Would you shoot these?.........

[Mikej]

I'd be running it through one of my Garands. I bought these combined with some nice shiny primed brass to load with my bullets/powder. I pulled the bullet from the one on the bottom left because of the corrosion around the primer. The powder looked like IMR 4064, 51 grains. 4064 is what I use for the Garands, at 47 grains. The powder looked and burned fine on a plate.

Read More

 

[crossbow5]

Looks like original WW II ammo and as such would be corrosive primed.

 

[wolfcreed]

Deep clean if you use them in your Garand after use, but I would save them for components or shoot them in a bolt action since they are easier to clean than your Garand.
Most if not all .30-06 prior to 1953 is corrosive.

 

[Mikej]

Deep clean if you use them in your Garand after use, but I would save them for components or shoot them in a bolt action since they are easier to clean than your Garand.
Most if not all .30-06 prior to 1953 is corrosive.

This doesn't make sense. How many Garands were made before 1953 that were shooting millions of rounds of this very ammo? Not to mention the 03A3s? I've never heard of corroded barrels in the M1s, or 03-A3s, from war years, American arsenal made .30-06?

And I'm not really up for shooting ammo this old in my guns. I'm sentimental about the guns, ammo not at all. I don't even care to take it apart for components. I have a good lot of good brass, bullets ,powder and primers.

Looks like original WW II ammo and as such would be corrosive primed.

I have an old ammo box like your avatar. It was in my dad's "gun stuff" box.

 

[wolfcreed]

Sounds like you are set up well for shooting your Garand.

Enjoy the "ping".

 

[saxon]

den 42 43 etc are hard hitting and hot while not bad at all for the M1 i would save them
for that time you need to shoot 500 yards through 3 phone poles to go through the 4 phone books you have been saving

 

[Stomper]

Slap Biden's or Kotek's face on 'em and shoot 'em!

 

[CLT65]

I've shot old ammo like that, and older. It's definitely corrosive primed, so you'd want to clean your M1 thoroughly afterwards, just like the GI's did back in the day.

I have had some WWII USGI ammo that started to deteriorate from the inside out, where corrosion worked its way out around the primer, like the one you pulled apart. It seemed to be random, with other ammo in the same batch perfectly fine. I could tell the bad ones just by shaking them and listening for the powder inside. If I couldn't hear the powder shake back and forth, I pulled them apart.

I still have maybe a dozen clips full of WWII USGI Garand ammo, and a couple bandoliers of later Taiwanese ammo in M1 clips (also corrosive) that I'll probably shoot up someday, probably when shooting with friends when I plan on shooting a bunch, and giving it a good old-fashioned cleaning afterwards.

I typically don't shoot corrosive ammo in my M1's, but I'm not scared of it like some are. If you know how to clean after shooting it, it's just fine. A lot of people don't know how though, or just don't want to bother. I've seen a lot of bores damaged from corrosive ammo, so I don't recommend it to others anymore. I remember one gun many years ago, I told him seriously, you have to clean carefully after shooting this ammo, or it will rust your barrel. Yeah, yeah, he knows that, he will, absolutely.
The next time I saw him he says his gun has a problem, the brass gets stuck in the chamber. You guessed it- rust galore, because he didn't clean it!

 

[JuglansRegia]

It will corrode your dies if you are a reloader.

 

[Alexx1401]

This doesn't make sense. How many Garands were made before 1953 that were shooting millions of rounds of this very ammo? Not to mention the 03A3s? I've never heard of corroded barrels in the M1s, or 03-A3s, from war years, American arsenal made .30-06?

Because they were taught to keep them clean. The old style priming compound does not screw up a bore over night. Its just not like the newer stuff were you can shoot and put the gun away and forget about it till some time later.

 

[bpyycpyy]

While I don't think any harm would come from shooting this ammo, unless you have much more that you don't show, my suggestion is that if there's any question about it I wouldn't bother shooting it for the few rounds of pleasure that it could provide versus the potential issues that it might cause. In other words, NOT WORTH IT. On the other hand, if you have a 50 caliber storage box full of it...

 

[Mikej]

While I don't think any harm would come from shooting this ammo, unless you have much more that you don't show, my suggestion is that if there's any question about it I wouldn't bother shooting it for the few rounds of pleasure that it could provide versus the potential issues that it might cause. In other words, NOT WORTH IT. On the other hand, if you have a 50 caliber storage box full of it...

