Look carefully or miss something good

[SG500]

We've all seen hundreds of fired brass cases for the 20 X 110/RR
Oerlikon "S". I nearly missed the one on the left........until I looked at it carefully, its a steel case!

If anyone has any further information on the use of steel cases for this gun I would be interested in hearing from them. Did they work? Did they go into service? Did they try any other types of case material?

Dave.

 

[kahu1]

Hi Dave ,

I've got a steel case Oe with a blue projectile.I believe it came from Bosnia.
They seem quite common so think they must have been or are in service.
Have been told that some of these with Blue projectiles are not TP but actually HE so look carefully!.One of the many anomallies of Ammo colour coding.

cheers Bob

 

[SG500]

Hi Bob, would you be able to post a photo of it on the forum please.

Dave.

 

[kahu1]

Hi Dave,
will try to if i can get hold of a digital cam.
Had a look at it the other day, dated 63 same OD/grey colour case though has an apple green proj. The blue one i talked about is currently owned by another collector ,so i have to keep working on that one!
cheers Bob

 

[kahu1]

some oerlikon variants including steel case and Becker

 

[Tony Williams]

As I recall, some US production was also steel-cased.

 

[dano1917]

Oerlikon shell

I've never seen an Oerlikon (Becker) 20mm steel case shell, seems really unusual. I tried all sources I could think of and came up empty, but did find a great write up on Oerlikon on Wikipedia. Don't want to link that here as I thinks it's not under forum regulations. Dano

 

[Weasel]

Your right Tony there was a limited production of steel Oerlikon cases by the US towards the end of the war. I have only seen a couple, i will get my camera out and get a picture of the one i have. As far as i remember there are no crimps in the neck so not sure if they relied on a tolerance fit like the German WW2 Oerlikon and Solothurn steel cases did, or maybe it was taken off the production line as a memento and never finished as there is a empty primer socket as well. I have never seen a steel Becker case though.
Best regards Weasel.

 

[Gspragge]

Steel cases

One manual states that steel cases were for home training use only and were not for overseas use, maybe the same for these. They all seem to be made in 43. This was regarding 37mm cases buut likely included everything, fear of a brass shortage perhaps.