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What sort of ammo was packed in those boxes?
20 rd boxes of .30 cal ball. Meant for any of the weapons, it wasn't so unusual to have to make up belt or load clips or whatever needed. I've done it lots over time. Clips were for speed and wartime. And then you didn't always get what you wanted. You could get any flavor of .30 cal in boxes too.
Initially in WWII, magazines, clips and cloth belts were accountable items to the individual soldiers. The basic issue was 20 round boxes. The BAR guys was expected to load their own magazines, the Browning MG teams load their own belts, and M1 Garand guys their 8 round clips. Each of these designated individual soldiers or team had loaders to facilitated the loading. The realty of combat quickly changed that notation. In the Philippines, soldiers who had M1 Garands found it difficult to reload their rifles as often it was impossible to recover the 8 round clips during combat. MG gunners could not stop firing to reload their belts. The US Army Logistics quickly adopt pre-loaded 8-round clips and Browning belts from the ammunition plants to maximize the effectiveness of the soldier in combat.
At some point in time, a magazine guide was designed to load 1903 stripper clips into the BAR magazine (I never saw one in service) but do remember M1 rifle clips broken down to load BAR magazines with 16 rounds by hand. Everything was black tip cartridges.
During WW2, Seymour started case hardening the BAR magazine follower as a thought to improve feeding but became a spare part.
During the mid 1920's both 30rd and 40rd magazines were developed for the BAR for use against aircraft but scrapped during the early 1930'sAttachment 129122Attachment 129123
As of the Korean war ball was changed to AP and adopted as standard because of improved accuracy and penetration of the AP bullets.Quote:
Originally Posted by RCS
I had a couple of BAR mag chargers during my ownership of BARs and they have to be the sturdiest made. Heavy and durable, there was nothing disposable about them. Our FN mag charger was just stamped tin.Quote:
Originally Posted by RCS
Funny way to pack regular ball ammo for military purposes, though more profitable for the manufacturers no doubt.
When the M14 rifle came along, I remember watching the basic trainees opening up the 20 rd cardboard boxes of 7,62mm NATO to load the 20 rd magazines,
most by fingers but some had the stripper clip like the M1 carbine
It's still done that way... There are two different classifications of ammo now, training ball and service ball. Training ball is cheaper as it's in boxes and service ball comes in bandoleers. The cost is far greater for clips and bandoleers. Nothing to do with manufacture profits but much more the military penny pinching. As explained just how the US ammo system worked, it remained until wartime changed things. With our FN C1 ammo came in boxes of 20 and rubber bandoleers. The bandoleers were always marked from DA back in at least the '60s if not earlier. The blank ammo started coming in 20 rd boxes in four clips...just before we changed rifles. There was a very short trial for 40 rd boxes of 7.62 for us as well... If you're loading mags out of action there's nothing wrong with box...Quote:
Originally Posted by Surpmil
Are you saying that boxes with individual compartments for each round were used in British or Canadian/Commonwealth service?