Yellow Tipped .30-06 Round

[jbrid]

I picked up an odd lot of ammo this past week at a local auction. In it was one round of .30-06 ammo, head stamped SL - 52 that appears to have the tip painted yellow. What would the yellow tip signifiy?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jim

Information

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[Sarge1998]

The International Ammunition Assoc. web site says the following about 30.06. Make sure to keep in mind what they say in the last paragraph.

Black: AP
Black/Silver: AP Plate Test
Blue: Incendiary (also tracer from Argentina)
Green: AP from UK, Tracer from Argentina
Green/White: Frangible
Green/Tan: Frangible
Orange: Tracer
Red: Tracer (also some Incendiary from UK, and AP from Argentina)
Silver: Armor-piercing Incendiary
White: Tracer, unfinished Frangible,
Yellow: Observation and Proof rounds (AP from Belgium)

The new collector is warned that there are exceptions and, in addition, beware of the WWII habit of dipping the tips of ordinary cartridges into paint to mark targets. For the latter, look out for thick or unevenly applied paint that is flaking off. For the rarer .30-06 with exotic color codes one should also be aware that these are often faked as genuine ones fetch high prices.

SL-52 is for St Louis Ordnance Plant, St Louis, MO, when they started back up during the Korean War they switched to non-corrosive during 1952. They had been de-activated in 1945 but started back up during the Korean War as well as Vietnam.

[browningautorifle]

beware of the WWII habit of dipping the tips of ordinary cartridges into paint

I've never heard of this one. I can't imagine how that would mark a target...

[jimb16]

Some of the paints dried to a powdery finish that rubbed off going through the target. This ammo would typically be used in applications like aerial gunnery school when shot at a towed sleeve. The instructors could count the hits by particular students and learn who was hitting the target and who wasn't. That way, you didn't need a fresh target for each student.

[browningautorifle]

That one I know about, I get the impression this is talking about any target such as a strike on armour. It simply wouldn't work against a hard target. The bullet would vaporise the paint.

[jimb16]

That would depend on whether the ammo was frangible or not. They had ammo like that that was actually shot AT the planes and disintegrated when it hit leaving the planes marked, but undamaged.

[jbrid]

Sarge1998 -- Thanks for the information. The paint is thin, very evenly applied and not flaking, so I don't think it was hand applied. Do you know how a "observation" round would be used? Since I posted this question, I've found some information on the web that indicated yellow was used to identify "spotter" rounds -- apparently the rounds had a low level explosive charge that could be used to mark a target. Unfortunately, the information I found was not specific to .30-06 rds. I'll take a look at the International Ammunition Assoc. web site you mentioned.

Thanks again for the help.

Jim

[browningautorifle]

Spotters are all basicly the same, they contain a filler of magnesium powder and a tracer element. When they strike a hard target, they disintegrate and there's a brilliant white flash and it leaves a white cloud of smoke for your easy identification. They will also light fuel.

[jbrid]

Thanks for the additional information. From what your telling me, then, the round should be stable and safe to store, even though it is 60+ years old. Any time we start talking about old "explosives", I get concerned.

Thanks,
Jim (jbrid)

[browningautorifle]

It'll be fine...

safe to store