What to do with M72 match ammo?

[JesseL]

I've got maybe 1500 rounds of "Cal 30 M72" that was among my grandfathers stuff. Most of it is packed in en-bloc clips, in the original 240rd ammo cans, the way you see it in the picture with a little more in 20 round boxes.

I would know what to do if I had a garand, but I don't

Is it worth selling, or should I just hang on to it for the day when I do get a garand?

 

[ocabj]

Keep it for shooting. Unless someone gives you a good price on it. Considering the 30cal match ammo would be used in service match highpower, most people would rather use handloads for a Garand (or any gun for that matter).

I see the stuff in 20 round boxes sell for collectability, if anything.

But yeah, keep it. Then when you do get a Garand, you have some great range ammo with excellent brass for reloading.

 

[hps1]

That is quite a find! If you do decide to sell, do your homework and don't sell too cheap.

www.odcmp.com

would be a good start to check current price on M2 ball; AFAIK no one has the M72 for sale currently.

Due to the length of storage (46 years), the bullets on some of your ammo will have "welded" themselves to the neck of the cases. This will cause some inconsistencies in velocity from round to round and accuracy will suffer.

If you have a reloading press, set up your 30-06 bullet seater to just "bump" the bullets and run all rounds through the press. By re-seating the bullets just a couple of thousandths deeper, all will have same neck tension and accuracy will be much better. You will hear a "crack" on those rounds which have "welded" bullets as they are seated deeper.

If you really want to improve the accuracy, pull the 173 gr. bullets, neck size the cases and seat a 168 gr. Sierra Match King. The Sierras are more accurate bullets than the M72 bullet.

The M72 brass is just a bit softer than M2 Ball brass but the primers are not crimped so they are little more convenient to reload IMHO.

Regards,
hm

 

[loadedround]

Being a CMP shooter and familiar with the Garand and its accessories, I belive you have some very collectable ammunition. Considering it's match grade ammo and made by FA which is no longer in existence you might want to check with some online cartridges collector to see what it's worth. Don't break it down and shoot it in my opinion.

 

[Onmilo]

Depending on the market the ammunition is roughly worth $1.25 to $1.50 per round if that helps you any.

A gunshop in your area that knows what that ammunition is may trade you round for round for comparable commercial ammunition such as Federal Gold Medal Match if you are a shooter.