Korean .30-'06 ball ammo:

[walltube]

Hello All,

Anybody here have reliable, first or second hand, information on Korean manufacture .30-'06 ball ammo causing a blow-up of any firearm using such rounds?

A member here e-mailed to me pics of a Garand (not the shooter thank Goodness) which suffered a catastrophic blow-up firing Korean ball. The member did not specify an identifying headstamp or lot number. Other than "KA 72" reportedly primed with the corrosive type, I do believe it imperetive that some sort of warning be made known to the shooting fraternity about such flawed and potentially hazardous ammo.

Please understand that I am not taking our member to task as a doubtful source of info, I just want MORE info. :-)

Truly Yours,

Harold

[Blammer]

nope, heard of no such thing

saw a catastrophic failure in an M1 recently but it was not with milsurp ammo

[Bad Water Bill]

BEWARE of K A 72 or 73. I got approx 360 rounds of the junk. After 4 out of 5 cases split (yeah I am a slow learner) I showed them to the range master. He said someone the week before had the same results and threw almost 500 in the junk bbl. Well I am a little more conservative (read cheep) so I took the rest of mine apart. on some there was a solid green plug up to 1/2 inch deep of bad something just below the neck of the shell. If you pull the J words out you can find 3 different types of powder, each type will vary 10 grains. The J words were very consistent = - 1 tenth grain. The brass seems to be good. If you have any of these do NOT repeat NOT shoot then. Break them down or dispose of them as there is no way of knowing which one has the solid plug in them. Hope this helps. Remember it is not just you that can be hurt, all of the friends around you (my son) will be in harms way.

[JIMinPHX]

A buddy of mine shot up a bunch of KA seventy something ball in his Garand. I don't remember the exact headstamp. He had no trouble. As I recall, he was happy to get such a big pile of ammo already in clips for such a good price. That was about a year or two ago. He may have had a different lot or a different year. He's now shooting up some Greek surplus that is a little on the hot side. That is - the barrel gets hot faster than normal when shooting the Greek stuff.

[walltube]

I have two .30 cal. ammo boxes chuck full of 'KA 72' in the Garand clips. My eldest son got these in a horse trade along with the corrosive primer warning.

Like yours, these also will be disassembled for components. Too bad about the "green plug", I'd hope to have salvaged the brass after removing the primer. Maybe a bit of neck annealing will address the niggling splits. No defective brass will be tossed away by me! There is still a market for cartridge bra$$. I prefer fiscally responsible or frugal as opposed to "cheap old *******" as a descriptive...:-)

Bill, your admonition about safe ammo is not lost on me. I have grandchildren of both gender that are avid shooters. Others youngsters at a private or a public range are as precious a commodity as are my own.

Blammer and Bill, thanks for the positive replies. Maybe the blow-up is not for real. Let's hope that is so. Still we cannot let our guard down.

Y.T.,
Harold

[Bad Water Bill]

Now that I think about it there was a discussion here a couple of years ago with pictures and all. Maybe one of the moderators can resserect it for you. ALL of the cartridges that were talked about WERE K A 72 and I still have a couple of them split ones around somewhere. Isnt this site great? Where else can we all share in the safe use and cautions about firearms. We should ALL get a card off to Ken saying THANK YOU.

[45nut]

this might be the thread,,,,,

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=194987&highlight=Korean+ammunition#post194987

[walltube]

Thanks for the link, Ken. Where else is there to go when a firearms related question begs an answer. :drinks:

The e-mail sent to me about the destroyed Garand is a recent event. Just how 'recent' I do not know. But I thought it alarming enough to post here. The Korean ball ammo raised the red flag. Though JIMinPHX answer is encouraging, I'll still break down the KA 72 into components.

Are KA brass Berdan or Boxer? My supply of decapping pins cries out..

The reloads are not for me. They are for my No.1 son's Garands, '03, '03A3 and M1917's. The "kids" like keeping the Old Man busy. ;-)

Thank you all for your replies.

Yours to last non Zn WW,
Harold

[wiljen]

Several lots of KA had very weak brass and suffer case splits and other maladies on a regular basis. The greek surplus hasnt been implicated in any of those problems nor to my knowledge has the PS 74 lot of Korean stuff. I'd avoid KA or at the very least reload the powder and bullet in my own brass if you must use it.

[bobk]

I bought some Greek .303 years ago. Clean, accurate, good brass, and WARM! I got somewhere around 2670 with the 174, which is really treading on .30-'06 territory. This was out of the 25.2 inch #4 MK1.

