Ammo Warning - 06 Surplus

[Mikey]

Folks - This warning regrds the use of surplus ammo from different sources in the M1 Garand and the bolt action Springfields and came to me from a reputable source.  Please read teh warning and take heed of the ammo identified.  Mikey.

Subject: Club ammo Warning


I have seen evidence of Korean manufactured .30-06 M2 Ball being fired at both our ranges. The use of this ammunition is not authorized at our ranges. In the State of Texas alone, I have heard of 6 M1 and 1903 rifles that have been wrecked by this ammunition. The headstamps are TK, PS and KA. I would recommend dismantling this ammunition, discarding the brass and using it's components to reload in safe brass. The catastrophic case failure is called a "P" split. The case ruptures through the primer pocket on firing. I have mentioned this problem before but apparently somebody missed the message. There are other lots of military ammunition that are dangerous:
 
French .30 M2 Ball dated in the 1950's
British Kynoch .30 M2 Ball Headstamped K 60
 
These lots of ammunition are a potential BOMB. I am enclosing a photo of an M1 rifle wrecked by the Korean ammo and a photo of two Korean .30-06 Ctg cases that split at the primer pocket.
 
The French ammo has severely damaged a Remington Model 700 and Remington Model 760 in my County in Mississippi.
 
Some lots of Austrian .30 M2 Ball have soft rims and the use in a semi-auto rifle causes the rims to pull off causing the rifle to malfunction.
 
I do not understand why some shooters will buy a rifle worth as much as $600-900 and seek out the cheapest ammunition available for it. A shooter that values his firearms and body parts should join a CMP Club or State Association and buy .30 M2 Ball from the CMP. http://www.odcmp.com/.  (End of note)

Mikey here: 

I followed the above link to the CMP site but did not locate the pictures of the ruined rifles.
 
The following attachement to the e-mail I received showed two pictures of a ruined Garand but I do not know if it will open on this site:  korean-kb-3006.zip

If you are using any of the surplus ammo please take extreme care.  If any of your ammo has the headstamps mentioned you may be dealing with defective ammo. 

You can certainly take it apart and use the components if you wish but I wouldlimit myself to the bullets and forget the rest.  Mikey.

[1911crazy]

Mikey;  For some reason I stayed away from all the 30-06 surplus ammo with all the different countries offering it, i got worried and didn't buy any.  I did buy the russian made barnaul 30-06 ammo when it was on clearance for $1.99/20rds. For plinking the russian ammo was so affordable and still is.

Stay away from the Indian made 308 too the first batch is really bad. The powder charges are all different.  Some pop and some bang its that bad.  They say the last batch of the indian stuff is ok but i'm not buying any.  The south african 308 ball ammo is excellent stuff and accurate too.  The indian stuff can be taken apart and the powder charge reset so its safe to shoot.

I orginally purchased my Egyptian Hakim to shoot the cheap surplus turk 8mm ammo.  I adjusted the hakim for it and even put a lower knotch so it can go lower on the gas setting for it.  It shoots ok but its still iffy too with split cases.  It becomes a "do you feel lucky today" when we try to use the cheap stuff.

[prairiedog555]

I have recently seen some Greek '06 ammo, any word on that?

[Stan in SC]

Greek ammunition with headstamp "HXP" is excellent ammunition and is sold by the CMP.
It is in no way dangerous like the cheap junk mentioned above.

Stan

[Aardvark]

 My experience with the Korean M2 I bought has been positive...Mine is stamped K A 7 3.I have shot about 100 of the 192 rounds purchased...I am usung a M1 Garand.I do not doubt your caution and I will monitor the rest of these I have and will report any problem.

[1911crazy]

I wonder if you take one bullet apart and check the powder charge to make sure its correct then you can reassemble the bullet and weigh the round so you have a baseline to go by to compare it to the others to see if there over charged.  If you have a lot of this ammo I can think of no other way to check it for any bad rounds in the lot.  Then you can weigh each assemble round and repair the bad ones.

I have a ammo box of the first indian 308 ammo and i shot some before the warnings were out and some goes bang while the others go "BANG" and some go pop too.  The powder charge seems to be all over the place. Rather than take everyone apart i think the method i mentioned above will work.  Of course the light ones should be reworked too.

[myarmor]

I bought 2 lots of this not to long ago, and have had no ill response from them. Though I did notice some had more report than others, but no case failures.
 With this in mind, I pulled the rest of them and while doing so I measured a few.
I did notice about any where from 1/2 to 3 grain difference. I believe around 51 1/2gr - 53 1/4gr between about 5 rounds . I salvaged the powder in a plastic jar, and opened it up a few hours later....and got that old powder stink.  I don't think I will be using it again


-Aaron

[Aardvark]

  What is the best way to pull the bullets...I could always put fresh powder in the rounds.Also, are the Korean brass boxer primed?

[myarmor]

I pulled the rest I have with a kinetic bullet puller like this one:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=215517
It worked well enough for me. Though if I were pulling many I would resort to the collet pullers like these:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=851547

My lot of Korean is marked 72 if I am not mistaken, and yes it is boxer primed. Though it does have crimped primers as well as possible corrosive primers mixed in. So if you do just use the factory primers, clean accordingly.