Uncle Nick,
the stars must be lined up, because I was actually able to find that ammo I mentioned, and I made a small mistake. It is 6.5x55 ammo.
It is 15 rnds on Mauser 5rnd strippers, in an open top paper carrier with a torn label, but the partial word "deutsche" (space) Met(the rest missing)
and the line below (and printed in the opposite direction is the partial word "Karls"... with the rest missing.
the split case headstamp is
"S. F. M." with "18" at 9o'clock to the primer and "96" at 3 o'clock
bottom center is a character I can' quite make out could be a stylized X or )( or could be something else,
Now it could very well be season cracking due to poor annealing, but the powder space in the case, and the edges of the crack have the blue color of corrosion
There is a color difference between the neck/ shoulder and the case body, but its not the anneal color we typically see today, and so I cannot tell if it was once an annealing mark or not, and could just be the way the cases aged in storage. some of the case necks are still fairly bright and shiny brass, but not all of them an the case bodies are the dull of old dingy brass, but not the dark brown of weathered brass.
And you are dated, dated to the era when you were taught the right way to "sniff" an unknown, or possibly hazardous chemical. You wave /waft some of the air above the opened container to you, NEVER put your face over it.
And yes, I do consider some perfumes as hazardous material.
Some might even be worthy of being classified as weapons of war
Nitric acid will eat brass, iron and carbon steel, but not stainless. How much, and how fast depends on the amount and concentration of the acid.
Brass will go first, black iron takes a while and carbon steel takes even longer but enough time and exposure will do it.
Actually saw (and had to help clean up) the results of a moron who connected an ordinary garden hose to a nitric acid bib. He actualy had to build an adaptor to do it, but he did it. According to one of the operators who was there (and at the time didn't realize what was going on) the brass fitting on the garden hose lasted nearly two minutes, and then just "went away" and acid sprayed out at the header pressure. Rather bad, but no one was injured on that moron's last day on the jobsite....we just had a mess to clean up, neutralize and dispose of under all applicable regs.