M1A1 Carbine

[lboos]

We were shooting 1944 vintage 105 shells. Having weapons show up doesn't surprise me at all.

Dave,
During operation just cause in Dec. 1989 thru Jan. 1990 we were using 40mm ammo. stamped 1945 on the AC-130 Specter gunships while chasing pineapple face [Noriega] around in downtown Panama. I brought one back as a suv. I use it to hold the long matches to start the fire in the fire place, not one miss fire, old ammo. is like a fine wine, 1945 was a good year.

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[DaveHH]

About halfway through my shift 66-67, they ran out of the nice brass 105 stuff and started using the wrapped steel stuff from the Korean war. We would find notes in the cases "Kill a Jap for me" etc. It is a wonder that there weren't more short rounds etc. Today they claim that 30 year old ammunition is no good but I'm shooting stuff that is 40-50 years old and it works fine. I once shot a 45 round dated 1918 and it still worked fine.

If you've never had a chance to watch a Vietnam 105 battery operate, it was without a doubt the most well trained discipline in the Army. One gun shoots and the other two mimic every move, the charges are laid out to show what was inside the case, when the one gun starts to hit, the other two just go to town and it usually doesn't take a lot of rounds to kill the bad guys. Some of the fire bases operating for the maneuver battalions would shoot hundreds/thousands of rounds. Cubic work....

During Desert Storm, we got to watch arty from Egypt and Saudi and it was like a bad joke. Keystone Kops with guns. Guys running around bumping into each other looking for a rag to keep from burning their precious little hands on the hot cases. Funny but not really funny. Wonder how the Taliban will do with their thousands of guns and all that ammo?

[Snowman1510]

Interesting read Dave, it is always nifty to read those stories, what other notes would you find in those shells?