[Fatelvis]

I just aquired a sealed can of 45 ACP that looks to be from at least 1944. Is there any possiblility of it being corrosive? Thanks-

[Jim Watson]

REPACKED 1944, therefore older than that by some unknown amount.
There is no liklihood of it being noncorrosive, chlorate primers for sure.

[ReloaderFred]

It's corrosively primed, and probably steel cased, since the headstamp appears to be EC. All the EC .45 ammunition I've seen was in steel cases.

The .45 acp Ball ammunition wasn't starting to be loaded with non-corrosive primers until 1952, and EC wasn't making ammunition by that time.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Fatelvis]

Wow, am I glad I asked!!! Thanks-

[ReloaderFred]

It's perfectly safe to shoot. Just clean your gun with hot soapy water afterwards and then oil it. Lots of wars have been fought with that ammunition, and the guns are still in good shape, if they've been cleaned after shooting.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Fatelvis]

Thanks Fred. Its good to know though! I'll use it in my "beater" 45. I dont like the idea of shooting it in one of my high end 1911s!

[cyclopsshooter]

I almost think it's a shame to even open the container

[ReloaderFred]

"I almost think it's a shame to even open the container"

I was thinking that, too, but the OP asked about shooting it. It has collector value to someone interested in World War II memorabilia, so you might want to look at that. The only problem I've found is that most of the collectors don't want to even pay the current value of the ammunition, let alone the historic value.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[fguffey]

http://www.odcmp.org/1101/USGI.pdf

EC head stamps are from the Evansville Chrysler plant in Evansville, Indiana plant, Chrysler had two plants, the other plant was the Sunbeam plant.

The EC head stamp before Chrysler was the Eu Clair WI. plant. The EC was changed top EW.

F. Guffey

[Iron Sight]

But if you do open it.............Please show some pictures.

[medalguy]

Evansville plant was the first to develop steel cases for .45 ACP and they did developmental work on .30 Carbine steel cases too. The early .45 ammo was packed in waxed paper cartons but these did not stand up to the heat and wet conditions of the South Pacific, so the government requested Chrysler to develop a sealed metal can that would hold up under the severe conditions. Voila, the spam can was born.

Personally, I would keep the can sealed. It's worth far more to a collector or reenactor in its present condition, and you can buy new noncorrosive ammo for a fraction of what that can will fetch. I have several in my collection. The individual cartons are simply brown chipboard with steel cased ammo.

[john wall]

Don't forget that this ammo is VERY hard on the 1911 extractor.

[Sport45]

Don't forget that this ammo is VERY hard on the 1911 extractor.

How do you figure that? The case slides up under the extractor hook when feeding and is then pulled from the chamber by the extractor as the slide comes back. Unless the cases are coated with some kind of abrasive they're no harder on an extractor than brass.

[Jim K]

I have no absolute proof but have seen some convincing information on the steel cases vs. extractor question.

It seems that steel expands under firing pressure but doesn't contract as brass does so it tends to stick in the chamber, thus putting strain on the extractor. It is not a matter of the steel case wearing the extractor when feeding, it is a problem during extraction. Ordinarily, there is no problem and in that period conserving copper was so important (it was desperately needed for electrical wiring) that one plant was actually wired with silver borrowed from the government silver reserve. Incredibly, when the plant was re-wired after the war, only a few ounces of silver had been lost.

The desire to make cases out of steel can be put in perspective by considering that from late 1941 to late 1945, Frankford Arsenal produced 1.5 million rounds of .30 caliber ammunition - a day. The copper saving had they used steel cases would have been enormous, but the U.S. never did figure out how to make rifle and MG cases out of steel, though the Germans did.

Jim

[kcshooter]

No reason not to use it in any 1911 you have. As long as you clean it with water shortly after shooting and then get all the water out followed by normal cleaning process, there's really no risk. And I don't think that a mere 600 rounds would cause any appreciable wear on the extractor.