[dartswinger]

Recently acquired a couple hundred rds. of 7.62x51 stamped fnw 79 and the NATO mark (I presume the 79 is date of manufacture). and 4 boxes of US surplus .45 acp in the gvmnt. brown boxes mkd. Olin Corp. Oddly each box was a different year headstamp, there are: 67 68 69 and 71. That .45 stuff would be over 40 years old. Haven't had a chance to try any yet. All the ammo is as bright and clean as new.
I ask this because in the '70s I bought a lot of 9mm and 7.62x25 stuff that was real cheap then, I think some sort of Eastern European. I kept a couple boxes thru the years for a reserve. About 2000 I dug it out to feed my P-38 and Tokarev and it was terrible! Out of 5 rounds, 2 wouldn't fire at all, one would hangfire (thats nasty) and 2 would fire tho the sound of the report varied. It was stored in my house in a closet. The headstamps on those were 48 thru 51, mixed and came in black plastic boxes. They worked fine when I bought them, but they sure went bad with age! I ended up pulling about 150+ bullets to use for reloads.

 

[Texxut]

What did you shoot your 7.62X25 in? A TT33 or a CZ52? If it was the CZ52, that's why you had the misfires. I've never seen misfires in a TT33. The hammer spring of the CZ52 needs to be beefed up just a tad. The ammo is fine.

 

[gunboat]

A few years ago I fired a batch of 11mm mauser ammo headstamped 1888 -
All went bang, hit the target and gave off a cloud of BP smoke --

 

[soundguy]

i agree... with common ammo in short supply.. I am shooting up some of my OLDEST back stores.

to get range time.. I'm shooting late 30's era nazi ammo and plenty of ruskie milsurp. all this stuff from span cans.. or the old leadded top tinned packs. I have 7.63 bolo mauser ammo that I know is 100ys old that i HAVE shot.. though am keeping some of it for historacle use.

In short. I'm shooting lots of ww1/ww2 milsurp.

I havn't hit a DUD YET!

Last dud I recently hit was commercial loaded 45acp! bought in a bulk can from a large ammo maker in georgia. I think I had 1 round in that 500 can that I had split some time back with some friends, not pop...

 

[soundguy]

ps.. biggest thing is how it was stored.

humidity and heat are enimies of ammo.

if you have any earlyt ww2 303 brit it might be weird... it's using cordite. etc..

 

[gdmoody]

I have a bunch of those brown boxes of .45 ACP that say repacked 5-44. I also have several bandoleers of that WWII 303 British. The ones I have tried still shoot just fine.

 

[gun-nut]

I have had some 303 and 8mm duds. But for the most part they all go bang! I have ammo in the garage and in the house and some in the shed. Still shoots just fine.

 

[dartswinger]

For whatever reason? I've saved my empty cases for neigh on 40 yrs. now.. I went thru some of it and found some of the empty cases of the ammo that went bad. The IDing headstamps are: 38 539 and 710 with either stars or triangles on opposite sides. I found on this site a long list of cartridge headstamps and all the above would seem to be Russian around WW11 era. Like I said, they were fine in the 70s when I bought them but were junk when I tried to use them in the 90s. Anyone else have bad experience with the above headstamps?

 

[medalguy]

US ammo is made far superior to any foreign ammo, especially Comblock stuff. I regularly shoot US ammo made during the Korean War and even WW II and it all shoots just fine. The big consideration is how it was stored during its lifetime. US ammo is generally stored in bunkers with controlled temperatures, while Comblock stuff is......well......maybe stored in the desert somewhere, in a cave, who knows?

I wouldn't hesitate to use the US ammo at almost any age. Comblock stuff? You pays your money and you takes your chances.

 

[Max Donovan]

In 1963, I shot a box of WW1 30-06 smoke tracers and they were fine. FA-18, I believe. They were for aerial combat when planes flew 90 MPH. They looked like sending a clothes line to the 100-yard target. Max

 

[bumblebee]

I have a supply of Lake City Match Ammo in 30.06 for my garand from the 60's...it fires just fine!

 

[dammitman]

that antique ammo is really cool. i will bet that someday it will not be shot but collected. then shot when only the last thing on hand!

 

[zant]

We've put pallets of WW2 8mm through MG42s

 

[RJay]

When WWII started, for the first year the Military was using Military reserve, Ammo from WWI.

 

[soundguy]

i still am..

 

[bumblebee]

that antique ammo is really cool. i will bet that someday it will not be shot but collected. then shot when only the last thing on hand!

I have collectors calling all the time. I didn't buy the Garand or the ammo to collect...