Korean 30-06 at Ammoman

[JAGACIDA]

It's definately not the worst I've shot. I bought cases and cases of 7.62x39 Yugo on stripper clips a few years back when it hit the market. Nice clean ammo, good stripper clips, and non-magnetic. I really like it. Well SKSer45 and I were at the Angeles shooting (don't hate me for that - he's o.k. once you get past the "I'm an expert on everything" mode and the real person starts to come out - he's young... I'm setting him straight) and had to crack open a new case. Instead of the standard sealed metal inside the wood crate, this was all in little white boxes. Upon opening them, each and every round had a different head stamp, all sorts of different primer sealant colors, and some of the crappiest brass I've even seen in my life. I honestly think it was the last case as they were packing it up, swept it up off the floor, put it in the little boxes and in it went. On the inside of the top of the wood box were hash marks where somebody had counted off how many boxes were in the case and a "1260" handwritten next to it in pen.

It was SO ugly we just shook our heads and figured what the heck. Not one single miss fire in the whole case! Shot great for surplus ammo! So you can't always judge a book by it's cover, or ammo by it's brass in this case

And that is a "K A" and 2 numbers on the head? I kind of thought it stood for Korean and the year - but it's really hard for me to see it. So I'm on the right track?

Let my guess, purchased at Sportsman's Guide?

[Cowboy T]

Simple solution. RELOAD!

Agreed. How come every shooter with one of these types of rifles hasn't gotten a press and started reloading? It ain't *that* expensive!

[Mssr. Eleganté]

Looking at it in the light this morning, it looks like "L C 6 9" Where the L is at the 11 o'clock position, the C at the 2 o'clock position, 6 at the 7 o'clock and 9 at the 4 o'clock - make sense? Could this be Lake City brass? I've never seen any up close.

I'll be heading out to the store today and picking up a big magnifying glass

L C 6 9 is exactly how Lake City M2 Ball from 1969 would be marked. And LC 69 is "magnetic". The South Korean's probably used Lake City ammo supplied via U.S. aid until they got their own ammunition plant going in the late 1960's/early 1970's. Since your ammo is delinked MG ammo there must have been some belts of Lake City ammo mixed in with the Korean ammo when they did the delink, repackage operation.

[PEZHEAD265]

With all this corrosive ammo coming over I wonder how bad the garands will be if they get here.The last batch from blue sky had mostly bad barrels from the cleaning rods at the muzzle.

[Pete1979]

This picture is exactly what I have, this is NOT my picture - just found it Googling around:

Mine does not have the ring and impressions in the head - it's smooth/flat, but this is the best close up I could find of the headstamp.

It is definately magnetic and definately came off of MG links. I've de-linked enough 8mm in my time to know what they look like when they come off

So that's what it appears to be - Lake City 1969... Wow... I think I'll get a magnifying glass today and dump out a whole can of it and see what else I can find.

Thanks for the help!

Are you sure that is 30-06 and not .50? I have quite a bit of pull down Lake City 69 brass and they have a standard boxer primer with crimped pocket. That ring is too perfect to be the crimp unless that's a mark left by the bolt.

[Mssr. Eleganté]

Are you sure that is 30-06 and not .50? I have quite a bit of pull down Lake City 69 brass and they have a standard boxer primer with crimped pocket. That ring is too perfect to be the crimp unless that's a mark left by the bolt.

That picture isn't of his ammo. He said it's just a picture he found online that had the same headstamp as his ammo. If you google the image name from that photo it leads to a discussion forum where a guy is asking what would cause that ring on 5.56 brass.

[Noonanda]

Well... my 2 cases came in last week while I was away from the office. Some of you guys, or should I say MOST of you guys are really not going to like this ammo!

I've attached pictures below:

Pic 1: Ammo Can
Pic 2: Different type of ammo can
Pic 3: Ammo cans open
Pic 4: 10 Rounds side by side with a .308 on the right for case color comparison

(aren't you glad I posted the above? I know ammo cans and open ammo cans are pretty rare, not many have seen one in the wild)

So here is my personal and ever so humble opinion on it, take it for what it's worth:

Wow... it's really crap! Like stated in an earlier post it's been taken off links, the link marks are very visible. A lot of it has very small little dents in it - nothing major, but they are definately there. Cases are much darker that you would expect, even darker than most surplus ammo that's been exposed to the air for awhile - even though they are all oily/greasy and the can has a strong odor of grease. Hairline cracks? Didn't see any, but my eyes are getting pretty old and there is not enough light where I'm at to really get a good look at them. Magnetic? Some - I swirled a magnet around in one of the cans and came back with a single round - 99% of it is not magnetic, but you'd better check each and every round. In fact before anybody shoots ANY rounds out of these cans I strongly suggest a very very close inspection of each and every round. It's VERY rough stuff.

