Need help identifying a headstamp

[glockten]

The ammo appears to be .30-06.

The headstamp has three equidistant markings, going clockwise:

60A 62 30

Can anyone tell me what this is?

 

[Southla1]

That sounds like a foreign ammo to me. Is it berdan primed or boxer primed?

 

[glockten]

It is Boxer primed.

 

[BADSBSNF81]

Try this website http://members.home.net/cstein0/uscenter.htm

 

[Mike Irwin]

My books are in the basement, but I seem to recall that mark being Taiwanese, from the 1970s.

 

[glockten]

This is getting curiouser and curiouser.

BADSBSNF81, thanks for the tip; I think that site will help me ID some 7.62x51 ammo that I've got.

But I couldn't find any reference to this .30-06 stuff.

 

[glockten]

I think this stuff was machine gun ammo!

On closer examination, a lot of the cases appear to have been in metal links. The cases are a slightly different color just below the shoulder and there are scratches in the same area.

Comparing one of these rounds to a UMC .30-06 round, the UMC has a shorter bullet.

 

[Rome]

I believe that you’ve got Ammo simular to what I had purchased from SOG a while back. They weren’t able (or willing) to tell me anything about it so I started poking around myself. After lots and lots of research, I believe that I found that the “60A” designation indicated the location as Nationalist China or Taiwan. The 30 is obviously the caliber. The "62" is the year. Mine was "59". BADS gave you the same link I used to start my initial search.

BTW, that ammo was perfect in one tin, and poorer that 75% in the next. I ended up scrapping 150+ rounds due to the fact that it was either ftf or delay firing (really bad) about 25% of the time. Good luck with your stuff. I ended up purchaseing Talon from the Ammoman. Really nice looking and reliable.

Rome

 

[glockten]

Well, I ran 112 rounds of this ammo through my M1 today.

No failures of any kind, reasonably accurate (3" 8-shot groups at 100 yards), but lots of smoke.

Thanks to everyone for the information! Today was a good day!

 

[Mike Irwin]

Glockten,

One thing I forgot to mention!

The jury is still out on whether this ammo is corrosive-primed or not!

Clean your gun as if it is!

 

[glockten]

No worries Mike, I cleaned it as soon as I got home!

Thanks!

That raises another question though; how can one tell if ammo is corrosive, other than letting your bore corrode?

 

[Cheapo]

The standard cleaning drill for corrosive includes cleaning it again for two more days after the last firing. Your bore solvent must be capable of dissolving water-soluble salts (not all are). You can get this effect by using three dampened patches after the main cleaning, follwed by a light oil job.