12.7X99mm BROWNING MACHINE GUN (.50 BMG)

South African Manufacture Ammunition - Headstamps and other detail

 

 Ball Cartridges - 1970 to 2001

 Tracer Cartridges - 1967 to 2001

 Armour Piercing / Incendiary Cartridges - 1970 to 2001

 Other Types - 1973 onwards

(All Pages extremely Graphics intensive) !

 

50 BMG Cartridge Production In South Africa

 

Production of the 50BMG seems to have started in about 1966 taking into account experimentation and development. The earliest known headstamps are dated 1967. There is an official document which shows headstamps dated 1966, but these I have never seen.  Prior to that ammunition was imported and plenty was left over from the Second World War. Ammunition came mainly from the USA. Production was and still is at Pretoria Metal Pressings (Pty) Ltd. The earliest manufacture seems to have started with an Armour Piercing Incendiary (API) and/or tracer rounds. The possible reason for this may be sufficient stocks of ball and other loadings. Even after production started many loadings were still imported. As far as I know no formal production of blanks (only experimentation) has ever been done here.

 

Most of the cartridges in this listing are in my collection, where not they are acknowledged with the collector’s initials after the comments. I would appreciate any omissions being brought to my attention, I do not, by any means, think that this is a complete listing, it is merely what 4 collectors have in their collections.

 

Key To Abbreviations:

 

AP

Armour  Piercing

APHC

Armour Piercing Hard Core

API

Armour Piercing Incendiary

APIHC

Armour Piercing Hard Core Incendiary

Br

Brass

GM

Gilding Metal (copper coloured)

Pa

Primer annulus (usually a coloured lacquer or varnish to seal the primer)

PMP

Pretoria Metal Pressings

Pr

Primer

 

Will Reuter

P.O.Box 272

Buccleuch

2066

South Africa

Tel & Fax: +27-11-802-1235

E-Mail: wlreuter@global.co.za

(Made from a .50 BMG Cart fired in the South African Bush War)

Copyright © Will Reuter 2002, 2003 - Reproduction or the use of this document or the content thereof, either in part or whole and by any means, without the express prior permission of the Author is strictly prohibited

 

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