Blast from the Past... M1903 ammo on stripper clips.

[Eghad]

I was looking through some of my .50 cal cans I use to store ammo. Some years back a fellow gave me some 30.06 ammo in stripper clips for the 30.06 M1903 rifle. The headstamp has a 40 at the top at the 12 oclock position then going clockwise the numeral 3 is next at the 3 oclock position. at the six oclock is the letter B. The next is at the 9 oclock position it is the letter N. It had lines at the 1,4,7, 11 oclock positons seperating the numbers and letters. Anybody know where that headstamp is from?

I think that BN was a St. Louis ordnance plant? March 1940 ?

I also have some Remington .38 SPCL loads NIB that are loaded with two seventy grain buckshot.

 

[James K]

That .30-'06 ammo was made up in 1953 for use in clandestine operations where U.S. marked ammunition was not desired. There were three headstamps, AN for Twin Cities Ordnance Plant, Minneapolis, MN; BN for St. Louis Ordnance Plant, St. Louis, MO; and CN for Lake City Ordnance Plant, Independence, MO.

The "date" of "x" 40 was chosen deliberately to make it look like the ammunition dated from before WWII. A bunch of it appeared on the market around the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, supposedly to provide an "open market" cover for its use by the U.S. backed Cubans opposing Castro.

Other than the headstamp, it is the standard U.S. ammo of the period.

Jim

 

[Eghad]

thanks.....