For artillery shells (specifically Pak 40 in my case) that have been “spent” I know it’s common to put a ring of soot/blackening around the shell case mouth but what about the base? Would there be an indentation from the firing pin and would this be ceter fire (dent in the center) or rim fire? Modern artillery shell casings I believe are always center fire but not sure about WWII stuff. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Modern artillery 155 and greater has just the primer going directly into the prop charge. 105 Is semi fixed, meaning that it has a shell casing, which the charge is put in, fired, then reused. It has a hole in the bottom of it for the primer.
As for a PAK 40, it was fixed. Meaning shell, charge combination was shipped that way from the factory. So, to answer the PAK 40 is a centerfire, there is a fixed primer in the center. But, I dont think there would be a primer blow back stain, unless there was a vented primer.
Thanks ackman. My question was about the primer itself, not really whether there’d be any blowback. I’ve got a nice #78 pin vise drill that will do the trick nicely.
Yeah, I just got going on that one, sorry.