending the brass to the scrap yard and selling the bullets as cheap shooters. The powder these days is worth what I paid for the ammo. I have salvaged more than 1 pound and expect several more.

I have some of that stuff floating around. It was bad when I bought it and today, I'd not let it near one of my guns.