New Ball Ammo thread

[marineimaging]

I want to start a new discussion on ball ammo. In the mid 70's as we were qualifying with the AR and 45 I noticed as we were setting up both boxes said "Ball" and then recalled it said the same thing on some of our .50 cal in the gun locker. There was also those designated Tracer with a different NSN. I asked the gunners mate what it meant and he said it's simple. It refers to the basic round, NOD (no other description). It originated in the early days where the cannoneers used ball vs explosive rounds. That later evolved to include the foot soldier who carried a standard round, NOD. Any other round was designated incendiary, explosive, tracer, buckshot, etc., with it's own NSN. That allowed the gunner to see that he was distributing and accounting for standard rounds vs. specialty rounds, especially in the heat of battle. That's all. So, if the current bullet is shaped like a unicorn and gold plated silver and doesn't do anything other than shoot and create a hole in the enemy, and it is the standard round all services will use, then that is designated "Ball Ammo".

 

[Vern Humphrey]

That's correct. Although I believe the designation started with small arms ammo. In the days of smooth bore muskets there were three types of ammunition, Ball, Buck-and-Ball (with buckshot added) and Blank (used to train troops in rapid loading and firing.)

 

[lysanderxiii]

Also, NSNs for ammunition is more that just caliber and type.

Since the NSN is a stock number for ordering purposes, similar to the UPC code on things at Wally-World, it is specific to not only the caliber and type, but the packaging as well.

7.62 mm Ball in 20 round boxes has a different NSN than 7.62 mm ball on stripper clips, and those are different than 7.62 mm loaded in belts. Also, there many be different packaging quantities, for example, M80/M62/M13 belts packed per 800 rounds, is a different NSN than when packed per 600 package, or 1500 package in two 750 round belts, or 1500 rounds in one 1500 round belt.

There are twelve different NSNs assigned to M80-M62-M13 belted ammunition.....