[M1903A1]

“The real irony is that the great bulk of WWI production .30 caliber ball had unannealled case necks, and by WWII case neck fractures were frequent enough that most of the older *war reserve* ammo was unusable in the automatic actions of .30 Brownings, BARs- and M1 Garands. A good deal of it was burned up in training, though, and served for stateside guard purposes.”

YES! This is true of virtually all of the pre-WW2 necked ammo in my collection...”season cracking”, I think it’s called. On some rounds I was literally able to pull the bullet out of the case with my fingers. Also true of a lot of the M1 Ball ammo made in the 20s and 30s...I’ve seen pics of this ammo that had complete case splits, both on firing and just sitting in the box. On my bookshelf is a round of 1940 .30-06 with a hairline season crack down most of the case, plain as day.

Some of the WWI-vintage ammo aged poorly in other areas too...both a WW2 vet I know, and a fellow who shot some 1918 ammo in the early 50s, recall getting either hangfires (click-BOOM) or a “pop” and a cloud of red smoke out the muzzle. And most of the “Battling Bastards” holding the line in the opening days were probably shooting this stuff.

I’ve been told that both WW1 and interwar ammo was common enough on the civilian market into the early 70s, that the NRA issued a bulletin advising that any surplus .30-06 made before 1940 should not be fired.

[archy]

I’ve been told that both WW1 and interwar ammo was common enough on the civilian market into the early 70s, that the NRA issued a bulletin advising that any surplus .30-06 made before 1940 should not be fired.

Absolutely so. From around the early 1960s to mid-1975 or so, I used to get the *old stuff* free, in GI garbage cans full, from my local National Guard armory, the local commander of which was our next-door neighbor, whom I kept in .38 and .357 handloads for his sixguns.

The bullets got pulled and used in all sorts of things, but mostly in M1917 Enfield rifles, [which I preferred for the sights] .30-06 Mausers and Garand reloads, with occasional krag and Swiss 7.5 periods thrown in. Powder got used, of course, and the cases were cut down below the necks, and many were turned into either shot cartridge loads for use in M1917 Colts or reworked into 7,92x33 brass for the German MP44- the old GI brass was usually okay below the case neck so long as the corrosive mercuric primers hadn't been popped.

Other useful freebies I got at the time: free .30-40 blanks, shipped to the local VFW and American Legion posts by the caseload, and useless in their M1903 Springfields. I delinked a few cans worth of M1906 .30 blanks on Browning MG belts and made a fast trade, which worked very well- Krag actions were going for $1.50 each from the DCM at the time, and for not much more than that from surplus outlets.

Some of the Bullets came from the old .30-06 ball [I'd get .30-03 every now and again, ran around $25/ 1000] but my favourite loads were made up using the bullets from *.30 automatic pistol* cartridges, actually the ammo for the WWI Pedersen Device, scrapped out after the war. Then I found out that ammo could be used in inexpensive French MAS 35A and MAS 35S handguns as well as some nice light .30-40 and M1 carbine loads. What the collecrtors would give for one of those old Remmy .30 auto pistol boxes now....