Headstamps: Really hard for me to read or see. The non-magnetic looks like "K A 7 1" ? Maybe? Each letter/number at a different "compass point" on the head. The magnetic round I found "7 6 9 ?" Boy... small and REALLY hard for me to read. Could be all numbers, or not. Sorry I can't do better than that.

But if you are picky or are shooting it in a Garand or anything you have the slightest thought might come apart with a bad round - pass on it. It's REALLY scary looking. But having said that I'm going to shoot it anyway. Ce la Vie...

Hell that ammo looks positively new and beautiful compared to some of the Taiwanese surplus .30-06 that I use in my 03A3. I would shoot it out of my Garand except that it is corrisive and I have HXP ammo for that.

[metalliman545]

Aw man. Talk about taking a complete shot in the dark with this ammo. I'm starting to regret it. I'll just tuck my head down and away as I shoot this stuff.

Thought you'll just end up selling it to someone?

[ir0nclash86]

Thought you'll just end up selling it to someone?

Idk we'll see. Im keep going back and forth on this ammo. My package arrives tmrw so ill see how they look when they arrive.

[Syntax Error]

Where are you at? I'll just send you one Gratis... I have them stacked up 6 feet high at this point. Any particular one? I have 4 different cans that came from Korea...

PM me and I'll hook you up.

I'd be interested in getting a few cans too. Being Korean, I feel like getting some of the ammo just for the cans seems almost obligatory at this point!

[Syntax Error]

PM Me your name and complete shipping address and let me know if it's a residential or commercial address and I'll get one out to you tomorrow.

But that's the last one - offer something free and you are sure to get 100 PM's! hahahahaha

Thanks man! I really appreciate it. I'm sure my father will get a kick out of it, given that he served in he South Korean military. He liked my Garand, but didn't like it for its weight given that they had to hump it around all day on exercise.

[MingTheMerciless]

I've still got about 400 rounds of that stuff in boxes. Its beautiful; especially compared to what we have available today. Just shot some last week. PS headstamp on it.

When this latest Korean stuff came onto the market I was hoping to get lucky and this was more of the same. It ain't. As has been reported its been delinked and it is *nasty* looking.

I bought some a few weeks ago and it wound up going back. The first box - after a detailed inspection - had a reject rate of 20%. Bad dents on the shoulder of the ammo, wobbly bullets, bullets solidly mounted... off-center. Misc dents I didn't care to risk running through my Garand or 1903. Still had a few red-tipped tracers in the pile too. The second case was only smelly and dirty. Looked shootable and less poorly cared-for.

But the real deal was that KA head stamp. I bought ammo advertised as non-corrosive. I know what KA means, and I took screen shots. So on that basis the seller took it back. If it wasn't for the false-advertising part I'd have been stuck with it as they have the usual no-returns policy everyone does.

Midway is selling the stuff as well. They are segregating KA and PS and saying up front which is corrosive and which isn't.

[ir0nclash86]

Well i just got my ammo in and my gosh...these rounds looked nasty. It has some sticky black gunk/dirt on it. A simple wipe down wasnt going to cut it. I had to scrub every single round one at a time to clean it up. My thumbs hurt so much right now. I still have another can to clean but screw that lol.

The headstamps are as follows:
KA 71.... non magnetic
KA 70..... non magnetic.
KA 72.... magnetic
KA 67.... non magnetic
KK korean writing... non magnetic
PS 83.... non magnetic
TW 5 .... magnetic

The majority of the rounds were KA headstamps so i guess theyre corrosive. i only had like 21 rounds of the KA 72 and TW 5 that were magnetic. I only had 18 rounds of PS 83.

[MingTheMerciless]

The cheap price ain't so cheap when you figure in your time spent babysitting it, is it? I spent a morning sorting thru mine and was glad in the end to be rid of it.

Last weekend I ran a bunch of 145- and 168-grain Golden Bear - the brass-coated case stuff. Ran like a charm. I have a ported gas plug so I'm in good shape on pressures. Stuff runs a little over .50/rnd in quantity. But its magnetic so I'm limited in where I can use it.

[Mssr. Eleganté]

The headstamps are as follows:
KA 71.... non magnetic
KA 70..... non magnetic.
KA 72.... magnetic
KA 67.... non magnetic
KK korean writing... non magnetic
PS 83.... non magnetic
TW 5 .... magnetic

Thanks for posting this. I've never seen KA ammo with such an early headstamp. Also, is there any way you can post a scan or picture of the KK headstamp? That's a new one to me.

The TW 5 is U.S. ammo from Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant made in 1955.