Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Shooting old military -06 ammo

For anyone who's had experience with old military ball ammo.

I've been given some -06 fmj ammo with WRA 54 stamped on the case head. The ammo was stored in plastic boxes and appears to be in really good shape. It's tarnished somewhat but doesn't have any corrosion. Being optimistic that it will fire, is there any reason to not shoot this ammo for field rest practice? I've got almost 200 rounds of it.

just use it for target shooting mine works just fine ,i think i just got a box of same ammo from my brother too.

I've used 8mm ammo of the same vintage and it was fine.

Yes.nothing wrong with it. Is it black or red tipped? (Armor piercing or tracer)

I've got five rounds of AP (black) that was packaged separately from the fmj rounds. The fmj rounds appear to be 147 gr. standard ball ammo.

Also with the -06 stuff was a brick of Winchester yellow and red boxed .22 LR and several boxes a Canuck branded .22 LR. The .22 ammo is in original boxes. I'm going to put it on a shelf as decoration in my gun room.

Having been witness to it being done, don't decide to try out the AP to see what it can penetrate.

According to this http://www.odcmp.org/1101/USGI.pdf WRA went to non-corrosive priming in August 1951 on .30/06 Ball, so that removes one potential issue with old military ammo. Not that it is that big a deal to flush out with hot water with the corrosive stuff, but it is something of which you should be aware.

Otherwise if it has no tarnishing and no splits I'd happily use it. Well-stored ammunition has a very long shelf life.

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I was recently gifted an ammo can full of WRA-54 Ball M2 in enbloc clips. The Garand thanked me kindly after digesting it.

The only US gov't ball ammo I wouldn't mess with is WWI vintage stuff. It was crappy then and is worse now. I have a shoe box full of FA (Frankford Arsenal) 1930 tracer ammo that I'm debating whether to shoot or pull the bullets from. All I want is the brass which is excellent stuff.

Just shot a box of 54 Twin Cities 06 147 gn. FB FMJ loaded with 49 gn. of what I think was 4895. Non corrosive stuff. Shot well. Reused the cases.

dan,
Thanks for the link and info. I was not sure when the military ammo went to non-corrosive primers.

5sdad,
Roger that, I'm not thinking I'll encounter any APCs on the range.

I'm thinking it would have been nice if my friends dad had more of the stuff. Free practice ammo is a good deal.

Yeah, its quite amazing what it will penetrate..

That stuff brings damn good money more than a few think biden will send apc's up your driveway.