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My grandfather returned from WW-2 alive and unharmed (sort of) with some interesting items.
Among his stash of bring backs was 241 rounds of 7X57 mauser rifle ammo in stripper clips. Every one of these rounds ( live) are loaded with Wooden bullets of different colors and shapes. Has any one heard any thing about this? I have dug around and come up with a few theories. 1; this may have been practice ammo. It may have been made when the Germans were short of led and copper. According to my Grand Father, This stuff was only accurate for about 100 yards or so. 2; This ammo was some how made to cause wounds to solders and medics who would treat a gun shot wound. The colors must mean something! They are Red, Purple, Yellow, and Green. Maybe this denotes different bullet weight or range? Or if you go with the wounding idea, maybe these have some kind of toxin impregnated in them.
The story involving this ammo was Grand Dad and his platoon were moving to a small town during the opening of the battle of the bulge. They came under fire from what they thought was a couple of snipers. two of our boys were hit and went down. The platoon set up a base of fire and moved up in to position to try and take them out. After quite a bit of time, during which one more of our guys got hit, they managed to kill this one sniper. After some more time it was determined that there was only ONE sniper. Grand Dad and the rest of the platoon gathered around the dead German sniper and in rage picked up his rifle and smashed it against a tree. Grand Dad being the industrious sort picked up the remains of that rifle and relieved the dead sniper of all his rifle ammo and carried it with him until he was issued orders to return to France to await his rotation orders home! He mailed that rifle and ammo home to my Great Grand Father who tried to repair the stock, but other wise left it alone. I also now have that rifle, and It is quite odd and does not look like any German made mauser "sniper Rifle" I have ever seen. It was dove tail cut on both ends of the receiver and fitted with floating scope mounts. The scope is a Zeiss fixed power of 6x magnification, and 20 mm body. it has a 40 mm objective and about 4 1/2 inches of eye relief. Fairly modern by today's standards, fairly awesome by WW-2 standards.
Has any one come across a weapon like this? I can find zero info about this!
Among his stash of bring backs was 241 rounds of 7X57 mauser rifle ammo in stripper clips. Every one of these rounds ( live) are loaded with Wooden bullets of different colors and shapes. Has any one heard any thing about this? I have dug around and come up with a few theories. 1; this may have been practice ammo. It may have been made when the Germans were short of led and copper. According to my Grand Father, This stuff was only accurate for about 100 yards or so. 2; This ammo was some how made to cause wounds to solders and medics who would treat a gun shot wound. The colors must mean something! They are Red, Purple, Yellow, and Green. Maybe this denotes different bullet weight or range? Or if you go with the wounding idea, maybe these have some kind of toxin impregnated in them.
The story involving this ammo was Grand Dad and his platoon were moving to a small town during the opening of the battle of the bulge. They came under fire from what they thought was a couple of snipers. two of our boys were hit and went down. The platoon set up a base of fire and moved up in to position to try and take them out. After quite a bit of time, during which one more of our guys got hit, they managed to kill this one sniper. After some more time it was determined that there was only ONE sniper. Grand Dad and the rest of the platoon gathered around the dead German sniper and in rage picked up his rifle and smashed it against a tree. Grand Dad being the industrious sort picked up the remains of that rifle and relieved the dead sniper of all his rifle ammo and carried it with him until he was issued orders to return to France to await his rotation orders home! He mailed that rifle and ammo home to my Great Grand Father who tried to repair the stock, but other wise left it alone. I also now have that rifle, and It is quite odd and does not look like any German made mauser "sniper Rifle" I have ever seen. It was dove tail cut on both ends of the receiver and fitted with floating scope mounts. The scope is a Zeiss fixed power of 6x magnification, and 20 mm body. it has a 40 mm objective and about 4 1/2 inches of eye relief. Fairly modern by today's standards, fairly awesome by WW-2 standards.
Has any one come across a weapon like this? I can find zero info about this!
a fellow classmate had been in Israel during the late 1980s , maybe 1990. He told me of the civil unrest there and how he witnessed an Israeli Soldier shooting a violent protester. The Israeli Soldier fired a ''rubber bullet'' at close range and hit the protester on the side of the head. My classmate said the side of his head split like a melon and a 1/4'' gash left him quickly dying on the ground. 
