Hey there, some time back I came across some belongings from a soldier that fought and died in Italy in 1943. There were medals that were awarded after his death, so I know he died there. The interesting part is there was a bullet, Im thinking from a rifle maybe a mauser. The bullet was fired, you can tell by the grooves, and the bullet is deformed. Now what I need to know is: what gun fired the round and is it possible that this is the bullet that killed this young man. I have attached some photos. Thanks.
Looks like a US 30.06 round to me. German ammunition of that period used gilt metal jacketting that is silver in color. As for what fired it? There are rifling grooves on the round it might be possible to match it to a type of weapon on that basis but that would require a ballastics expert to determine.
Another thing a person could do to help figure out which barrel that round came out of might be to count the grooves. An M1 Garand had four lands and grooves, right hand-twist. A British Lee-Enfield in the .303 had five lands and grooves with a left-hand twist. I also believe that the Mauser 7.92 round was not only "gilt" covered (as noted), but boat-tailed; as well as having four lands and grooves with a right-hand twist. However the Mauser round was almost 8mm in diameter at the base while both the allied rifle rounds were closer to 7mm. Just a thought.
