Tuesday, February 7, 2012

"45 million rounds of M1 ammo exported to US."

When I first saw this article I missed the 2002-2005 time frame and thought we were going to get another bonanza of Garand fodder. Too bad they're not still pumping it in.
Seoul has sold millions of rounds of leftover M1 ammunition, most of which it believes to have received from Washington during the 1950-53 Korean War to private contractors in the United States, defense sources said Monday.
“Korea exported 45 million rounds of M1 ammunition for 3.96 billion won ($3.53 million) to the United States from 2002 through 2005 to raise money needed to buy new bullets,” a senior defense official said.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, where did it go?

Anonymous said...

so what happened to it?
1chota

CowboyDan said...

That's just less than $.08 a round leaving ROK.

What's it selling for over here? If I got the right price, I might invest in an M-1. They're still damn fine rifles. Even the ugly ones shoot good.

Anonymous said...

8 cents a round, should be able to sell 'em for 32 cents and everybody gets a good deal.

Anonymous said...

Good for them, likely all that would have happened if it were found here, would be for it to be scrapped.

Dedicated_Dad said...

Anon #1: My guess is that ~1/3 to 1/2 of it got shot, and the rest is cached in various and sundry places both obvious and remote.

I wish I'd been paying more attention at the time - I'd certainly have loaded up on some myself...

MEthinks we're going to be needing it, soon....

Anonymous said...

Mil-Spec .30-06 brass is getting hard to find as well. LC stopped making it in the '70's. No PNC anywhere on the web. ODCMP is apparently out of de-linked LC and is working its way through the HXP stuff that showed up with the "Greek Return" Garands.

Guess it's time to work up an M2 Ball equivalent using commercial brass. And no, for those of you who don't reload military calibers, you can't just throw the same powder charge in a civilian case and call it a day.

gun accumulater said...

I have reloaded military calibers for years using civilian brass. My friends and I have reloaded all brands of civilian brass for M-1s with no problems.

Anonymous said...

"I have reloaded military calibers for years using civilian brass. My friends and I have reloaded all brands of civilian brass for M-1s with no problems."

OK.... A little off topic but important for some folks to know. Maybe file this under a "Praxis".

Take a PMC or LC headstamped .30-06 case and weigh it. Now take a brand name civilian case and do the same. You will note that the military case is heavier. If the external dimensions are the same, where is that extra weight? It's in the thicker case walls. Thicker walls mean less interior volume. All burning smokeless powders exibit a temperature pressure curve that is one of the factors in selecting a given powder for a given cartridge. It is also one of the factors that affect muzzle velocity and point of impact. And it all starts with the free space inside of the cartridge before the primer is struck by the firing pin. Change that free space and you change the pressure curve, muzzle velocity, and ultimately point of impact.

To cut to the chase, 48 grs. of IMR4895 behind a 150 gr. FMJ lit by a CCI mil-spec primer in a Winchester case will not hit the same spot as a LC M2 Ball round is was supposed to duplicate. At 500 yards the variation could well decide between a hit and a miss.

Brett Rodgers said...

Thats a lot of cheap ammo! I really enjoyed this post on the cheap ammo that was just shipped. Hopefully I can get some and go shooting one day and have some fun with it.