Vintage Russian Mil-surp Ammo Question

[usabaker]

Yes, you are correct, it is a soldered zinc-plated can and no signs of rust or having been opened. The metal does have a bit of white powder on it, understand its just zinc-oxide, rather common with these cans from what I'm told. I've only owned it for about 10-12 years, kept inside in conditioned space, but I have no idea how previous owner(s) kept it. I can only assume that the contents are still in the condition when they were placed there.

I'm still trying to verify if all of these cans from that era contained 300 rounds, and did they all come with original Russian stripper clips? I'm still tossing it around to open it up, see what's inside, keep a few packs of ammo for myself & sell the rest. But then again, I haven't fired any of my Mosins in about 8-10 years, so I may just need to sell it all. Decisions, decisions.....

The zinc cans come in 250, 300, and. 440 it depends on origin. Can yo take pictures of the top answer pull tabs ? I might be interested in buying it as well I don’t have any of those cans in my collection. In my non collecting days I would open ans shoot them, back then they were cheap and every where.

[728shooter]

Took some pics of the can, hope I can attach them to this post....

Can anyone explain the Cryllic writing on this can, specifically, how many rounds are inside and what type?

Thanks in advance, --728shooter

[matthanne1]

Light ball, lead core, steel copper-washed cases, likely 300 rounds.

Check Russian Soviet 7.62x54r toward the bottom and I think you will see similar packaging.

[728shooter]

Well, I finally decided that it probably would be best to open the can to see what's inside (curiosity had a bit to do with it too...) And a good thing I did. as it answered some of my questions. I originally thought that the can contained 300 rounds but was surprised to find it actually held 22 packs of 20-rounds each, for a total of 440 rounds. But the disappointment was that I was hoping the ammo was on stripper-clips, which it was not. However, upon inspecting some random rounds, the ammo is actually in pristine condition, looking exactly like it could have come out of the factory yesterday! Wish I knew what was printed on the cardboard cover when I first opened it (dang, can't read Cryllic...), hope it wasn't a curse for whoever read it .... Head-stamp on cartridges is "17" on one side, "49" on the other, which I can only guess that it was made in 1949.
Hope to take some of it to the range in the near future, and probably sell the rest. Have no doubt that it should shoot just fine!

[browningautorifle]

Perfect, looks good too. Hope there's no issues either.