German WW2 9mm Ammo, is it AP?

Rylan

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Hey Guys,

A while back I bought some loose ww2 German 9mm ammo at a gun show. I bought these just for show, so I could have them in my WW2 collection. Anyways after recently looking at it, I started to wonder if maybe some of this ammunition may be considered amour piercing, which is illegal in Canada right?

A few bullets seem to be coated in a black teflon, or hard plastic of some kind. And one round in particular has a brass shell, and the bullet itself is magnetic. Meaning an iron core right? So because if the core is iron does that make it amour piercing? If so, why would the german's need AP bullets anyway?
German9mmLugerAmmo005.jpg

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Some German 9x19 was made with sintered metal, which I believe is a pressed powder of some sort.
 
You have pretty much standard 9mm, no AP. The iron core does not constitute AP ammo, the iron was used simply because lead was more useful in the war years for other projects. The black bullets are not teflon coated, they are a steel envelope.
Also on a quick glance, you have a few allied ones in there, including a Winchester and Brit govt.
 
Thanks for the replies. Someone mentioned on the Luger forum once, that some 9mm german ammo was AP. So I wanted to find out if this was.

Also, is there any way to tell if the ammo has been reloaded over the years? Or is it all legit manufactured pre-45.
 
A lot of european ammo, especially Swedish, is steel core. I guess you could call it "semi-armour piercing".
 
Yes, I'm pretty sure there is. Just saw an old episode of cops last night and they caught some gang member with a Tec-9 full of teflon coated bullets, or as the police officer said "cop killers".

I don't think teflon has anything to do with AP ammo outside of ignorance and Hollywood. The Russians make a prettyneat 9mm AP round, pretty much a hardened steel penetrator surrounded by an aluminum shell.
 
Is there such a thing as AP 9mm ammo? I thought 38 super was developed to defeat armour (velocity was too slow with 9mm).

Here is some 9mm Armor Piercing in action, it's a little tough to understand, he's speaking Euro-trash :)

h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyKMz3tYx-M
 
The rumour about 9mil ammo piercing ammo is an urban legend, caused by observation when sheets of steel were shot with modern and WW2 ammo and the later penetrated while former did not. The reason is thickness of the copper jacket. WW2 jackets that I observed were slightly thicker which prevented bullets from squashing on impact and splashing lead.
 
.38 super was developed to aid in piercing metal car bodies and automotive glass. Steel jackets/cores in and of themselves do not make "armour Piercing" projectiles--mild steel jackets were a common wartime substitution.

44Bore
 
Germain armour piercing ammo!

Years ago when I was an ardent reader of anything military, I read in some magazine about some german surplus 9mm ammo that raised the eyebrows at gun ranges.:eek:

It had a conical bullet which seem to penetrate the ranges back stops. What it was made of I don't remember, but it supposedly could penetrate the armour of the US halftracks armour vehicles?????

Anybody else remember anything about this ammo.
 
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