Wwii 30.06

[firemanstrickland]

hello all, i have what I think is 35 rounds of 30.06 WWII surplus ammo. 10 are cloth belted, there are a few tracer rounds and a few green tip. My question. Are these safe to shoot? or. Are they worth anything? Thank you.

 

[firemanstrickland]

pics, didn't load, sorry

 

[rcmodel]

The badly corroded ones are not safe to shoot.

And every one of them is corrosive primed, so be prepared to do some through bore cleaning if you do shoot them.

I'm not sure what the green tip is.
That normally would indicate frangible ammo.
But it seems odd it would be mixed in with ball & tracer MG ammo.

I doubt it has much value, but some collector might want it.

rc

 

[Field Tester]

http://cartridgecollectors.org/?page=introduction-to-30-06-cartridges

According to this website it depends if it's from Argentina or the UK.
Green tip is going to be either AP or Tracer.

 

[rcmodel]

According to all the headstamps shown?

It is U.S. Ammo, made at the Saint Louis Ordnance Plant.

rc

 

[firemanstrickland]

Thanks guys

 

[CWL]

People actively collect ammo in the boxes, but I doubt there'd be much value in loose rounds.

The green tips you have are probably faded black tip AP rounds.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I agree the "green" tip is probably Armor Piercing. The belted ammo is standard 4 and 1 ball and tracer.

I guess I'd have to ask WHY would you shoot this stuff? As RC Model says, it's definitely corrosive primed. When I was a young Private, we would fire up the immersion heaters, and heat several garbage cans full of boiling water. We'd strip our M1s down all the way, wash all the parts in boiling water, and pump boiling water through the bores after shooting corrosive ammo.

That's too much trouble just for a couple of dozen rounds.

 

[Slamfire]

That ammunition is very old and if you really want to shoot it, you should pull the bullets and dump the powder. Then examine the cases for corrosion, and reload with new powder.

Old gunpowder does not get better with age, the stuff can blow up your gun. Pictures of a Garand blown up with WW2 ammunition here:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=9539864&postcount=9

More blowups, more information on the why's and phenomena in this thread:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=758305&highlight=deteriorated+gunpowder

 

[firemanstrickland]

I honestly wasn't planning on shooting the ammo, just honestly curious.

 

[kwg020]

Someone who owns a Garand would put those rounds in a WWII clip and put them on display with their WWII Garand. kwg

 

[Palehorseman]

And every one of them is corrosive primed, so be prepared to do some through bore cleaning if you do shoot them.

rc[/QUOTE
Cleaning up after corrosive ammo use is as easy as swabbing the bore and chamber with h2o wetted patches. IOW, treat the same as black powder fired weapons.

 

[Swampman]

Cleaning up after corrosive ammo use is as easy as swabbing the bore and chamber with h2o wetted patches. IOW, treat the same as black powder fired weapons.

That works for a bolt gun, but if it's a semi auto, you'd better spend some time on the gas system or you're gonna have expensive problems eventually.

 

[jonnyc]

The rounds with a green tip/white band, as shown in your pics, are in-deed frangible, and not AP or Tracer from Argentina. Gents, please do a bit of research before posting wrong off-the-cuff info.

 

[alsaqr]

The rounds with a green tip/white band, as shown in your pics, are in-deed frangible, and not AP or Tracer from Argentina.

Yep, it's frangible ball.

 

[Jim K]

Just FWIW, frangible ball was developed for practice shooting at armored vehicles and specially armored fighter planes. The bullet was formed of graphite and a kind of plastic that left a black smudge on white-painted armor. The bullet was very light and the powder charge was also light so the bullet would leave the muzzle and not be blown to dust as it would have been with a full charge.

It was primarily used in modified M1919 machineguns, both the ground type and an aerial type substituted for the .50 machineguns for aerial gunner training. So bomber gunners actually practiced shooting at our own planes!

Jim