old 30/06 M2 ball ammo : Shoot or collect?

[howard2]

I was looking for 30/06 recently for my M1 Garand and the local shop had a ammo box with 300 rounds of old ball ammo they found in storage room. I paid .66 a round for the ammo. When I went through the ammo box and found: WW2 (corrosive) Lake City and Eau Claire and 1950's (non corrosive) Twin Cities and WCC. It is all in the original 20 round boxes. I was planning on shooting through my M1 but not being a collector of ammo to speak of, I have no idea if its worth more for collectors? any thought?

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[Skip]

I never shoot corrosive ammo in my Garand but only in a bolt gun. It's easier to clean the barrel and the bolt face than the M1 gas system.

[Gun Surfer]

Howard, take some minimum precaution to make sure the ammo is in decent condition. So shake cases near the ear to attempt to hear & feel that the powder is loose, and/or pull a couple bullets to ensure powder not deteriorated. The reason I say that is that old ammo that was not stored properly in past years where powder has solidified into a mass or into clumps has been known to blow rifles. While this is extremely rare, worth just a little checking to reasonably ensure the stuff is shootable.

Besides that, shooting corrosive ammo in a semi auto rifle will force you to clean the entire action / mechanism thoroughly to prevent corrosion. I like many others do what Skip does, shooting corrosive in my 1903 bolt gun which makes the cleaning limited to barrel, chamber and the bolt head, much easier.