m1 garand ammo

[gsracer]

Hi, first post here, hoping someone can help me with my dilema

So i bought a box of 30-06 ammo, and when i get home i open the box and find 272 rds of 30-06 but world war 2 era stuff.

It comes in bandoliers 6 pouches with 8 round clips in each one and its got a headstamp of den 42, which i surmise is denver ordinance 1942, I surmise this is m1 garand ammo. Also the clips are all stamped brw 3.

Now i would feel really guilty shooting this stuff through my savage range rifle if this stuff could be of historical signfigance or alot more value to someone else.

So my question i guess is this anything special or should i blast it at the range guilt free? PS i know its corrosive.


heres a pic

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[browningautorifle]

I personally wouldn't worry but there may be someone here who wants it. If they do, they can make you an offer. Good catch on the clips. They're Borg-Warner and they are about my absolute favorite for a no trouble clip.

[gsracer]

thanks for the reply, good to know i wont feel guilty shooting them.

How much are they worth do you think, they have some varnish on them but was told by the previous owner that had fired a couple clips that they fire fine. I probably paid to much for this stuff but to get a general idea.

[browningautorifle]

I'm in Canada so it's hard to compare. I just recently purchased another M1 from a friend and there were 4 bandoleers of ammo. 1 headstamped 67 and the others 65. I paid him what he paid which was $40 Cdn per bandoleer. I probably paid too much but it's UNAVAILABLE here in Canada. You can get various headstamps in the US so you're better off. We have to reload to get ammo to spec.

[gsracer]

thanks for the info, i guess ill put them up for 35 per bandolier and go shooting them and see what happens, someone buys it or i shoot it all.

[Rob]

I would just shoot it,if you sell it you just have to turn around and buy more

[gsracer]

yea thats true, im gonna do that, its just id rather have the non corrosive stuff.

[GUTS]

The ammo you have is definitly corrosive primed. I really see no good reason to run corrosive primed ammo through your rifle. Somewhere around 95% of the WWII Garands were rebarrelled, corrosive primed ammo was definitly part of the problem. A lot of fellows have their own formula or method to remove it, whether it works or not is not the question, either way it's a lot more work to keep the guts clean. For the price of the extra time and materials needed to keep the rifle clean I would just buy non corrosive primed ammo. Sodium petrochlorate is the corrosive ingredient in the primers and it's a pretty nasty chemical to deal with.

[Kirk]

If you can easily sell your ammo and easily replace it with non-corrosive ammo, that would save you the effort of cleaning the rifle. The primer salts attract water which form HCL which rapidly (within 24 hours) pits & corrodes bare steel. The primer salts by themselves are harmless; they are water soluble and can be easily rinsed from the bore & other parts with plain water. Hot soapy water is better as the soap helps remove the primer residue & the heat heats the metal which causes the water to evaporate. WWII vintage (nothing past 1953) will remove corrosive primer salts as will many commercial solvents [read the label - some no longer do]. See Stickable: Corrosive Primer Ammunition and Cleaning After Firing - CMP Forums and Noncorrosive Chart - CMP Forums

If you can order ammo from the CMP, they sell Greek HXP ammo for about $.50 round and some comes in clips Ammunition Sales Individual clips go for $1-2 each commercially.

If you can't easily replace your ammo, just shoot it & clean well. It's not particularly rare and it's value is not very different from the CMP prices.

[bulldog_mack13]

I bought 4 bandoleers and they will clean up nice, thanks for everything and shipping so quick!