5.56mm headstamp

[smle2009]

Hi all,
can anyone identify the manufacturer & country of origin of this 5.56mm ball round,5.56X45 21 00,it is another "contracted in" been used by the British Army,note the lack of nato acceptance mark!
Cheers Tony

 

[TonyE]

5.56

Hi Tony

That is an odd one. it looks for all the world like Hungarian export ammo from Factory 21. Presumably the "00" is the last two digits of the date, so it is nearly ten years old already.

I will see what I can find out.

Cheers
TonyE

 

[smle2009]

Hi TonyE,
I picked this one up,with several others,in about 2003,I have been sorting out out box of "brass" that I had forgot about.
The possible Hungarian manufacture may not be so odd as I do know that several AKM's are kept in the armoury & have collected several steel cased 5.45mm over the years, I don't think these are sorced from normal suppliers, 17? 170? 89(date) unfortunatly they corrode very quickly. It certainly looks very odd seeing a British soldier at the fireing point on the ranges with these rifles!
Cheers Tony

 

[TonyE]

5.56mm

From what you say I presume the AKMs are in 5.56mm calibre?

I suppose the logic of that was that it would be easier to provide ammo for them, but that is a bit odd when they could have as amny AKMs and 7.62 x 39mm as they need from Iraq.

Even so, they then buy 5.56mm ammo from Hungary, probably because it is cheaper! Very odd.

Regards
TonyE

 

[smle2009]

Morning TonyE,
The AKM,s are in 5.45mm calibre,hence finding the steel cased 5.45 casings,as you can see in the photo they do not fair well in our climate! I have thought of the possibility that these later AKM,s could have been "sourced" from Afganistan and kept in store to train troops for use of captured weapons in emergency use in the field??? The Hungarian sourced 5.56mm are as you say very odd!,Tony have you found out if they are export rounds,I presume military?
Cheers Tony

 

[TonyE]

5.45

Dumbo! I did not read your post correctly and thought it said 5.56mm steel cases!

I am not sure about the Hungarian headstamp (if that is what it is), but the fact that it has a date (00) and the military factory code (21) suggest that it is for military contract.

I will check with a couple of people in the US to see if they have seen it.

Regards
TonyE

 

[smle2009]

Many thanks TonyE,you're a star!
Cheers Tony

 

[jonnyc]

The Poles also use "21" and produce 5.56, so a closer inspection and comparison might be need.

 

[smle2009]

Hi Jonnyc,
So far I have found the 21 is used by Hungry,Poland & China,think we can rule out China as the characters are very different! I have now turned up a 9mm with the same headstamp,do you know if Poland(21) made 9mm as well?
Regards Tony

 

[TonyE]

21

Now that the IAA Forum is back on the air I have posted the picture on there. Hopefully we will get an answer soon.

I am away now until Sunday so if anyone else sees an answer please go ahead and post it here.

Cheers
TonyE

 

[jonnyc]

I just saw the IAA discussion on this, and the front-runner is Poland. Yes, I think Poland is also producing 9x19 for their own NATO/Coalition troops.

 

[smle2009]

Hi Jonnyc,
just looked at the IAA discusion,the 9mm headstamp is as discribed on the thread(97 dated) and is the same as the 5.56mm,except for the two dots,so it does indeed look like a Polish manufacturer
Regards Tony