Hi folks,
I just purchased 1000 rounds of Sellier & Bellot 9mm 124gr ammo and I can't make heads or tails out of the head-stamp. I'm used to seeing "9mm" on the head-stamps. I can see S&B, but then separately, it's stamped
"15 9P" ... anybody out there seen this before and know what it's referring to? Thanks very much for any help on this.

This is just a guess but maybe 15 is the year of manufacture and 9P is nine millimeter Parabellum.

S&B used to state on their ads that they made ammo for U.S manufacturers. I'm thinking mostly pistol calibers like 9mm and 45. Winchester I believe had some of their 5.56mm made by Israel Metals Industries IMI and TZZ were the two headstamps if I'm right. Their 9mm makarov ammo when shot in my makarov was seriously underpowered. Switching to one of the bears or PPU was markedly more powerful. Frank

9P = 9mm Parabellum.
15 = 2015

Just curious but such interest in head stamp from commercial ammo?

Thanks to everybody who got back to me..the "15" for 2015 and "9p" for 9mm parabellum seems logical.

S&B makes the Makarov and Tokarev ammo for Winchester's Metric line. They also make Cabelas Herters Select Grade handgun ammo.

S&B is also one of the largest manufacturers that produce 9x19mm ammo for many of the European law enforcement agencies and for military use.

They even produced some .32ACP ammo for Thai Arms in which a large surplus was recently released to the U.S. market.

Cartridge headstamps provide quite a bit of information, primarily the manufacturer and caliber. Other info that can de found on headstamps include date of manufacture and lot numbers.

Some end-users require more info including if Nontox priming is used and even a specific set of numbers and/or letters to identify what country, agency or individual unit it was made for.

Also, by examining the style of letters and numbers on headstamps we can determine what manufacturer actually made the cases and/or ammo when there is no manufacturers code on the stamp and there is no other clues as to who actually made the ammo.

In a few cases we can even identify what type of equipment was used to produce the cases by the style of the stamping on the head. The best example of this is the Lake City 5.56x45mm NATO ammo with the small "circles" on the stamp which tells us that it was made on the SCAMP equipment.

As the man says, check this out:



I know I posted about this here back when this box came to me in the mail back in April.

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