That's just the thing, that is all I have of it. With the above mention of this ammo possibly being more powerful, I'm not really into shooting anything more powerful than my own loads. And don't want to mess with needing to clean immediately after a range trip. I still have a couple/three hundred rounds of "PPU for Garand" around here that I've been using for parent cases for my own loads. Pluss another 100 once fired I bought at a show.
Anyone that wants these are welcome to them at no charge.

It will corrode your dies if you are a reloader.

Just as soon not mess with that either.

 

[bpyycpyy]

With the above mention of this ammo possibly being more powerful

Garands don't necessarily like this unless modified, hence the "Garand Load" sections of the load data books. Likely good decision on not shooting them, It'd be mine too.

 

[ma96782]

LOL.....sounds like an excuse to buy another firearm? Yeah Rrrrright. Head down to the Pawn Shop. See if there are any "sporterized or surplus" bolt action rifles in .30-06 (for cheap).

Cleaning a bolt action is much faster.

Aloha, Mark

 

[Mikej]

LOL.....sounds like an excuse to buy another firearm? Yeah Rrrrright. Head down to the Pawn Shop. See if there are any "sporterized or surplus" bolt action rifles in .30-06 (for cheap).

Cleaning a bolt action is much faster.

Aloha, Mark

Well this is just crazy talk! Look, I already bought a nice old Winchester, .30-30, because I found a few pieces of fresh shiny brass that someone left laying on the ground in the forest several years earlier.

Another thing. I had to get rid of a beauty of an 03-A3 because the recoil was just a little too much for me. I couldn't' overcome the flinch. But that's the trade where my first M1 came to me though.

 

[gmerkt]

That's just the thing, that is all I have of it.

Since you already have ammo, maybe just save it for back-up.

Those WW2 rounds were made for use in MG as well as rifles, load is thought to be a bit hotter than we should load now. Your 47.0 gr. of contemporary IMR 4064 is right on specs as I'm familiar with them.

Powder made under wartime conditions varied in quality. I've encountered some WW2 era .30-06 wherein the powder had melted into a semi liquid mass, and was eating the case up from the inside out.

 

[Mikej]

I've seen some of those corroded rounds. I'd just as soon find someone to give these to.

There's a slight difference in the ejection pattern between the PPU and my loads. The PPU is a little stronger, and ejects a little more erratic.

 

[CLT65]

That's just the thing, that is all I have of it. With the above mention of this ammo possibly being more powerful, I'm not really into shooting anything more powerful than my own loads. And don't want to mess with needing to clean immediately after a range trip. I still have a couple/three hundred rounds of "PPU for Garand" around here that I've been using for parent cases for my own loads. Pluss another 100 once fired I bought at a show.
Anyone that wants these are welcome to them at no charge.


Just as soon not mess with that either.

Cool, I'm sure someone will want them!

The only reason to shoot them would be for the experience of shooting the same vintage ammo in your WWII rifle. That means something to some people, but nothing to others.

That old GI ammo is just M2 ball, not even the full potential of the cartridge, though I'm with you; I load my Garand ammo on the light side of GI ball specs too. No sense in beating up the old rifles when you're just punching paper.

I'd never heard of corrosive ammo damaging reloading dies before. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had that problem.

 

[Pepe-lepew]

This doesn't make sense. How many Garands were made before 1953 that were shooting millions of rounds of this very ammo? Not to mention the 03A3s? I've never heard of corroded barrels in the M1s, or 03-A3s, from war years, American arsenal made .30-06?

There is lots of WWII pitted barrels. Typically lots of fine pitting throughout. The rifling at the muzzle opens up from corrosion since that is where moisture typically enters the bore first. Corrosion was so much a problem on the gas cylinder pads of the M1 rifle so they started chroming them as they went through arsenals after WWII.

Since it is a type of salt in the primer compound, cleaning with water works very well, similar to cleaning black powder firearms. Unfortunately, the M1 rifle is not easy to clean using those methods.

 

[Mikej]

I'd never heard of corrosive ammo damaging reloading dies before. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had that problem.

I guess if your punching 100s of primers on corrosive primer ammo?