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unknown 20x139 HE(I)T-SD

pzgr40

Well-Known Member
Premium Member



I Have this unknown 20x139 HE(I)T-SD cartridge in my collection. Other than the European types of 20x139 HE-T Projectiles this projectile has a tracer self destruct instead of the mechanical self destruct nose fuze. It also has this fuze that closely resembles the American M505A3 nose fuze as used on the 20x102 Vulcan HEI cartridges, exept for the flat nose.

I suspect this is an USA produced 20x139 cartridge, however that’s a guess. Can anybody help me out on a type designation and/or country of origin?

What colour should the projectile be?

Has anybody got a factory booklet about this cartridge?

Thanks in advance,

Regards, DJH



 

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I'm not sure if you have repainted the projectile, but I know it is hard for me to identify if I can't see what the whole projectile looks like from the outside. Do you have a photo of the projectile from the other side?
 
The projectile had been painted yellow with a red band just over the drivingbelt. It was a bad fake paintjob , so I removed the paint.
Here a picture of the backside. Both projectile and fuze have no further markings
Regards, DJH
 

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OK, some info, not sure if you can use it or not. First of all, it looks like your projectile has a sintered iron rotating band. The U.S. doesn't use that material on small arms ammo manufactured domestically. It would use copper alloy. When I look over my 20mm X 139 ammo, most is stamped DN, most likely purchased outside the U.S. Also, the U.S. doesn't use screw-in primers on domestic manufactured cases, they use pressed in primers. It appears that your primer is a press-in style which would suggest U.S.

History wise, the U.S. has always been behind the times with 20mm HEI-T ammo. When they first started using 20mm Vulcan ammo in aircraft, they were firing HEI ammo, but didn't have a tracer round, so they combined HEI and TP-T ammo, so they could get some tracer indication, similar to mixing ball and tracer ammo in machineguns.

The U.S. has always been big on Self-destroying ammo for antiaircraft use, so they came up with the M246 HEIT-SD round, which was used in antiaircraft and aircraft use, including cobra helicopters and F-16 aircraft. I have attached the datasheet for that round that shows the proper current color code. Black lettering on a Yellow projectile, with light red/pink band below the fuze. Band of red TTTTTTT's around the body for tracer, and brown band for low order detonation on SD action. There is also a 20mm HEI-T round, M242, but these are very rare. The M246 seems to be the most common.

Normally, the U.S. small arms ammo is described in TM 43-0001-27, but the latest electronic version is 1994, 19 years old, and it doesn't show a 20mm X 139 HEIT-SD round. So, your round could be a new development, as I see that some cobra heicopters are carrying armament that fires 20mm X 139 ammo.
 

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Probably a dumb question but have you checked out your own Dutch manufacture of the 20x129mm ?
 
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