US Surplus Remington RA 5468 30 Carbine Ammo

[RazorBurn]

Picked up a couple of bandoliers of M1 Carbine ammo today. Bandoliers are marked RA 5468, and head stamp is RA 55.

Got both bandoliers for a total of 240 rounds for a hundred bucks out the door.

Just a side note, the shop recently got in a French Mas 36, and a Brazilian 08/34.30 Mauser. I don't have any interest in them. If someone has an interest in them let me know and I'll pass along the contact information.

[boltaction]

Hello,
I may be wrong but, Can we assume that this ammo is corrosive?. Yet, it looks very clean and shinny....
Still don't think I would shoot it in my Underwood, maybe the Universal though... or just keep them as display stuff.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The war baby did not use corrosive ammunition when Uncle Sam owned them, what other countries who were gifted with them did is another matter. You are safe with Remington.

[RazorBurn]

If it was good enough for Uncle Sam, it'll be good enough for my Winchester.

[tomaustin]

the $64,000 question...is this source a secret??

[RazorBurn]

the $64,000 question...is this source a secret??

Of course.

[tomaustin]

i was at a shoot where the feds had brought out a truck load of 50 cal...a whole bunch were not shot...feds said we are not taking this home with us....you can have it for $.50 per round !!!!!

[M39 Shooter]

Beware of counterfeit LC 52, Chinese corrosive shit. I haven`t seen it offered for sale lately but be careful. Pull a bullet and look for berdan priming, that`s the knockoff. Also French .30 carbine can be corrosive too. Depends on the manufacturer at the time.

[bunkysdad]

Why are so many unwilling to shoot corrosive ammo? I think people get thus image of their vintage firearm melting instantly into a green goop if exposed to the evil corrosive ammo.

[RazorBurn]

Why are so many unwilling to shoot corrosive ammo? I think people get thus image of their vintage firearm melting instantly into a green goop if exposed to the evil corrosive ammo.

I know. As long as you clean your firearm properly after shooting corrosive ammo it is not a big deal IMHO.

[Ironnewt]

I work at a LGS that has a range and we don't allow steel cased ammunition (sometimes it sparks on the floor and the sparks set off the unburned powder) or steel core/AP as it will screw up the backstop. Any time I see surplus ammo I mention that it might be corrosive and explain how to clear a firearm after using it. A lot of guys leave the ammo and say they don't want to be bothered.

[Ironnewt]

That should read "Clean" not clear

[RazorBurn]

That should read "Clean" not clear

I'm constantly amazed at how many people won't shoot corrosive ammo because they're lazy and don't want to clean their firearm after they're done. If it saves me money I have no problem at all doing a good cleaning after a range day with corrosive ammo.

Then again, I'm a clean gun freak. My Grandpa and Stepdad beat it in my head at a young age to take care of my firearms. I clean everything after a day at the range regardless of the ammo used.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Beware of counterfeit LC 52, Chinese corrosive shit. I haven`t seen it offered for sale lately but be careful. Pull a bullet and look for berdan priming, that`s the knockoff. Also French .30 carbine can be corrosive too. Depends on the manufacturer at the time.

I shot thousands of Korean KA headstamp M2 ball in my Garands with no problem. I just assumed it was corrosive and cleaned it as such. I have a problem with Chinese ammo for other reasons, issues of short rounds I had with some of it 25 years ago, but the corrosive primer wasn't something I cared about. Corrosive primers have a shelf life longer that the planet if kept out of water and stored reasonably well, the commie spam cans ammo I expect will still fire in the year 2525.


As a rule if it doesn't come out of a commercial box by one of the big US manufacturers I treat it as if it's corrosive. I don't give a shit who says it's not corrosive, better safe than sorry. One thing I never want to see is rust all over the bore and bolt of a rifle costing several thousand dollars that belongs to me, that scream of FUCK would be heard on Pluto.

[M39 Shooter]

Beware of counterfeit LC 52, Chinese corrosive shit. I haven`t seen it offered for sale lately but be careful. Pull a bullet and look for berdan priming, that`s the knockoff. Also French .30 carbine can be corrosive too. Depends on the manufacturer at the time.

I shot thousands of Korean KA headstamp M2 ball in my Garands with no problem. I just assumed it was corrosive and cleaned it as such. I have a problem with Chinese ammo for other reasons, issues of short rounds I had with some of it 25 years ago, but the corrosive primer wasn't something I cared about. Corrosive primers have a shelf life longer that the planet if kept out of water and stored reasonably well, the commie spam cans ammo I expect will still fire in the year 2525.


As a rule if it doesn't come out of a commercial box by one of the big US manufacturers I treat it as if it's corrosive. I don't give a shit who says it's not corrosive, better safe than sorry. One thing I never want to see is rust all over the bore and bolt of a rifle costing several thousand dollars that belongs to me, that scream of FUCK would be heard on Pluto.

