Military Issue FMJ .30-06 in Modern Hunting Rifle?

[Tim R]

An old friend of mine who worked in the ammo field for the US Navy had a Eifle blow up on him using old surplus ammo. Thank goodnes for strong USGI actions. After the incident he took a cartridge apart to find brown dusty powder inside. Brown dust in your powder is best used in the garden because it's gone bad.

Remember WW2 ammo is going on 70 years old now. That powder won't last forever and as for the ney sayers, chances are getting better for you to get bit.

 

[madcratebuilder]

The old ammo I have shot has generally been OK. I don't shoot anything with corrosion on the case.

This Caliber .30 for the Model 1898 Rifle was made in 1917. I fired ten rounds last week. It was wonderful.

This short Krag loved it.

I shot some M1 ball that goes back to war1 and tons of M2 from war2

 

[kraigwy]

That's a nice looking rifle.

What's the chance of more pictures.

I love the Krag's, My 1898 is the smoothest bolt action rifle I have including some my '03A3 which is suppose to be the smoothest American Military Smoothest action. It's smooth but not like my Krag.

 

[Hummer70]

When I cranked up on the M16A1 test at the Proving Ground we generated about 2/3rds of a 30 gal trash can full of brass during initial function firing of all the rifles we received. On the initial firing we had to visually hand inspect every case for signs of case failure so three of the gun crew and myself sat down and start looking at every fired case and as luck would have it with three cases left in the bottom of the barrel I pulled them out and found a L spit but there was no drama on that one.

Ammo surveilance used to be handled by the Ammo Surveilance folks and they had pros who did nothing in the world wide ammo depots but go in and open cases and inspect for deterriorated ammo.

They tried to recruit me as I wanted nothing to do with ammo I couldn't shoot haha.

 

[Slamfire]

On the Garand catastrophic failure above there is a key piece of evidence missing from the picture. There are seven cases in the pic, where is the 8th case that was in the chamber?

I am limited to posting six pictures per post on this website.

Anyway, it appears that the front end of the case is still in the chamber.

 

[madcratebuilder]

That's a nice looking rifle.

What's the chance of more pictures.

I love the Krag's, My 1898 is the smoothest bolt action rifle I have including some my '03A3 which is suppose to be the smoothest American Military Smoothest action. It's smooth but not like my Krag.

Thanks. I have become obsessed with these Krags. Started with a 1898 Rifle, but the Carbines drive me nuts.

This is a clone of the Philippine Constabulary carbine. Started as a "school carbine" same as the Philippine Constabulary carbine but made at SA instead of Manila arsenal. The stock has been replaced at one time. It has the Mills "tropical" sling. This sling was copied by the Brits for the LE.

The end of the barrel is turned down to fit the bayonet lug. The upper band is enlarged with a mandrel for the larger barrel diameter. The shortened stock has a insert for the void created when cut.

#229440 09/1899

Two new to me carbines, I need to get better pic's.

1896 Krag carbine #29903 05/1896

1898 Krag carbine #273044 09/1900

 

[Tuzo]

Good informative thread

Thanks to all for this thread and responses.

Yesterday was the final straw concerning shooting old military ammo. M1 Carbine GI ammo did not blow up my Ruger Blackhawk but failures to fire and one squib caused me pull the bullets, burn the powder, and recycle components.

Did not smell the powder for any off odors but some powder plopped out in clumps instead of pouring out.

As stated by several posters, old military ammo can be shot without harm to weapon and shooter. But, as with nearly all activities, there is a risk factor. For example, smoking is a risk factor leading to the risk of fatal illnesses. With aged ammo the risk can be minimized by not using it. This may be an option that increases cost a few cents per round compared to newer ammo. But why risk injury for a few pennies?

 

[Slamfire]

Did not smell the powder for any off odors but some powder plopped out in clumps instead of pouring out.

Clumpy gunpowder EEK!

How old was your Carbine ammunition? What were the headstamps?

 

[Mauser8mm]

Ammunition Safety

I guess it depends on how it was stored, but your life isn't really worth saving a few bucks. Slamfire really knows what he is talking about.

 

[reynolds357]

I have shot massive amounts of WWII era ammo and have never had any problems. Much of it is not very accurate. I dont really know if the accuracy issues are indicative of powder decomposition or if the ammo was crappy when it was brand new.

 

[Malamute]

Interesting thread, I'm bookmarking it for reference.

I've shot a fair bit of ball ammo in sporters with varying degrees of accuracy. Most was relatively newish so no worries about the age of the ammo. Most wasn't as accurate as commercial ammo, though that can be barrel harmonics of the individual load. I had some PMC ball back in the 80's that shot extremely well in a sportered 03 though. 3 shots in just under an inch was par for that ammo. Wish I'd bought more of it. So long as age isnt a question, shoot as much of it as you'd like, its great for plinking.

Back off topic,...thanks for the Krag pictures! I love the carbines. I've had it in mind to do a 1903 carbine similar in style to the Krags, and a knock around shooter/mountain/truck gun.

 

[Bart B.]

Malamute, a given barrel has the same harmonics of its resonant frequency for every round fired; the barrel's metal and profile stays the same for each shot. Old, new, military, commercial, handloads; doesn't matter. Problem's more often powder deterioriation causing wide velocity spreads or too small of bullet diameter for your barrel as well as primers gone erratic. Occasionally, the seal in the case mouth's changed its grip on the bullet and muzzle velocity's all over the scale.

 

[highpower3006]

Interesting thread. I have a few hundred rounds of 1942 dated WRA '06 ammo. I used to have several hundred more, but shot it up through my Garand back in the mid 90's. It came out of a lot of GI surplus that a friend of mind found and except for having to remove it from the M1919 cloth belt it was loaded in and clean my rifle of the corrosive residue, I found no problems with it.

I repackaged it into Garand clips and have it stored in a sealed GI can along with the rest of my stash. I live in a cool climate and it has always been in my house rather than a garage, so the temperature has pretty much stayed around 70 degrees +or- 10 degrees or so.

I think I am going to pull a couple of bullets and see what the powder looks like.