flare pistol ammo case sealed

[ITALIANWARFRONT]

6 inches long, 3 & 1/2 wide and 2 & 1/4 high.
Got this in a lot of German stuff.
Are this WWII vintage Signalpatronen?

Thank you

Giorgio

[ITALIANWARFRONT]

.

[ITALIANWARFRONT]

..

[ITALIANWARFRONT]

....

[BrunoH]

Hi,
It's a post war box (maybe max date is 78). Symbol (for the star for instance) is not the one used during WWII and letter police too.
Regards

[BrunoH]

Some examples

[SIGNALMAN]

I believe it is 1978 manufacture, and Dec. 1981 expiration date. They are good for long after that expiration date.

[RED LION]

bundeswehr 1978

[Börgel]

Not Bundeswehr. Its from the GDR and used in the NVA.

[oberjaeger]

exact

[Willi Z.]

DDR for sure. They sell for $35 a sealed box of 10, as this one is. Common at gun shows. I have fired 100s of these during my reenacting years.

Bruno, superb examples!!

[540 M-Sport]

DDR for sure. They sell for $35 a sealed box of 10, as this one is. Common at gun shows. I have fired 100s of these during my reenacting years.

Bruno, superb examples!!

I think you are mistaking these for the more common Czech military flares seen at gun shows and online. These East German (NVA) flares have not been imported in quantity in some time. I believe the last time they were commonly found was in the late 1990s.

I collect 26.5mm flare guns (WW2 and post war) including the ammunition, and the East German ones are only rarely found at gun shows or online auctions. I currently have about 10 boxes of various types of smoke and flares, and it took me a while to acquire over the past three years.

If anyone comes across the yellow single star East German ones, watch out, every example I have found, the aluminum shells have swelled, making them unable to be chambered, and only useful for display purposes...

[Willi Z.]

You might be correct on the Czech ones and I will check at a show next weekend. There are certainly several ammo dealers who have lots of flares for sale, as part of the hoard they stashed away years ago. I do have a number of DDR ones and grabbed lots of boxes of the illum rounds.

[Willi Z.]

As an update; I checked the inventory of flare rounds at several large shows and the DDR stuff has certainly dried up. All I saw was the Czech issue.