Correctamundo, treat everything as corrosive. Including American G.I. issue up to the 50`s, i believe. As far as the shelf life of corrosive primers in my own experience 30 to 35 years, then expect duds. Years ago i grabbed 1440 rd. cases of AK ammo for $75.00 each delivered. 1966 headstamp. Fired the last of it around 2006. Duds and a lot of smoke, running a couple rounds and it looked like a black powder match. I did keep the stripper clips of course, now they want a buck a piece for them. Thank God for Hoppes #9.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I have had very few failures to fire with corrosive primers. There was some Ecuadoran 8mm Mauser that had an occasional dud, but that's pretty much it. I once shot some 1907 production .30-40 by accident, it got mixed in with the new production Winchester I was shooting in the Krag, I never noticed a thing until I looked over the brass later. Non corrosive primed ammo on the other hand I have had problems with, in particular French 8mm Lebel. In 1986 it would fire OK three out of five, then hangfire on one, dud on another, by 2010 not one round would fire, I bought over 1000 rounds of that stuff back then. I shot thousands of rounds of 1930's dated Turk 8mm, I don't recall any dud's, hundreds of rounds worth of similar vintage German, no problems, and who knows how many 40's and 50's date commie 7,62x54r's, many thousands, case after case Albanian, Russian, Czech, Yugo, Hungarian, and others. It still performs well when I shoot some. I have heard of problems with some Bulgarian stuff some years back, I never had any until more recent years, and I am keeping it as collectable rather than shoot it. There was some Austrian .30-06 that was prone to case failures, I think it was Austrian, the memory dim's 25 years later, OJP headstamp. Of course who can forget the Pakistani POF .303, everyone's favorite click......bang ammo. I think the issue was hard primers more than dead primers, machine gun ammo.

[M39 Shooter]

I have had very few failures to fire with corrosive primers. There was some Ecuadoran 8mm Mauser that had an occasional dud, but that's pretty much it. I once shot some 1907 production .30-40 by accident, it got mixed in with the new production Winchester I was shooting in the Krag, I never noticed a thing until I looked over the brass later. Non corrosive primed ammo on the other hand I have had problems with, in particular French 8mm Lebel. In 1986 it would fire OK three out of five, then hangfire on one, dud on another, by 2010 not one round would fire, I bought over 1000 rounds of that stuff back then. I shot thousands of rounds of 1930's dated Turk 8mm, I don't recall any dud's, hundreds of rounds worth of similar vintage German, no problems, and who knows how many 40's and 50's date commie 7,62x54r's, many thousands, case after case Albanian, Russian, Czech, Yugo, Hungarian, and others. It still performs well when I shoot some. I have heard of problems with some Bulgarian stuff some years back, I never had any until more recent years, and I am keeping it as collectable rather than shoot it. There was some Austrian .30-06 that was prone to case failures, I think it was Austrian, the memory dim's 25 years later, OJP headstamp. Of course who can forget the Pakistani POF .303, everyone's favorite click......bang ammo. I think the issue was hard primers more than dead primers, machine gun ammo.

I did notice you didn`t mention egyptian. That stuff is horseshit in any caliber. Probably you knew to stay away from it. I miss the old days of 1940`s & 50`s Turk 8mm. Never a dud. Dirt cheep too. The only 8 i have now is the yugo M75 brand. Accurate & consistent, and corrosive too. The oldest ammo i shot i think was 1898 Carcano ammo thru an M91. Click, one thousand one, one thous, * Bang. Don`t know if you are a .45 1911 shooter but about 15, 16 years ago i was ordering American .45acp repacked into those green ham cans by i assume the ussr. 98% was Ra 42, 756 rds per tin. sometimes some Geco commercial was thrown in the can to make the total. Some steel cased 1943, very corrosive. Never had a dud.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I had thousands of rounds of what I thought was Egyptian some 30 years ago, it turned out to be Persian. My SAFN49 loved it, back then if the dealers hand lettered sign said Egyptian then that's what it was, we didn't care anyway being how cheap it was. Later on we could look up headstamps on the internet, and figured out what we had been shooting. Friend of mine is a 1911 shooter, he has a fancy Gold Cup Colt, he once bought six box's of WW2 date Remington .45acp at a flea market. He had a fit when I explained it was corrosive and ended up gifting it all to me.

[Ironnewt]

While we are on the subject of primers, it seems the rage is to use small pistol primers for everything including those calibers that ordinarily use large ones. I also understand that many of the small "green" primers (the environmentally friendly ones) have a limited shelf life, even in loaded ammunition.

[Junk Yard Dog]

How are they fitting small pistol primers into the larger size primer pockets used by the large pistol primers? I could try and put a small pistol primer in a .45LC, but when I turn the round over it would just fall out. Is there some sort of adapter? Or are they manufacturing cases with small pockets?