Surplus .380 ammo

[The Kidd]

I have a Romanian Md 95 .380. It is an awful lot of fun to shoot and more accurate and reliable than I expected. Approx 500 rnds and ZERO malfunctions. I've used UMC and Wolf ammo. I found some .380 on SOG's site that is supposed to be "Dynamite Nobel" mfg,copper jacketed, soft point, non-corrosive, and reloadable (I don't reload). Well, I ordered some and it came today. It is brass cased with some red sealant over the primer but... there is some kind of white/gray coating over the lead part of the bullet. It is hard but can be scraped off with a blade. What is it? Will it hurt my little pistol? The 50 rnd boxes are marked in black on a white background,
50
9C
DAG-AB
and the cartridges are in white plastic trays inside. Headstamp is '9C' and 'DAG'. Please advise ASAP I want to go burn a bunch of this stuff this weekend. Thanks everyone

 

[The Kidd]

Wow, the silence is deafening. Was that a stupid question? Is it 'normal' for the lead on surplus ammo to oxidize in this way? Should I fire these? At the same time I really do appreciate the fact that I didn't get any outright BS or lies. Sincerely guys and gals

 

[JCM298]

Surplus ammo

I've never used it but I've seen it sold at a local store. Go to the site ans see what they say:



http://www.dnrws.com/contact.html


John

 

[DMK]

Well it sounds like they didn't send you what you ordered. Did you try calling SOG and asking them what the heck it was?

I don't know what the coating on the lead was though. Could it be wax? That's common on lead bullets.

 

[railroader]

Maybe the coating on the bullet is a type of moly coating. Just a guess. I would just shoot it. Mark

 

[Jim K]

It may be some sort of coating, but I suspect it is oxidation, which is very common on lead bullets and sometimes can occur within a few years of storage. That ammo would appear to date from 1950, so oxidation would be expected under all but the most favorable storage conditions. Actually, very little .380 surplus ammo is available as it was generally a civilian or police round. The Italians did use it as their service round though and that 9C could stand for 9mm Corto.

It should not hurt the pistol.

Jim

 

[Ky Larry]

Kid, let me add a small caveat. Since you don't know much about this ammo, I'd suggest a thorough cleaning immediately after firing this ammo. The primers may be corrosive. They won't hurt your gun if it is cleaned and lubed after shooting. Better to be safe than sorry.
Shoot well and often.

 

[FJC]

There was someone over on www.ktog.org that got some of this stuff, and tried running it through his P-3AT. I think this was the only ammo it wouldn't cycle for him, it just didn't want to feed well. The concensus was that it was oxidation on the exposed lead portion of the bullet.

 

[BluesBear]

From your description it sounds like the bullet is different from what's shown in the pic & description on their website.

Did you buy this ammo by the box or in the "battle pack"?

If it was in the battle pack there might be some with a different projectile?

However, what you have does have the same ID# as shown in the pic.

I had some old D-N ammo in .25acp that appeared to have a thin tin jacket on the bullet. The bullet was a dull silver colour and also had the red laquer around the primer and case mouth.

 

[The Kidd]

Follow up,

Thanks to all for your help. I'm having trouble with the ISP so very briefly I shot the ammo in question and it worked w/o any problem. I will write Dynamite Nobel thank you for the address JCM298.

I love shooting and I love this site.

Out