Surplus 9mm information

[Hook]

Picked up a few boxes of some sort of surplus 9mm that I am curious about. It is in brown square boxes of 64 rounds and has no useful information printed on the box. Head stamp merely has 9mm and a two digit number which appears to be year of manufacture. Some of the ammo is '40' and some '43', assumed to be 1940 and 1943. The only thing I have located similar to it is identical, but stamped ENGLAND on the box and described as hot British submachine gun ammo. The date stamps on it were in the same range as mine.

I assume this 9mm is corrosive which doesn't bother me too much. But, I want to use it in a P38 Walther from February of 1945 (not collector grade) and these pistols are said to be subject to damage with hot ammo. In fact, Walther folks suggest using only the mildest loads.

Anyone have good information about it. My ammo:

[lyman]

picture of the headstamp would help

[Sunray]

"...hot British sub machine gun ammo..." No such thing. The Commonwealth used the same ammo in SMG's and pistols. Mostly Inglis or FN made BHP's. In war time there was no logistics time to fiddle around with 2 kinds if the same thing.
9mm NATO is considered +P by SAAMI though. Your Walther will shoot that with no fuss. 9mm NATO doesn't bother post war P38 with the Al frame. That being what was issued to the 1950's German Army.
However, W.W. II vintage ammo of any flavour is collector grade stuff when it's in the sealed original boxes. You may want to look into that aspect before shooting it.

[Hook]

Here is a fired case:






I have learned that it is boxer primed and apparently non-corrosive. The 43 (and 40 on others) do not correspond to year of manufacture as I assumed. Still don't know how hot it is though. Sunray, relative strength of the wartime P38s is debated and ranges from do not shoot to shoot anything. Most seem to favor only very mild loads such as the Winchester white box stuff.

[gwp]

Rumored to be clandestine CIA ammo Made by Dominion in Canada.

[JimF]

. . . .But, I want to use it in a P38 Walther from February of 1945 . . . . .

Be advised that the folks over on the P38 Collector forum do NOT advise shooting ANY war-time P38 with the original slide . . . .

It is recommended to get the so-called “fat” slide of modern mfg. fitted to your war-time frame.

Many pics of cracked/separated war-time slides on their website.

[Tuna]

It's excellent shooting ammo. Some say made in the 50's. Some say it was in the 60's and others say it was in the 70's' I will go with the 50's or 60's. But someone's loss was the shooting publics gain no matter when it was made. One thing for sure it is not hot subgun ammo. My Inglis loves it.

[Hook]

Thanks for the input and info!

[Sunray]

Winchester white box stuff is supposedly 1190 FPS MV. And there's the same bullet at 1090 FPS. Their "9mm NATO" 124 grain FMJ runs 1200 FPS. You'll get people arguing about it no matter what it is.
There's an 'MM' head stamp on Cartridge Collector's page that says it's Musgrave Manufacturers and Distributors (Pty) Ltd, P O Box 183, Bloemfontein, Republic of South Africa.
http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=headstampcodes#M

[Hook]

Tried to chronograph it yesterday. Got about 1000 fps with my buddy's cast reloads that he said were really light. The FMJ stuff went just under and just over 1200. One failed to register. The heavy cloud cover, near freezing temps, or something else had the chrono acting yerky so I'm not sure how good the readings were. Need to try it again later.