WW2 50cal unusual primer

[Vasco Da Gama]

I am sure somebody will enlighten me very quickly on this subject! Picked up nine WW2 50cal Browning cases over the weekend and on giving them a clean one appears to have a very different type of primer to those I have seen many times before. From external appearance it appears to have been modified and has the pattern more like an electric initiated primer, although I cannot see any insulation around the white metal circle. The strike is also much lighter than you see on the usual percussion primers. Was there any difference between rounds used in aircraft weapons to those used on ground guns?

 

[HAZORD]

It looks like it was drilled out and reloaded with a large rifle primer. They should all look like the 43 dated one.

 

[reccetrooper]

It looks like something embedded into the primer.

What does the inside of the case look like?

Does a magnet stick to the ‘primer’?

It might be a piece of an eye screw if someone had previously made a key ring from it, or a piece of a nail or screw, maybe someone drilled a hole in the original primer and inserted a large rifle primer into the hole, or maybe it has been recovered from a piece of trench art.

 

[Vasco Da Gama]

Thanks gents, before I was a bit more aggressive with it I wanted to check I was not likely to damage something rare. A number of the nine rounds bought in a batch have a wooden rod inserted to ensure the bullet does not drop down inside the case. There is also evidence of glue around the bullets. As you both mention the change to the primer appears to have occurred post the cartridge's military service.

 

[jonnyc]

I believe someone attempted to reload the case using a .22 Rimfire case as the new primer. Notice that it is "engineered" to hit the inserted case on its edge.

 

[Slick]

Maybe a specimen from the Kyber Pass gun builders.