05.08.2008, 08:05
I seem to remember both the 109E's MG-FF's ejecting their spent cases (Nowhere to put them!) and the centerline MG-151's on the F/G series also ejecting their cases. The MG-17 and MG-131 cases may be a different story.
As for saving the cases to re use them... That all depends. Boxer primed brass can be inspected quickly and then reloaded entirely by machine. Berdan primed brass, which IIRC, was and is still most common in Europe, has to be de-primed by hand and then the anvil inspected. Those might not be economical to reload. Plus, if the cases are steel, they're really junk after they've been fired, and you'd only save them if you were especially desperate for materials.
So, these aircraft may have actually changed between dumping cases or saving them at different points in the war as the supply situation changed.
As for saving the cases to re use them... That all depends. Boxer primed brass can be inspected quickly and then reloaded entirely by machine. Berdan primed brass, which IIRC, was and is still most common in Europe, has to be de-primed by hand and then the anvil inspected. Those might not be economical to reload. Plus, if the cases are steel, they're really junk after they've been fired, and you'd only save them if you were especially desperate for materials.
So, these aircraft may have actually changed between dumping cases or saving them at different points in the war as the supply situation changed.