US Production from Twin Cities Army Army Ammunition Plant, Cal .30 (30-06 on 5 rd charger clips for Springfield models and M1917. M2 AP is Armor Piercing - bullet tips are black.
Bottom right of the last pic, lot number TWXXXX, the year should be the first two digits. TW64? What is it? You may need to do some interpretation by turning the box to an angle or using a bright light.
yall would trust this old ammo for a fight or just plinking?
I would use it for just shooting. I had an example of using my M1 rifle in .308 with a new Kreiger barrel. I used a Shuster gas plug and had my reloads toned down to function but not abuse and the Shuster made sure as well. The rifle would function flawlessly without fail until I tried some mint looking DA 60 7.62. This stuff was made by us for the FN rifles and had been kept well, was nice and clean. Much of if failed to cycle and I had to use a regular gas cylinder lock screw relief valve to cycle the rifle. The ammo had lost it's poop and smack over the decades. Just a fact of age... I'd use it for plinkin'...
The following are my observations from years of interest in US Military Small Arms Ammunition headstamps, lot cards, box descriptions, shipping crate info and US Stock Codes. I am NOT an expert.
- Your ammunition is cal .30 AP on 5rd chargers. The plant of manufacturer is Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant. The headstamp is TW and a two year date.
- The last WWII lot of .30 AP was TW 40064. Your lot 40591 is after that. So it appears that your ammo is of post WWII production when Twin Cities was re-opened for Korea.
- Twin Cities was a WWII Government Owned Contractor Operated War Emergency Plant. It was closed after WWII to be reopened for Korea then closed again to be opened for Viet Nam.
- The US Military, for the most part, did not include date of manufacturer on cartridge boxes, crates, lot cards and Ordnance Corps item codes until well after WWII.
- Your crate shows two government item code systems. The first is the Ordnance Corps Item code of the WWII period of TAEBA. The WWII era code as I recall the T was for small arms ammunition, the next letter was caliber, the next bullet type and the last internal packaging type and qty. At that time the year was not part of the lot number as it is now.
- The long number printed in black is the NSN or National Stock Number. So it appears that your wood crate was manufactured on the WWII stock system then relabeled for the NSN system. So no exact date of manufacture clue here.
- Side note: TW did not start the conversion of .30 AP to non-corrosive primers until Feb 1952 on lot number 19776. The years of 1952, 1953 and 1954 are a little uncertain for non-corrosive primers in .30 and .45. Most research seems to agree that corrosive primers were used after the date of first use. A sure date (non-corrosive by headstamp) is 1954. Some Match and International Match lots are corrosive in the mid 1950's.
- So will this ammunition fire? Since it is in sealed cans and a US military primer formula that is known for long storage life (corrosive and non-corrosive) I am sure it will fire.
- Sorry that I cannot ID the date of manufacture and thus the corrosive nature of the primer.
A deep dive on the net for TW lot numbers may solve the question. However, if you decide to open a can the head stamp will tell the story.
Hope this helps, Steve762
Careful with the armor piercing stuff! At my range, some people often slip by our range officers with AP rounds, but they always get caught when they quickly chew through the steel targets we provide. They chew the berm up much faster too.
PM
Originally Posted by hardcore