Bob K

[osage]

walltube, At one time I had a list of PS M2 rounds by year and lot #'s and if users had problems or not. I do not recall if KA was listed or not. I'll keep looking for it. It maybe a hard copy as I can't find it on this HD.

I got it off of jouster.com ( CSP Gun talk) under the Garand section.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I also heard about 72 date ammo being prone to violent reaction, so I shun any deals for any Korean known ammo. I`m not trying to jump topics here, but I`ve got a question. About 6 months ago, when I was recovering from cancer surgery, I bought an Springfield M-1 from a friend that was laid off indefinatly. He said it was a DCM purchase and he had never shot it in the time he had it. It is in good field condition, slight nicks and bumps, but clean. The bolt is black color, either sprayed or parkerised. My question is this bolt safe? I heard one time that rifles with black bolts were Korean and weren`t to be fired due to softness or some other problem, hence the black color to recognise them. Anybody ever hear of this or is my old mind just that - old. Thanks for any thread replies. :confused: Robert

[Bad Water Bill]

45 NUT
The one I had in mind was in the latter part of 06 or 07. IIRC it ran for 2 or 2 pages

[Blammer]

K A is the corrosive ammo right?

[45nut]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=107166&highlight=Korean+surplus#post107166

Maybe thats it?

[Blammer]

hmm, I guess I better check out my milsurp ammo

good info!

[Bad Water Bill]

KEN TO THE RESCUE AGAIN
That is the one I was thinking about. Just proves how great a resource this site provides

[georgewxxx]

I remember years ago our club bought a bunch just for high power matches and instruction. All the brass was boxer primed of course, but new standard large rifle primers would all easily fall out if you shook or bumped the case on something, and that stopped any further purchases of said ammo. Suppose the brass was so soft it enlarged the primer pocket from the first firing? Could that be why some are having damaged rifles? Soft brass!!...Geo

[walltube]

Ken's last posting of the Korean ammo problems link have me convinced. Too much evidence there and in this thread that only the projectiles are worth saving. The brass will fund future projects and the powder will fertilise a future veggie garden.

Maybe osage can access the 'PS M2' file and post it here for more references about this Korean '06 ball stuff.

I thank all of you for coming forward with your experiences and info. Happily none was catastrophic in nature.

May Ste. Lineaux T'eype watch over us,

Wt.

[cajun shooter]

This is what you want to see. It's terrible, I don't know how to put it here so I copied the web site. http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?=53&t=66812

[Blammer]

Here is the pertinent info on that thread

"While I was at the gun dealer I also picked up a pack of 30-06 165 grain reloads"

note, no military surplus ammo was used.

[osage]

I was not able to find my list of PS lot #'s. But did find a list on the CMP forums.
It in post 8 of this thread http://www.odcmp.org/new_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52023

I did not read the all the posts but there are some posts about KA headstamp M2

[45nut]

Ste. Lineaux T'eype

Google results= 0

please elaborate!

[walltube]

The first two pics in CajunShooter's link are what I saw in the e-mail sent to me. Remains of a wrecked Garand and a cartridge case. The headstamp was out of view.

The e-mail's text focused mainly on faulty Korean '06 ball as the culprit. It was a bit overstated, but then sometimes overstating a point must be done when life and limb are in peril. The author of the article is a man, I trust, has seen more than one instance of firearm mis-haps. He has not failed in his position of responsibility by sending to me and others the cautions of mis-matched firearms and\or ammo of unknown, suspect origin. I applaud his efforts.

Thanks 'osage' for the CMP link. Some good, informative posts there. My No.1 son in Atlanta reffered me to same link.

Blammer makes a most pertinent point with the sorry looking sp ammo pic: firearms, no matter how robust, and ammo of unknown origin in the hands of an inexperienced, overly enthusiastic shooter can lead to disaster. Use of such ammo without verification of origin would more than likley, IMHO, be viewed with great suspicion by a majority here at Cast Boolits. Anybody doubting that? Go ahead, ask them.....I dare Ya..:-)

Gathering WW before the coming storm,
Y.T.,
Wt.

[walltube]

Google results= 0

please elaborate!

Ste. Lineaux T'eype was a Catholic Bishop of Antimonyum. Despite suffering severe tinnitus, His Emminence led an army of volunteer Spruvians to victory over a horde of invading infidels. The infidels leader was Amabo The Imposter. Amabo was soundly defeated on the shores of Lake Meechee-Kun near the fabled city of Shi-ut`Ka Go.

Current thought give some credit to Blago the Ugly, feudal master of Sionilli for Amabo's ultimate downfall.

At your Service, :mrgreen:

Wt.