Steel bullet ???

[paul the grenade]

Hi All. I found this battered bullet years ago in the south of france. It seems to be made of steel or something similar. No copper jacket.
I thought it might be a steel core from a bigger round but it has rifling marks on the body. its about 7.62 calibre i think.
Any ideas??
Cheers, Paul.

[Tmine35]

Are you sure it's steel and not copper? French 7,5mm MAS rounds had a solid copper bullet, we find them plenty here from burned German WW2 storages.

[paul the grenade]

Hi Tmine. You are right. ive just scraped it with a knife and what i thought was a rusty surface has revealed a nice shiney copper.
Many thanks, Paul.

[TonyE]

The bullet is a "Balle D" for the 8mm Lebel, not for the 7.5mm MAS. That round used a normal composite bullet with jacket and lead core.

Regards
TonyE

[Tmine35]

Thanks TonyE, I'm not that good in small arms ammo

[TonyE]

My pleasure.

Regards
tonyE

[Falcon]

Try giving the base of the bullet a rub over with a brass wire brush if you have one. These bullets usually had markings on the base, including a date and manufacturer's initials.

[paul the grenade]

Hi Falcon.
Ive cleaned it up and found the markings A15 or AIS
any idea what they are?
paul.

[domi]

Hi Paul,
I think it's ATS (Atelier de Construction de Tarbes) French ammo manufacture.
Normally there must be also the code of metal supplier, the quarter and the year.
You can see more info here: http://www.8lebel.org/index.php?opti...148&Itemid=717

Domi