For all you new and old .50 owners

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50 Shooter

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Please be careful as to your ammo purchases. Best advise I can give is that if it looks questionable or it origins are questionable DON'T buy it.

Here's a rundown of some bad ammo.
Dominican Republic yellow tip (it's called that as the tip is painted yellow).
Maine Cartridge Co.
TNW's "blaster grade" .50 BMG (see attached photo) warped a friends top cover on his M2.

Yugo/Bosnian is a little on the warm side and mildly corrosive (tested by the FCSA) it's good plinking stuff just clean accordingly. If you do happen to find any surplus that's 1952 or older, it will more then likely be corrosive. So be sure to clean your .50 to get rid of all the corrosive compounds.
 

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Thanks for the heads up! I mostly shoot re-manufactured stuff from Watson's Weapons (which is pretty good BTW), but still have some old surplus stuff that I bought a long time ago. I'll have to double-check the headstamps.
 
Here I was thinking Maine Cartridge Co. was decent quality remanufactured stuff. Thanks for the heads up, as I'll be a .50 owner as soon as I leave MA!
 
There was a big thread about MCC stuff blowing up a Serbu BFG on Biggerhammer. Mark came to the conclusion that they must've packed the case to the top with powder and then compressed it when the bullet was seated. Luckily all it needed was a new bolt after Mark checked it out.

I think there were a couple other posts about it ruining firing pins/bolt faces from being loaded hot and getting primer flow.
 
I recently picked up a box of API ammo from AmmunitionStore.Com at a local gun show. It is available in A-Max and API, packaged in nifty 20 round plastic boxes with a foam divider.

It is loaded in what appears to be new LC '02 brass and basically looks good, except that one of them had a 1/4" long split in the neck. Typical of a factory defect split one would find in "new brass" from WW or R-P for example. Only noticed it because I like to look it over before firing and my thumbnail caught on the split.

I went to AmmunitionStore's website, and they did not list the ammo in this style packaging (yet?), but they do have a mention of Maine CC. I haven't shot any of this yet - is this the Maine ammo in question, or is there any way to tell if it's (not) safe to shoot?
 
EShell,
I believe it might be MCC ammo, personally I wouldn't shoot it. It might work fine in your rifle but if you already noticed a problem... Pulling the trigger on a round with that much powder next to your face and not being sure of it isn't to comforting of a thought.

Mag,
Talon ammo is fine, they had a couple issues a couple years back but have since fixed their problems.
 
Thanks 50 Shooter, I suspect you're right.

Dang. I definitely had no plans to light up that one with the cracked neck, but it seems a shame to not do something with the rest.

The brass seems unfired, and aside from the one with the brass maker's defect, they do look good. I though about weighing them, but that's only going to show something really severe, charge-wise, and would not show defective cases anyway. That K-B pic I saw looked like a bad case to me.

Maybe I should pull the bullets, see about wall thickness and replace the charges with a known quantity?
 
You could pull them and check out the components or you could send them back for a refund. Note the defect in the one that you have and express your concerns. If you do pull them apart, check the powder charge. I try to keep most of my stuff around 215 grains, 230+ is slightly warm to hot for a bolt gun.

I think that brass in the KB just didn't age well and became brittle, it's early Israeli and I've seen some with the same headstamp ( Hebrew UK ) that had casehead seperations. Unfortunately I have some of these cases, doubt I will ever load them up, don't need to pick brass out of my face.
 
!!!!!

How was that M2's headspace?

So far I've only shot Talon reman FMJ, and Barrett (IMI) new stuff.

The talon has been fantastic. The IMI/Barrett stuff actually has some brass 'flow' into the ejector hole (a 1/4" dia hole on a M82A1 .50 :) sometimes. Seems hot or soft brass.
 
The headspace was fine, we actually beat the top plate flat enough to get it going again! Loaded up some Talon and it was back in action, kinda hard to kill Ma.

Here's some info from a good source, the IMI " Barrett " headstamp .50 BMG was/is made by the same company (Ingman) that makes the Yugo/Bosnian. It was supposedly contracted out from IMI.
 
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