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6cm German boat gun shell case

Burney Davis

Moderator
Premium Member
I have attached a picture of the base of a 6cm shell case. My question is why would the primer be modified in this way? It is obviously original to the case looking at the patina. TIA.

20201009_154726.jpg
 
Greetings.
In what way modified?
Perhaps originally came with Kynoch primer ??
Unlikely, i know20201016_141237.jpg
Here are a 1915 and 1917 cases.
One has a more plausible primer....
 
maybe someone owned one of the guns and wanted to fire some blanks and this is what they did to the original cases
 
That was what I was thinking. I have seen this sort of thing on older casings before, i have a few American 3 inch landing gun casings and one of them has a more recent .45 acp cartridge shoved in the primer hole. So probably reused by some collector in its life for firing a gun, likely as a blank.
 
I have owned several US cases, mostly pre-WW1 or WW1 navy cases, with .45 primers fitted for re-use in WW2 period. But I have never seen an adapted German case like you show. Also Belgium often adapted primers for WW1 cases for use as most likely saluting post WW1. Although I do not understand why a British primer is used in a German case. But the primer looks to professional to me to be some creation by a collector.
 
Just a thought, pictured is a Belgian made case for the Krupp M05 field gun (75x277). The primer has been adapter to take what a think is a French style primer, maybe during WW1 to allow reuse. The insert is 16mm in diameter, could somebody long ago have filled a hole with a cartridge to hand?
 

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I have owned several US cases, mostly pre-WW1 or WW1 navy cases, with .45 primers fitted for re-use in WW2 period. But I have never seen an adapted German case like you show. Also Belgium often adapted primers for WW1 cases for use as most likely saluting post WW1. Although I do not understand why a British primer is used in a German case. But the primer looks to professional to me to be some creation by a collector.

Thanks Kornel, I agree with what you have said. The standard C/12 primer is usually marked towards the outer edge and there is no such mark on this primer. They do turn up unmarked, but infrequently.

In addition the primer is heavily stamped with a '14', the same date as the case with two other marks. I can't see why an amateur would bother adding marks like that to a primer. It reminds me of the cartridge used in the Austrian 37mm mountain gun steel cases, but as you have said, why a British primer in a German case.

Thanks again.
 
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