I recently bought up a decent quantity of ammo from a guy selling it for a recently deceased friend's wife, from the guy's estate. There was plenty of 9mm from various manufactures, and some that appeared to be reloads. In one box (that originally was an older CCI Blazer box of 50 9mm Luger rounds), I found it packed with these (and sorry for the crappy pic):



The headstamp says "HP  9mm" and has a star on either side, or between the HP and 9mm. The box had been marked "Hirt Oesterreich." I have some Hirtenberger factory 9mm of my own, and I know that Oesterreich is German for Austria. That handwriting on the box may be incidental to all this, but my question really is whether or not these appear to be tracers?

Many NATO members used two different forms of 9mm ball, one for SMG's and one for handguns.
SMG ammo is usually designated by a colored tip, though not always. Tracers are usually red/orange, though I have seen reddish SMG ammo and its tough to tell from your pictures. SMG ammo is loaded to extremely high pressures to increase rang/lethality/reliability. Typically there would be a standard FMJ and Tracer rounds, though some used AP rounds so its possible that these are AP rounds. In addition to SMG use, 9mm tracers are used to train/practice with shoulder launched ATM's. Hirtenberger made large quanities of high pressure SMG ammo for NATO members and they did or did not color code its tip. Without knowing its exact origin, its hard to say whether its Ball, Tracer or AP ammo. I suspect its not AP, but rather Tracer or standard Ball, but its tough to say. A large supply of Hirtenberger SMG ammo was made for English Sterlings and German Uzis, and several other NATO 9mm SMG's. I doubt that someone had Hirtenberger brass laying around and then conicidentally loaded red tipped bullets in them.There were also some "commercial" AP rounds, some of which had an off red tip, though not made by Hirtenberger. I cant definatly say what bullet type they are, I can say farily certainly that its high pressure SMG ammo. Don't shoot this out of a pistol until you know for sure. Hirtenberger SMG ammo is extremely hot and can destroy your gun/hand.

They are from what you describe Hirtenberg mfg rds, and seem to be tracer as well.  I have a huge qty of Swedish 9mm tracer of late 80's early 90's mfg, and are red tipped as well.  Hope this helps..Tommy.

I appreciate all the info. FWIW, I do have one box marked "Uzi" that was included in the mix, so based on what I've seen so far, it wouldn't surprise me.

The heartbreaker in all of this for me, is knowing what firearms I missed out on. The guy who died was apparently a millionaire who had a large number of guns. The old boy I bought the ammo from said he finally ended up taking the widow to a gun shop and selling them all. I asked him what he had, and he said "You know-some of those, ah what are they called? Ar-15's and AK-47's."  

I'll bet that gunshop owner is still smiling.