This study deals with the simulation of the experimental study of Roth et al. (2000) on the interaction of energetic Zn projectiles in partially ionized laser produced carbon targets, and with similar type experiments. Particular attention is paid to the specific contributions of the K and L shell target electrons to electron recombination in the energetic Zn ionic projectile. The classical Bohr–Lindhard model was used for describing recombination, while quantum mechanical models were also introduced for scaling the L to K cross-section ratios. It was found that even for a hydrogen-like carbon target, the effect of the missing five bound electrons brings about an increase of only 0.6 charge units in the equilibrium charge state as compared to the cold target value of 23. A collisional radiative calculation was employed for analyzing the type of plasma produced in the experimental study. It was found that for the plasma conditions characteristic of this experiment, some fully ionized target plasma atoms should be present. However in order to explain the experimentally observed large increase in the projectile charge state a very dominant component of the fully ionized plasma must comprise the target plasma. A procedure for calculating the dynamic evolvement of the projectile charge state within partially ionized plasma is also presented and applied to the type of plasma encountered in the experiment of Roth et al. (2000). The low temperature and density tail on the back of the target brings about a decrease in the exiting charge state, while the value of the average charge state within the target is dependent on the absolute value of the cross-sections.