The neck crimp and bullet profile/nose seem to be consistent with legit Mk211, what say the hive? I will try to find a local place to shoot an X-ray to confirm.
MK211 by Buffman RANGE, on Flickr
MK211 by Buffman RANGE, on Flickr

It does look like it.
Are those reloads?
The shiny brass on the crimp makes it look that way.
I'll only shoot my own reloads, especially after what happened to the guy in KY. that was severely injured from the kabboom of his .50 BMG.
He was shooting SLAP reloads.
Still awaiting the results of the forensic analysis.

Without an xray, i’m suspect.
Even “going ballistic” on youtube showed how to fake mk211 using just a basic API cartridge, green testors paint, letting it dry, then running the tip in a cup of gravel to artificially ding up the paint and wear it.

The biggest giveaway its a reload is the overzealous neck chamfer/crimp, and the shitty looking primer sealant. It looks aftermarket (hornady i think) sealant, and Its suspect. Lake city is on some artsy binge, so all the primer sealants I’ve come across, for anything more interesting than m33 ball, are some kind of bright pastel colors. Like baby blue and lilac purple.

The new wave of mk211 forgeries will be insanely difficult to spot, now that real factory loaded api is flooding out from lake city.

Edit: heres the vid
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=USU3YD7wNDI

Double edit: I’m also suspect of the headstamps. Namely the date. Most of the mk211 on the market came from some barracks entrepreneurs in the mid 2000’s who lifted some to sell on the civvie market. There was a huge sting a long while back, and another more recent one with some ricky recon guys outta pendleton who got caught selling it.

This whole thing is incredibly suspect. From the green paint looking too nice and artificially damaged, to the crimp, to the primer sealant and headstamp. Make friends with your family dentist and see if he can help you out with the xray.

The only thing thats stopping me from saying you got fleeced, is the fact the tip and ogive look correct. Namely its fat with a fairly blunt/rounded over tip. Although api is somewhat blunted (compared to m33), its still got a slightly slimmer/streamlined overall profile than a mk211.

You're right. They're forgeries. Had the local Vet throw an X-ray at it today, to check. Clearly if there was chemical compounds in the tip, we'd see the core definition. She solid, through and through..
unless the X-ray didn't do it's job, but we can clearly see powder inside the case, so if this bullet's core wasn't solid, we should see the penetrator shape?

fakes211 by Buffman RANGE, on Flickr

I thought 211 was loaded by NAMMO?

Crimp looks way too shiny compared to the LC 11 head stamp Mk211 I have on hand at the moment.

Yea, I would be in the camp of not real... Def reloaded for sure...   Here is a picture of my stash.... the criimps dont look like yours at all..

It's definitely interesting that the exterior profile doesn't look like API, but the Xray is the deciding factor here. Maybe I'll get some 2017 API and have the vet scan that too.

I took one for my wallet and tore one down. Indeed she Mk211

MK211 by Buffman RANGE, on Flickr

MK211 by Buffman RANGE, on Flickr

wow thanks for sharing. I was wondering if they might look the same in x-ray do to both of them being mostly solid stuff. Looks like you can't use x-ray to id. I think you could. But I think you would really have to play with the "focus" (I don't know what it's called with x-ray). But thinking have to dial it in for taking photos of something more solid than flesh and bone. And I don't know if you can do that with most x rays for safety reasons, higher dosage if used on a person like that.

Our Tungsten core composes of
7.90% Titanium
10.98% Cobalt
80.54% Tungsten :D

I'm going to necro this thread.  Just wanted to add in that any normal x-ray system won't be strong or capable enough to penetrate copper and such materials for the purposes of core identification.


I don't know what setup one has or how they set it up to xray cores, but just a white whole body and bullet xray doesn't mean it's fake.

I didn't know a regular vet x-ray couldn't do it, but I've seen the X-ray pics of those showing it was possible. Given how much these are faked, I wanted to take the cautionary side.

I have the ability to xray items. While I don't have any Mk211, I should probably take some shots of the APIT, ball and tracer rounds I do have.

I have a couple. West of PDX.

Just saw this. PM sent.

With a big thanks to The_Wizard_Of_Odd  I got the x-rays done.

These were the rounds I took images of. With the exception of the silver tip API, I believe they were all factory loaded.


API  Tracer  APIT



Mk211 Raufoss



AMAX  SLAP  SLAP-T
The aluminum tip of the AMAX was so small, the xrays blew right through and didnt make the image.


https://flic.kr/ps/3XXyP6

So is there a special settings needed to get those to show up on X-ray or do you need a really powerful unit?

No special settings, but it is more powerful than what you'd use for a human. Bone is less dense than metal obviously. I'm not a expert on performing xrays, so I couldn't tell you the exact difference.  

I image semiconductors which is why I could only fit the projectile in the frame. Along with that I had to up the power an additional 50% just to get the penetration thru the metals.

My Mk 211 isn’t fake!

@SCARed those are cool images. I didn’t realize that the projectiles of the slap rounds didn’t extend into the necks. Learned something new today.

Those are pretty cool x-rays. Thanks

Basic for human
MAS is the number of X-ray photons produced.
KVP is the peak energy of the photons. ( the average energy of the photons will be higher when produced with a 3 phase power supply than those produce with a single phase.)
The above is for a human. I'm a  x-ray tech.  When doing a x-ray and for that matter a Cat Scan the patient receives a dose measured in Millirads--note that MILLI. The most expose I'm aloud to receive in 1 year is 5 Rads(for the WHOLE year).

A girl I work with husband x-rays plane parts for cracks, He x-rayed his gun(pistol) and bullets and use 20 Rads at 2 Megavolts with a distance of 72" between x-ray tube and film.
Point is you need a hell of a lot of x-ray to x-ray a MK 211.

How much should a loaded round weigh?

The only US produced 211 I've seen is Olin produced.  My stash is Olin and FNB 92

Yeah not sure how this vendor got some, but it's gone now. The other stuff I got was FNB93

For US production, WCC through 1998, LC after.  Earliest LC I've seen was LC 98, last WCC headstamp was WCC 98.  Lots of LC Mk211 dates since 1998, last I've seen was LC 19

Potential lead if anyone is looking.
https://www.1919a4.com/threads/mk211-50-bmg-for-sale.106585/

This is 100% mk211 and we still have some left. As we’ll as the new white tip Api.  I’m gonna upload the photos of our X-rays for you all but I’m not sure how to do so..

Who is "we" and are they selling?