Ammo belt for Carbine carriers?

[imarangemaster]

Frank, They had "Demo belts" that had 5 snaps, if I recall. Heard of them being used with five pouches, though. Maybe Mr. Ricca can clear it up. I think Bill posted on this same topic about 18 months ago when someone found a belt on E-Pay.

[browningautorifle]

I have a later green belt that has eleven snaps on it. The pouches don't fit all the way around however, they are too crowded.

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

I have these.

browningautorifle, the top two have eleven snaps.

[emmagee1917]

The belt above is from the late '50s , early '60s and was made for the USMC issue M14 single mag pouch. You only used the snaps you needed, the rest was there so that you could arange your ammo pouches based on your other load requirements. The WW2 USMC belt was narrow like a standard pants belt. Held 5 demo pouches that could be used as needed ( use only a couple of blocks from a pouch , use one pouch , or strap the entire belt to something , lower it in a cave/bunker , or pull it by a rope from the side of the road to in front of a tank that was now too close to see it , etc.) . The " buttstock" pouch was made to snap onto the pistol mag pouch snap on the std belt ( remember , it was to replace the pistol) , three 15 rounders were thought to be enough. As they started to be used as rifles , people started to carriy more mags , usually maxing at 5 pouches. The USMC demo belt could be used , but is rather small and flimsy for it. The paratroops needed more mags in less space so they made 4-mag pouches that took up about the same belt space as a double pouch. Some also made 6-mag pouches. Spare ammo was carried in bags and packs in 50 round boxes and the mags reloaded. The stripper clips are post war or , at best , very late war.
HTH , Chris

[DaveHH]

The carbine was really quite different from the M1 rifle. You could carry 4-5 boxes of 50 easily in your butt pack. Not so with the Garand. I used to see MIKE force Viets heading out with Garand clips all over their bodies. On slings, shirt pocket flaps, shirts, bandoleered clips plus what was in the belt. Carbine much more tidy.