Lake City, I WOULD APPRECIATE some comments!

[Motega]

I have the opportunity to purchase some lake city .30-06 at about .67 a round. Vintage is 1950's I think. They are on stripper clips (Garand I guess) It is 150 grain ball.

Opinions of Lake City surplus .30-06 from this era or in general/.

How to you guys feel about practicing with this stuff and then hunting with 180 grain boat-tails.. Obviously need to adjust but I usually think that this is a bad habit (huntiong with differnt stuff than you plink with).

 

[rcmodel]

If the headstamps are LC 52 or earlier, they have corrosive primers.

Garand En bloc clips hold 8 rounds.

1903 Springfield Stripper clips hold 5.

The price probably isn't too terrible out of line if they are non-corrosive LC 53 or later.

rc

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

A bit expensive considering you can buy NEW production hunting loads at Walmart for $14 a box.

Choice of bullet weights---works out to be .70 cents a round.

 

[madcratebuilder]

A bit expensive considering you can buy NEW production hunting loads at Walmart for $14 a box.

Choice of bullet weights---works out to be .70 cents a round.

I'm with OBG. That's a premium price from LC M2 ball. It shots fine but so does the HXP Greek M2 that cheaper. Save the M2 for the Garand.

 

[Tirod]

After a certain number of years, including field reports of specific lot numbers with failures, the Army sells off old ammunition it hasn't been able to shoot. It doesn't meet standards because it malfunctions.

If it's surplus, then it's no longer fit for duty. Old ammo has problems, and shooting it needs to be done with squibs in mind. Old ammo for nearly the price of new? Not worth it.

As for shooting one grain weight and hunting with another, there's little difference at the average ranges. It's at the extreme distances you'd need to calculate extra drop - and using 150 gr hunting ammo eliminates the problem. It's higher fps makes up for the difference in grain weight.

That's where shooters miss the equation: power is expressed in both feet per second AND foot pounds of force. You can bias it one way or another, but you still get both. Dropping the grain weight means higher speeds and flatter trajectories; since shot placement is more important than grain weight (there are plenty of hunters using bullets successfully from 85 to 130 gr.,) consider avoiding the situation entirely.

 

[Gunnerboy]

For budget screwin around ammo that stuff is just fine ive shot and reloaded the brass and the oldest ive shot is 1940s AP rounds and it is corrosive but still accurate and i only had 3 out of 100 cases split.

 

[longdayjake]

I have literally shot thousands of old LC .30-06 rounds from the .40s and 50s. ALL of them fired just fine and there were no squibs. I have shot thousands of old turkish mauser rounds from my 8mm as well and the worst that I ever got from them was split necks. All of them shot well. The only brand of surplus that ever completely failed and even had hang fires was some 80s argentine surplus. That stuff was down right dangerous. I have to disagree with Tirod on surplus ammo being good stuff. If it was stored well, it is fine.

That said, the price seems a little high.