Teaser photo

According to Keith, The first two on the left are not MP/MK211 rounds. They are an LC contract to paint ball rounds to look like them. They aren't fakes unless someone tries to sell them to you as fakes. They are actually more rare than regular Raufouss rounds.

ETA: Green only round on far left is cold cut steel core M33 to reduce costs.

All FNB headstamps

TE headstamps

SRTA, SRTA tracer, MP-tracers and MP

AAI experimental rounds

"FAT" 50 experimental round, Denver experimental incendiary round

Argentine tracer, IVI headstamp is Canada C44 APHC-T Tungsten hard core



Said French 20/50 HV, but looks like it's based on a 14.5?

ball, unknown, ball with one side green one side red marking paint for some purpose.

Well, to clarify, the one on the extreme left has nothing to do with MP.  It's an experimental version of the M33 Ball, Cold Headed steel core formation, rather than the usual core mfg process.  Just attempting to find a cheaper faster way to make Ball rounds.  Not intended to refer to MP in any form or reason.  Green is the tip color code pretty much used by default to mean a "non-standard loading" (it used to be silver, till the M8 API came around.)  There are numerous one-off green tip .50 rounds, green not being assigned to anything except M855 5.56 Ball and Norway using it for MP.  But green's not a standardized color in NATO for .50, so green got used for a lot of one-off things in the US.

The Silver/Green is a ball round painted by LC to look like MP.  I was told some sort of tests were being run, but they couldn't use real MP due to the frag generating capability of MP, so they used ball and reversed the tip colors to prevent confusion.  Why they felt the need to use tip colors at all is beyond me.

Still both are legit factory loads, experimental to some degree, so nice finds.  Being one-off, they were produced in far less quantity than regular Mk211 or most any other .50

The Silver/Green in the subsequent photo, FNB headstamp, was FN's own design for a MultiPurpose round, not utilizing the Raufoss design, so it got a different color code, they selected Silver/Green.  When FN produced the actual Raufoss MP design, under license, they used the Silver/Yellow color code.  Manufacturer's choice/discretion.

The Black/Red IVI is APHCT, AP, hard core, tracer, Canadian designation C44.  Very heavy bullet.  HC to mean it's not standard hardened steel core it's tungsten.

Thanks Keith. I should have been recording or writing things down. Still overwhelmed.

Not of 50's. I broke the bank buying singles :) (well, except regular MK211 that I think you already have)

I have some extra 20mm stuff if you need any of that.

@KeithPagel

Is the FN own design MP silver/green also of the APEI-169 designation, or does it have another?

Thanks for the info on both of these. Still digesting/learning.

ETA: is it APEI-169 or MK169?

Keith, white over yellow with Sweden headstamp. Fuchs' book lists it as MP-T. Is that correct?

MP Tracer m/45 SLBRSPLJ white/yellow tip

White/Yellow was MPT for Sweden, produced by Raufoss if the 9 3 583 headstamp.  That's the straight up NM160 design.

The Silver/Green FN, reversed Mk211 colors, was FN's own attempt at a MP round, different design than Raufoss.  Silver/Yellow was FN's license built version of the Raufoss MP NM140.

APEI 169 is not Mk169.   No connection in designations, APEI 169 is an FN designation.  USN designation Mk169 has nothing to do with .50 cal rounds.

Was there an FN designation for it? Fuch's book (and one of your posts somewhere) calls it HEPI.

APEI = AP explosive incendiary?

HEPI = HE P? Incendiary?

No further designation that I know of.  It didn't go anywhere.  Easier to stick with a known design than reinvent the wheel.

APEI, HEPI, HEIAP, all are MultiPurpose, just a way of differentiating one design from another.  All are AP, HE and I.  Just reshuffling letters.