I recently recieved a gift of 300+ 9mm Parabellum / Luger specimens. - All Foriegn to the U.S of .A. While cataloging them I have noticed that a few have a different primer material as opposed to Brass, Copper, Nickel, Tinned & Painted or Sealed. They look just like the same material used in the US during WWII on 30-06 Expeirementals of zinc... Does anyone have any information on the use of Zinc for primer material by the Germans during their occupation during WWII on 9mm Parabellum / Luger Ammunition. All of it, so far, is Steel cased & lacquered.
In advance.... Thank you!

Sparky, I don't have any references on this, but this primer material is pretty common based on the rounds I've seen over the years. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the T53 primer experiments of 1948-9 were not inspired by this German technology.

Soooooo What yer saying is that Zinc is not that much uncommon in these loadings.... OK, I can except that

Is this pretty rare primer material when it comes to 30-06 found during the WWII period? I only have 1 example in my collection of zinc composistion......

Sparky - it appears that zinc plated primers in 30-06 WW11 era are an interesting and fairly rare item . Loading started in 1941 , and various small batches of '06 seem to have been loaded in various guises off and on till the end of the war. Of course your war was a bit shorter than for some of us , but thats irrelevant here .

Zinc primers were used in 30-M1 carbine ammunition , and .50 BMG as well . If you are interested I can photocopy all the relevant pages and post em to you , or you can find someone with a copy of Vol 11 of " History of Modern US Military Small Arms Ammunition " by Hackley , Woodin and Scranton and copy the stuff for yourself .

A basic precis of events goes like this - in 1941 Frankford Arsenal developed a non-corrosive primer using red phosphorous and barium nitrate as the main compounds . The red phosphorous reacted with the brass primer cups so a variety of coatings were tried , with zinc being the best , also the different finish made identification easy. this was designated the P-4 primer. Various compound developments were investigated in following years but the P-4 primer surpassed most on lack of corrosiveness. The zinc primers were , however , inclined to greater flash and smoke than the regular service primer.
In 1944 a 10,000-round lot of M-2 Ball from Frankford Arsenal was tested against an equal amount of Canadian loaded M-2 Ball and the results were too many misfires , excessive back blast ( through the chamber after the bolt was opened ) and excessive muzzle flash.

Various other testing took place , including a batch of grenade blanks at FA in December 1945 - identified by the grey primer and h/s F A 45.

So , yes the zinc primer in WW11 issue 30-06 is kind of rare . Hopefully all that waffle above is helpfull , had to condense a whole lot of interesting stuff or would have been typing all night .

Dog-gone! I feel like an idiot! I have H.W. & S., both volumes.... Guess I need to read them again - along with a 55 gallon drum of coffee to keep me awake through that dry reading. Sometimes my reverence for reading through the reference material dwindles.