13mm bullet, but what?

[Tmine35]

Any idea what this bullet is? Diameter 13,0mm, 48,0mm long, weight 27grams. It has a mild steel core with small cavity for tracer. 8 grooves from rifling. Note 2 crimping grooves.
It was found from a former Luftwaffe air field, bomber parking area, together with a few hundred spent MG131 cases.

 

[TonyE]

ID

From the appearance it looks like a .5 Vickers armour piercing tracer, either FG Mark Iz (bright ignition) or FG Mark IIz (dark ignition), both of which had two canneures. Milled cannelures could suggest Canadian manufacture.

However, the weight is a bit light, as the Vickers bullets weighed about 35 grams, and burnt tracer is unlikely to account for the difference. Also, it is an odd place to find a .5 Vickers as they were mostly a naval store, having been phased out of Land service use in the pre-war light tanks.

Another possibility is one of the Luftwaffe 13mm experimentals, which might fit the scene, but the bullet ogive looks too slim. That is not my area of knowledge though so I will leave it to someone else to comment.

Sorry not to be of more help,
Regards
TonyE

 

[pzgr40/42]

Maybe French Hotchkiss 13 mm ?

greetz,

Menno.

 

[Tmine35]

Theoretically it could be possible because the Germans had in northern Finland almost any firearms which they had captured from other countries. Quite exotic ammo and gun relics can still be found from the storage sites.
I don't have much details of Hotchkiss ammo but what I found does however not match with this bullet.