Each soldier maintained an equipment receipt (a credit card sized form) for their issue weapon bearing their name, signature, serial # of their weapon, etc. When they came on shift, they would exchange the card for their weapon from the arms room custodian, and then sign for two magazines with five rounds of ammo in each. At the end of shift, they would remove the magazine from their weapon, charge their weapon and under the supervision of their patrol supervisor, point the weapon into a clearing barrel and pull the trigger to ensure the weapon had been properly unloaded. They would then turn it into the arms room, where the arms room custodian visually inspected each magazine to ensure there were still five rounds in each, and then return the soldiers' weapon card in exchange for the weapon which was placed back in the weapons rack in the arms room.
One night, for some reason, a soldier had chambered a round, and his NCO did not properly inspect the weapon before he went to the clearing barrel and when the soldier pulled the trigger, his weapon discharged.
I was appointed as the Report of Survey investigating officer, and had to conduct an extensive detailed survey, interviewing all personnel involved, so a simple property book adjustment could be made, the round replaced in the Arms Room inventory, and the soldier could have $0.18 deducted from his next paycheck to reimburse the US Government for the expended round.
Now that sounds like good accounting........