US Surplus .45 ACP

[Horta]

Does anyone know where to purchase US surplus .45 ACP online?

[Bill Steele]

I have never seen it.

I think some guys still have sources, as one of the guys I buy .45ACP brass from occasionally has a batch of mil-surp in it. These with headstamp dates as far back as 43, although the lion's share are usually in the 60's and 70's.

[NotEnufGarage]

Since the military switch to 9MM sometime back in the 70's or 80's, I doubt there's much of it around any longer.

[SDJim]

The US Military almost ran out of .45 ACP (except for war-reserve stocks) in the late 80's. Due to the increase in 9MM production at the Lake City plant, which was only making a limited amount of .45 at the time, there was an emergency contract with IMI (TZZ head stamp) for several million rounds.

Due to the wording of the contract which called for a min velocity of 950 +/- 25 fps minimum with no max, IMI provided what was eventually sub machine gun ammo which clocked at about 1150 fps.

Fast forward to 1993 when when the ship I was on was still using 45's there was a NAR (Naval Ammunition Reclassification) issued which put all of our .45 ammo into "Emergency War Use Only due to over pressure.

Once the "frozen stock" of .45 had been replaced by ammo with the correct velocity, all of the older TZZ ammo was demilled (destroyed).

That's why you won't find much new .45 ammo with head stamps earlier than the early 90's.

[Bill Steele]

Not sure about the specs....

....Due to the wording of the contract which called for a min velocity of 950 +/- 25 fps minimum with no max, IMI provided what was eventually sub machine gun ammo which clocked at about 1150 fps..

What bullet were they using in this ammo?

I can't imagine how they could get 1150fps with a 230gr bullet. That is really smoking even for a .45 Super round.

Sorry for the highjack guys, this kind of historical information fascinates me.

[Cavguy]

Its around BUT VERY hard to find! Most of what I have seen is standard 230gr Ball or Match grade BALL, occasionally wadcutter. Most of the modern stuff 1980-2000's is headstamped WCC made by Olin - Winchester in a cardboard box. A few years back Federal released some surplus XM1911 ammo headstamped FC07 I think.

[Mssr. Eleganté]

Last November Midway and Sportsman's Guide were selling spam cans of WWII surplus .45ACP. Most of it was the steel cased Evansville stuff, but they also had brass cased Winchester.

[Cavguy]

All of that old stuff is corrosive too... Mostly picked up by collectors who use it as a display item.