For Garand Owners

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NWGooser

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Pacific Northwest
1F515910-1496-4E3C-93F7-D84DB29C515E.jpeg First off let me say, if you own a Garand, you are my hero. Hands down my favorite firearm. I wish I would have taken advantage of the CMP years ago. Second, while cleaning out Grandpa’s farm, we came across this ammo can with cloth bandolier, and 8 round clips. Obviously the ammo is no good but I thought this is something a collector may appreciate. I would love to get everything in the hands of someone who would enjoy it.
 
I ended up buying a reproduction bandolier but it's khaki, not OD. I think I would prefer the OD honestly.
 
I keep looking at them myself. Right now, my clips just go in a cardboard box. About as authentic as my Uncle Mike's sling... :oops:
That's all right. My stock is an aftermarket Boyd's, my bullets are currently A-Maxes and there is a rebarrel to .308 in my M1s future. On top of all that I have a 1945 Springfield receiver mated to a 1955 H&R barrel. All around it's about as unauthentic as it can get!
 
If any of you are in the NW I am offering these items for free.
Really generous offer. Someone should take advantage of it.:thumbup:

M2 ball has great longevity. I'm still shooting some 1967 LC (Lake City) M2 and some M72 LC Match. The M2 ball bullet and primers are sealed. The M72 primers are sealed but have never pulled a 173 gr. bullet so don't know if bullets are sealed or not.

The M2 shoots to specs; was disappointed with the Match ammo until I realized the bullets were "welded" to some (but not all) cases due to long storage. Bumping bullets a couple of thousandths of an inch improved accuracy a bunch! Some would simply slip in, others would produce an audible crack when bullet separated from case.

Have pulled M2 bullets and replaced w/SMK's for match shooting and various 150 gr. SP bullets for hunting and the shellac sealant is obvious on the pulled bullets.

What year headstamps are on the TW's? As stated in previous post, I'd pull a couple of bullets and check for powder deterioration. If an acidic smell or red dust when powder dumped, I wouldn't attempt to shoot it.

Regards,
hps
 
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I bought one of the cmp M1 Garand specials years back. I always like Garands because I heard my Daddy talking about them. He served in WWII, in Italy and Germany. To hear him talk, his M1 Garand was his best friend. I grew up hearing how no other rifle could compare with a M1 Garand. When I received mine from the cmp and more so after I spent some time shooting it, I understand what he meant. There is nothing in this world like shooting and handling a M1. It is one of my favorite firearms. A couple years ago, I was at a gun show and came across a table, that had two boxes of unopened 1957 national match ammunition. Needless to say I bought both of them. I have them displayed in my office/gunroom now. All of the military things from that error are very neat and interesting to me. It reminds me of that generation of men, my Dad is 93 years old, blind, deaf and still tough as boot leather. He was awarded a Purple Heart and two bronzes stars. He has scars all over his body. Even at the age he is now, there is no quiet or give up in him. There will never be another group of men like him or the many other that won WWII for the United States. I see in him and the M1 Garand why this group of men were truly the greatest generation. I doubt there will ever be another group that can do and go through what they did. They are dying off very fast now and the knowledge, wisdom and history they can tell us will leave with them. There passing is really going to be a great loss to all.
 
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Looks like T W 5
Have never seen a case headstamped with a single number but the following link indicates that FCC sometimes did so; perhaps TW did also?? Accordingly mfg. date would appear to be 1955 and the lot number 41119 would also point to some time after 1952.

The ammo can is of the type used in the 1950's (I've opened a lot of them starting in 1952) so I'd guess your ammo is 1955 w/non corrosive primers based on the DCM list quoted below.

We always considered anything after 1952 to be non corrosive and personally have never found anything to prove that incorrect.

Federal Cartridge Corporation: Headstamp: FCC Date Stamp: Last two digits of the year – OR if "single digits" are found then for example, a 4 would indicate 1944 and a 5 would indicate 1955.

