more military cases??

[mikeym1a]

I have finally finished processing all those Frankfort Arsenal cases, approx 275, and rummaged around to see if I had any more, since I was in the mood and had it set up for 30-06. Well I did. About 30 cases; 10 WW (apparently fired in an oversized chamber) and 16 military cases. 5 'sl' which I presume is Salt Lake 54 & 57, 2 'FA 54', 2 'LC' presumably Lake City, 52 & 67. The other 7 cases are a bit of a puzzle, for various reasons. I have 3 marked '53 TW', 1 marked 'TW 56'. I have 1 marked 'EW 42'. The other two are marked 'LC 42' & 'LC 56'. Now the 'LC' probably means Lake City. What is unusual is that the shoulder has apparently been set back. Using my handy digital caliper, the standard 30-06 shoulder is approx 1.95. These two LC cases have the shoulder at approx 1.81. They were apparently fired in the same gun, as the firing pin is offset the same amount. The overall length of the standard cases and these two is the same. The neck on these two is .57 long, as opposed to the standard .37. Anyone have any idea what these two might be? They both appear to be arsenal loads, as the primer are crimped in, and shellac sealed. Why do I want to know these things? I'm a history buff, which made it easy for me when I got a degree in history in college. I almost felt like I was cheating. It's not really work when you're having fun! Thanks for any replies.

[Char-Gar]

Most likely fired in a 30 caliber machinegun. Full automatic weapons have very generous chambers as they get hot and dirty very quickly.

[runfiverun]

tw is twin cities.
the pushed back shoulders could just be an oopsie from someone partially running them in a 8 mauser die.

[mikeym1a]

tw is twin cities.
the pushed back shoulders could just be an oopsie from someone partially running them in a 8 mauser die.

Twin Cities Arsenal. That was new to me, so I went looking, and found a lot. I guess you have to know how to ask. Twin Cities is an 'inactive' U.S. Arsenal. It has been on again and off again most of its life. It is presently off. It was last operated by Alliant in 2005. It's a 'SuperFund Site', and a proposed site of the new Minnesota Vikings Stadium(courtesy Wikipedia). How's them apples?

[Tonto]

Vikings stadium will not be on the former arsenal site, downtown Minneapolis will see the new stadium, just offset from the present stadium. As in many states, the billionaire team owner was able to convince many idiot elected officials to spend almost half a billion dollars to build this new stadium, with public money. I live about three miles from the former arsenal, very happy the stadium won't be there. I just found a box of once fired TW 53 brass in a local gun shop and have it ready to go. Fun to have brass with the local connection. I'm from Philly and always enjoyed FA head stamps as I lived not far from the old Frankford Arsenal.

[mikeym1a]

[QUOTE=mikeym1a;2158044]I have finally finished processing all those Frankfort Arsenal cases, approx 275, and rummaged around to see if I had any more, since I was in the mood and had it set up for 30-06. Well I did. About 30 cases; 10 WW (apparently fired in an oversized chamber) and 16 military cases. 5 'sl' which I presume is Salt Lake 54 & 57, 2 'FA 54',

I was wrong. SL stands for St Louis. I don't know where I got the Salt Lake from. Is it just me, or does it seem imprudent on the government's part to close all those arsenals and just rely on private enterprise? After all, we are only in a minor war, and the military is short on ammo, we're short on ammo and components, and supposedly the major manufacturers are producing non-stop. We're importing as much foreign stuff as we can, and it's still not enough! Even if they closed those old arsenals, they should have moved the machinery to an active base, and set it up in reserve, incase it was needed, and not have a 12-18mo lag in getting new plants set up in an emergency (non-governmental actuated) should arise.

[mikeym1a]

tw is twin cities.
the pushed back shoulders could just be an oopsie from someone partially running them in a 8 mauser die.

You might be right about the oops. When I ran those two through a FL die, the neck was reduced. I guess it'll fill out next firing.

[runfiverun]

our former president mr bill closed all the ammo plants except one.

[mikeym1a]

our former president mr bill closed all the ammo plants except one.
Yeah. Wasn't he a great president? Liked cigars, I hear....

[dverna]

Interesting about the ammo plant closures. Does anyone know if it was "political" or were they closed because it was less expensive to buy ammo from the ammo companies than have the government produce it?

[MUSTANG]

Bill Clinton closed the plants as part of the "Peace Dividend" issue with the end of the Cold War. In addition to munition plants, there were many other US Government Plants supporting the Military (Aircraft, Truck, Tank, etc.. requirements).

Also in play was the Clinton Administration (along with the Congress) slight of hand where US Gov't Property and "Assets" were sold off to create the illusion that the Clinton Budget was balanced. An example of "Assets" that was sold off was the frequency spectrum sales that fetched hundreds of Billions of dollars; of course it cost more hundreds of Billions to create & buy narrow band radio systems for the Feds and States (all financed by the American Taxpayer in down stream years). Works great until you run out of assets to sell.

I was in the military during that period and each of the services were required to draw down staffing levels, lost a lot of good service members while keeping poor performers because of requirements to keep the social engineering in place instead of merit basing on retention.

Mustang