[MCGunner]

Smarter Guys,

I am trying to ID a .50 caliber Dummy round - as you can see in the photographs the headstamp reads:

.50 INERT ME96

The only maker I know of with an "ME" is the German firm Metallwerk Elisenhütte G.m.b.H. - but these rounds do not look like similar products I was able to find produced by them.

Another odd thing is the bluntness of the projectiles. Anyone know anything about these?

Semper Fidelis
Nick

 

[MCGunner]

Never mind...The guys at Allan's Armory cracked the code for me.

 

[Tokarev]

.50 dummys

From Keith Pagel - for those who were still wondering

Manroy Engineering. UK They made the brass, sometimes the ammo, as far back as 1988 according to my specimens. ME did stuff for NZ and Israel. Haven't seen anything this recent though. No one's shown me a pic of the tip yet, that's the only unknown at this point. I suspect the tip was shaved off to make it more blunt, either for ID purposes or to make the round more durable as dummies get cycled through actions so many times.

 

[MCGunner]

The guys at Allan's Armory do not mess around. I had my answer within one day of posting with several email followups on the side.

"Manroy Engineering (UK) produced the brass and the marked M-2 links (MFT) were made by the "Metaalwaren Fabriek Tilburg", in Tilburg, the Netherlands."

09 September 08:

A follow-up - We (the Marine Corps) got the ammo in Haifa years ago during an unofficial unit-level swap of sorts. I looked around today and we actually have some from Manroy dated later than 99 as well.

The tips were done by the Israelis for ID purposes. Blunt rounds are actually more difficult to repeatedly cycle through the M-2HB - that's why we don't modify them like that and why the standard M-2 Ball Dummy round (DODIC A560) isn't either.

The links are a mix of M9 and M2.

S/F
Nick