LC 68 M2 Ball

[Cosine26]

What is the concensus of opinion on this ammo? Good, Bad, indifferent? I usually break it down, save the powder and primed cases, then re load with 30M72 bullet after trimming and neck sizing the cases.

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[jjroth]

you get some clean stuff latch on to it. LC69 seem better.

[Liftrat]

IMO, the LC seems a little "soft" as far as speed compared to the Greek HXP. Still OK, though. Good brass. Just my $0.02

[colt100]

What is the concensus of opinion on this ammo? Good, Bad, indifferent? I usually break it down, save the powder and primed cases, then re load with 30M72 bullet after trimming and neck sizing the cases.

Just curious. Why would you break down perfectly good surplus ammo? Why not shoot it then reload it with the other bullets you have? Seems like a lot of work when you have perfectly good ammo just sitting there.

[Cosine26]

I did not find 30M2 ball bullet to be accurate. 30M72 Match bullet combined with the case and powder was equivalent to 30 M 72 Match ammo. Shot very well in M1 and bolt guns.

[Punch The Clown]

Selling the pulled bullets? Stu

[Punch The Clown]

IMO, the LC seems a little "soft" as far as speed compared to the Greek HXP. Still OK, though. Good brass. Just my $0.02

I had a lot of short stroking problems with the the LC. Stu

[colt100]

I did not find 30M2 ball bullet to be accurate. 30M72 Match bullet combined with the case and powder was equivalent to 30 M 72 Match ammo. Shot very well in M1 and bolt guns.

Ok, I get that you want more accurate ammo, don't we all right? But why not just trade the ammo or sell it and use the proceeds to buy brass, powder, ect and load up a match load for your rifle? Why not shoot the surplus for practice and then just reload the cases? If you have a match gun, I understand but if you have a CMP shooter, then well, shoot the LC ammo and reload more accurate ammo the next time.

By all means, it's your time and ammo but this doesn't make sence to me.

BTW, I have never had a short stroke problem with any LC ammo in any of my 6 garands.

I would also like to know what you do with the bullets.

[Cosine26]

The LC 68 M2 Ball in question was issued by the DCM in the late 70’s or early 80’s before the demise of the DCM. It was issued for the required annual qualification of club members. I served as a line officer at these matches for many years. The members used some of their own personal rifles or one of the six DCM issued M1’s. I never saw any problem with “short stroking” of any of the M1’s.
A number of years ago, the Army Ordnance department ran a series of tests in which they showed that use of boat tailed bullets extended the life of a rifle barrel when compared to flat based bullets; therefore I always used boa t tail bullets in my NM M1 or my bolt Match rifles. As I remember the test, they showed that flat based bullets showed a slight improvement up to about 2000 rounds then started falling off in accuracy. Boat tailed bullets showed a continued dramatic improvement in accuracy up to about 2000 rounds and a slow improvement up to about 10,000 rounds then started falling. These tests were run while developing the M72 bullet for the post war M72 30 caliber Match ammo and the M118 7.62 mm ammo.
Of the service bullets I have used none matched the Accuracy of the M72. The worst being the four piece bullet used in 7.62 mm M59 ammo. I was never able to get very good accuracy with the 147 grain bullet used in M80 ball ammo with one exception; that was one lot of TW 67 M80 ball. I always believed that the bearing surface provided by the short 147 grain bullet caused it to be a bit unstable. Perhaps in a 1 in 12 twist barrel it was OK. In the 1 in 10 twist barrels the bullet was over stabilized according to ballistics tests. Some of the 30 M2 AP was very accurate. One lot of DEN 42 M2 AP would shot right up there with M72 out to 600 yards.
As for the pulled bullets I have a quantity of them stored somewhere in the garage. They include the M2, M59, M80 and M2 ball bullets plus some LC M2 AP stuff. Why did I not sell the M2 ammo and buy better components? There was not much of a market for surplus military ammo in those days. 30 M72 bullets were available for about two cents apiece through the DCM so it was very economical to simply re work the M2 cases and reuse all of the components (primer and powder). Quite satisfactory ammo could be produced using this procedure for 200 and 300 yard ranges, For 600 and a 1000 yards, I always used 180 ,190,or 200 grain match bullets by Sierra, Western, Norma , etc; though I found that with an M1, carefully loaded match equivalent hand loads were satisfactory. I have one Titus barreled M70 in 30-06 that really liked the M72 bullets and would shoot sub MOA with them. I remember one day when an “expert” told me that the M72 bullet would not shoot. I shot two ten shot groups off the bench that measured less than 2 ½ inches at 300 yards with iron sights much to his chagrin.
I guess I have rambled on long enough. ,

[USSR]

I remember one day when an “expert” told me that the M72 bullet would not shoot. I shot two ten shot groups off the bench that measured less than 2 ½ inches at 300 yards with iron sights much to his chagrin.

Well, for the most part, they won't. I have a Kreiger barreled M70 that is a sub-MOA rifle, and the M72 is a 1.25MOA bullet in it. Modern commercial HPBT bullets will shoot rings around the M72. That's why they Mexican-matched M118 Match ammo with the 168SMK bullet.

Don