marineimaging
Member
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".