Headstamp Identification

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Gunsmith P.O. Ackley came out with a large series of "improved" cartridges.

Mainly this involved moving the shoulder forward, shortening the neck, and reducing body taper.

The case would hold more powder, and you'd get higher velocity.

Given that when Ackley was active the .30-40 was still very popular and rifles were very available and cheap, it's possible that it is an improved round.
 
WRA 61 (Circle with cross inside) - WINCHESTER NATO
WRA 61 (Circle with cross inside) - WINCHESTER NATO
WRA 30 06 SPRG - WINCHESTER unfamilar additional marking
30-06 Springfield is not 308WIN / 7.62Nato


762 04 CBC - BRAZIL (not fam. with 7.62 from this source. the 762 would be 7.62, 04 would likely be lot #.

R.P. 308 WIN I don't know. RPR would be Romanian, RPA Phillipine. If it is either, Phillipine would be better bet.

TZ 84 Could be 1984 Israeli. this is how I found this forum. I have 762NATO on 5 round clips with TZ 91 on them. The "T" and "Z" are at 10 and 2 Oclock. Not familiar with any Israeli 7.62 weapon that uses 5 round. The Galil and Israeli FN & G3 would have used a magazine.

- Joe "Chuckwagon"
 
Walkerney,

You do realize that you're answering a question that was asked over 5 years ago? And the original poster hasn't been here since the day after he asked the question?

"TZ 84 Could be 1984 Israeli. this is how I found this forum. I have 762NATO on 5 round clips with TZ 91 on them. The "T" and "Z" are at 10 and 2 Oclock. Not familiar with any Israeli 7.62 weapon that uses 5 round. The Galil and Israeli FN & G3 would have used a magazine."

Two likely scenarios.

The first is that it is on clips for use in bolt action rifles chambered in 7.62 and which were/are held in reserve. Starting in the 1950s or 1960s the Isralies rechambered thousands of K98 Mausers to 7.62/.308.

The second is that it is clipped ammo to be used, along with a loading key, to load Galil or FN magazines. The US M14 rifle used this method of loading. Currently US M16/M4 rifles are loaded in the same manner using 10-round stripper clips.


As noted above, R.P. .308 Win is a US commercial headstamp for Remington Peters.
 
Not familiar with any Israeli 7.62 weapon that uses 5 round.
Click to expand...

Many WWII surplus 98k Mauser rifles from Czechoslovakia were converted to 7.62 NATO by Israel. In addition, there were rifles made by FN for Israel in the 1950's, but I'm not completely sure if they were made originally in 7.62 NATO, or came in 8mm and then converted like the Czech guns. Obviously, these would be the recipients of the 5 shot chargers.

The one thing I am puzzled about, however, is that I was told the "TZ" headstamp ammo was from Yugoslavia.

While not completely relevant to the OP, there was, within the last 20 years or so, a large amount of "7.62 NATO" ammo complete with NATO cross and 80's British headstamp that was made in China, allegedly to support a Communist uprising in the Philippines. (The idea being that the uneducated would assume that the Communist rebels were being supported by the UK.)

Fortunately, the cases were steel, hence immediately obvious to anyone who had a modicum of knowledge about ammunition that they were NOT from Britain. It was always my understanding that the original intent of Chinese production of M14 rifles was also to support that insurrection. (Thus, also blaming the U.S. for supporting the rebels.)
 
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TZ has been used by IMI as a headstamp identifier since at least the late 1970s.

It's possible, however, that a Yugoslavian company is using TZ, as well. Headstamps aren't particularly exclusive to any company or nation, and there's no international agreements of which I know that mandate headstamp identification specifications internationally.

I'm going to go ahead and close this thread. It's 5 years old now and there's no real reason for it to keep growing.
 
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