30-06 surplus ammo

[dnepr]

A friend was moving and gave me some 30-06 ammo he didn't want to pack . I did a little research and it is from the Utah plant and corrosive primed , the head stamp is a U at 12 o'clock a 4 at 7 o'clock and a 3at 4 o'clock , is there anything interesting about this ammo or do I just have some free shooting with the usual corrosive primer cleanup

[Japlmg]

Nothing collectible.
Shoot it, and clean accordingly.
Gregg

[Nobade]

That's it. Might want to get one of those Lee hammer type decappers to reload the cases, those primers were really crimped in and sometimes break the decap pin on normal dies.

[MakeMineA10mm]

If it is still in the military cardboard boxes, it is definitely VERY collectible. Check some WWII reenactor sites and see what it is selling for. Last time I looked, red-stripe M2 ball was high ~$50/box, and blue/yellow stripe AP was about $60-$75/box.

[gnoahhh]

Up until a couple years ago I would have told you to shoot it up. As the above poster indicated, "the times they are a changin' ". Loose rounds that keep turning up in my collection of junk, er, treasures get shot away, boxed stuff gets earmarked for eventual conversion into fun money.

Heck, two weeks ago I fired away 16 loose rounds of 1903, 1906, and 1907 headstamped Krag ammo (those that didn't have split necks out of a shoe box-full of loose rounds). They all went 'bang' and the groups were satisfyingly small. I figure the empties will give a couple of reloads with cat-sneeze cast loads before I relegate them to the scrap hopper.

When I think back to the thousands of rounds of milsurp ammo I fired away as a kid in the 60's, in Krags and Springfields I just sigh. The stuff could be had for a couple bucks/hundred, the cheapness of which delayed my getting into reloading for a few years. We even shot away cases of Frankford Arsenal and Lake City .30 Match ammo which, if I had saved them, would easily pay for a European vacation today. But, wearing out a couple of '03's in the process made me a pretty good marksman, which I guess was the whole point of it any way...

[dnepr]

These are all loose round 36 to b exact

[gnoahhh]

Shoot 'em, and break out the hot water or old GI bore cleaner for a good scrubbing afterward.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Shoot em, hot soapy water with a little bit of ammonia (copper cleanup) will make the clean up a lot quicker and easier. I'd shoot them in a bolt gun though, not a gas gun. I'd also scrub good a couple times with the hot soapy water, rinse with hot water a couple times, then clean with GI bore cleaner or Ed's Red (google it, good stuff) and make sure to oil good afterwards.

[craig61a]

Shoot it...

[MtGun44]

3-4 patches wet with Windex with Vinegar (comes that way) and then 3-4 patches of Hoppes and you
are done. Never will get why folks need to slosh and splash with hot soapy water. Som even say
you have to do a complete teardown of the gun. Not really, unless it is a gas gun an then you do
need to wipe the gas parts with Windex, followed by Hoppes.

It will work, and a .50 BMG will kill a whitetail, but in both cases massive overkill.

Bill

[Mud Eagle]

Windex is not needed to flush the salts: water is. Hence the hot, soapy water.

[zuke]

Do like I do and find a pit with nice rock's and see how many you can break.
But if your getting snow like I am, it'll have to wait till spring time.

[willy3]

Chute 'em..

[delta6]

Is it ball ammunition?

[StratsMan]

For only 36 rounds, the effort to clean the corrosive salts isn't worth it... I'd sell 'em to anybody who was willing to pay a decent price, and get some non-corrosive components to load my own...

[dnepr]

3-4 patches wet with Windex with Vinegar (comes that way) and then 3-4 patches of Hoppes and you
are done. Never will get why folks need to slosh and splash with hot soapy water. Som even say
you have to do a complete teardown of the gun. Not really, unless it is a gas gun an then you do
need to wipe the gas parts with Windex, followed by Hoppes.

It will work, and a .50 BMG will kill a whitetail, but in both cases massive overkill.

Bill

I agree I shoot Czech surplus in my Sks and that stuff is supposed to be really corrosive , I use a couple wet patches ( just tap water ) and a wet ragto wipe the gas parts and bolt face and then clean as normal I have gone through 2/3rds of a case of the stuff and no problem . I shot the milsurp 30-06 , 2 duds but the rest was fun and pretty accurate stuff

[x101airborne]

Right now, I am not throwing away or just shooting up anything. I have a couple hundred rounds of military AP in enblock clips loaded every third a tracer. I dont have a current use for it and considered just giving some of it away if I could find a shipper who would take it. But now, I think prudence would dictate just holding on to it. Put em in a drawer and feel comfortable they are there.

[bob208]

i have a bunch of ap. with the way things a oing it mite come in handy. my a4 likes it.