Non-corrosive Primers By Ammunition Lot and Date:NOTE: While the decision to go entirely to non-corrosive primers was made in August of 1949, and was scheduled to be totally implemented by the beginning of 1950, the actual changeover took longer than expected. Listed below are the lot numbers and dates of the FIRST NON-CORROSIVE military ammunition made in the United States or Canada. If the lot numbers are NOT known, the only safe way to discern the corrosive or non-corrosive nature of the primers is to consider the following year date stamp as non-corrosive. For example, if the first non-corrosive lot number of Frankfort is 4149 produced in October 1951, anything manufactured by FA stamped 52 can be considered to be safe to use. I will list the ABSOLUTELY safe headstamps at the end of this document.The following are the actual dates, calibers, lot numbers and manufacturer’s first non-corrosive ammunition. Not ALL ammunition made during THAT year is necessarily non-corrosive:

TWIN CITIES ARSENAL: Type: .30-'06 Ball Lot Number: 19362 Date: December 1950 First SAFE Headstamp: TW 51 Type: .30-'06 AP Lot Number: 19776 Date: February 1952 First SAFE Headstamp: TW 53

Summary of "Safe" Headstamps by Caliber:.30-'06 Ball: TW 51

http://www.odcmp.org/1101/usgi.pdf

Regards,
hps
 
During WW2 (& Korea, I think), ammo manufacturers would scrub the last digit from the stamping die to save time & money. E.g., RA 54 would lose the 4 after 31 Dec and it would be RA 5, meaning 55 (these headstamp combinations are for example only). I don't recall seeing WW2 era TW ammo, but I have several cans of TW 54 in bandoliers and clips I got from the CMP 20 or so years ago, along with a lot of other headstamps. I would shoot WW2 corrosive in my 03s/M1917s, but not the Garands simply because cleaning them requires a little more attention to detail.

Without looking at it up close, I am not sure why you say the ammo is no good - I shot old brass-cased ammo all the time so long as the case looked o.k. Green grunge was a no-go, but dirt & crud don't affect the brass. The oldest I ever fired was German 7x57 headstamped 1912 (!). Lot of hang-fires, but no complete duds. Probably wasn't my best idea... Old steel cased ammo, including GI EW/EC/whatever 45 ammo, from WW2, I would not shoot, period, and I have several boxes of it (sold in Shotgun News bunch of years ago). External rust you can see, but not the interior of the case, and the powder/gasses can degrade the steel and weaken it. Same goes for Russian/Chinese/Combloc steel cases if outwardly corroded, too. It's one thing to blow up your gun, another entirely to blow up your face...
 
The ammo will have a strong acidic smell and corrosion around the case mouth or primer pocket if the powder is bad.

External corrosion/odor would be advanced stages of deterioration IMO. I'd suspect that some powder deterioration could occur before evidence present externally, but that is just a WAG.

I have a couple of 5 round clips as issued for the bolt guns (headstamp 43 IIRC) which is corroded, especially around the (corrosive) primers. Unfortunately, I did not disassemble these before discarding just to see what the condition of powder was.

Correcting a previous statement I made in post #16, "Have never seen a case headstamped with a single number". While searching for the 1943 Springfield (& 1917) clips, I ran across this LC one digit date stamp, so it appears that the practice was not limited to FCC and TW.
48397408717_3725db9a5f.jpg
Just goes to prove the old saw, "Too soon old, too late smart". If I live long enough, I may get smart one day.:rofl:

Regards,
hps
 
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"Have never seen a case headstamped with a single number". While searching for the 1943 Springfield (& 1917) clips, I ran across this LC one digit date stamp, so it appears that the practice was not limited to FCC and LC.

hps

I have never heard the reason for this, I have heard guesses and Swags.. But never had a read why this was done.. The craziest, they only have 10 numbers in the set of dies.. ha ha who knows this could be right.
 
External corrosion/odor would be advanced stages of deterioration IMO. I'd suspect that some powder deterioration could occur before evidence present externally, but that is just a WAG.

I have a couple of 5 round clips as issued for the bolt guns (headstamp 43 IIRC) which is corroded, especially around the (corrosive) primers. Unfortunately, I did not disassemble these before discarding just to see what the condition of powder was.

Correcting a previous statement I made in post #16, "Have never seen a case headstamped with a single number". While searching for the 1943 Springfield (& 1917) clips, I ran across this LC one digit date stamp, so it appears that the practice was not limited to FCC and TW.
View attachment 852383
Just goes to prove the old saw, "Too soon old, too late smart". If I live long enough, I may get smart one day.:rofl:

Regards,
hps

The first sign of deterioration in my experience is clumped up powder. If you shake the cartridge and can't here the powder moving that's a bad sign. Gas build up causes the brass to split sometimes and corrosion on the exterior begins. The inside of the case is already heavily corroded at this point.

I recently pulled apart some 1918 6.5 Carcano ammo that was doing this. A liquid was also present on the outside of the case.
 
I always find those long round nose bullets for the M95s and the Carcanos so exotic and almost unreal.

What did the powder look like???
 
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