Given this at church!

[Freightman]

A member of the congregation brought me this to dispose of, so I took my pipe cutters and cut it just below the crimp. They are 30MM light practice ammo.
There is 385gr of powder and it looks like WC872 or WC860. I have no idea where he got them as he is a old man who hasn't worked in years. He said he found it in his garage when he cleaned it out getting ready to move to another town. All the numbers have been erased (scraped off)

[9.3X62AL]

Well, that's 3.5 loads for the 45-70! :)

That seems like a very light loading for the 30mm. The 50 BMG uses ~235 grains of WC-860, per Barnes et al in "Cartridges of the World".

[Freightman]

All but the tip is aluminum and it weighs 8.53 oz. I do not have a grain scale that will weigh it. My mistake I used my digital scales and it is 385gr of powder.

[9.3X62AL]

COOL--8 rounds of 45-70.

[rockrat]

I think they are for a chain gun on the Apache. Might be worth about $50 each IIRC

[smokemjoe]

Save me one, I ll be glad to take one off your hands when I come down. Joe

[Freightman]

That was all I got sorry!

[RayinNH]

Most on this site would look at it as an opportunity to acquire a new gun :mrgreen:...Ray

[BOOM BOOM]

HOW TRUE!!!!!!!!!!:Fire::Fire:

[Jack Stanley]

Most on this site would look at it as an opportunity to acquire a new gun :mrgreen:...Ray

And yet one more mold to buy :p

Jack

[Freightman]

Yes it might be neet but at 3675 gr it would empty my 20# pot fast and the weight is a aluminum bullet with a brass driving band and steel nose. Wonder what the weight of it would be solid lead?

[Jack Stanley]

He he he he he 8-)since when did you ever baulk as the chance of getting a new melting pot ? [smilie=1: Ya know .... if you was to pull up the thread of the huge melting pots some of these guys have made , you could get a four cavity mold and really make a pile of bullets . My rough cast pot will hold just over six hundred pounds would that help ya any ? :Fire:

Jack

[Rooster]

Paper patch it and save the $$ the brass would cost. It would probably take a quarter sheet of copy paper though!

[Papa Jack]

A member of the congregation brought me this to dispose of, so I took my pipe cutters and cut it just below the crimp. They are 30MM light practice ammo.
There is 385gr of powder and it looks like WC872 or WC860. I have no idea where he got them as he is a old man who hasn't worked in years. He said he found it in his garage when he cleaned it out getting ready to move to another town. All the numbers have been erased (scraped off)

I just looked in my TM-43-0001-27 ( Army Ammunition Data Sheets, Small Caliber Ammunition FSC 1305 ) ( April 1994)

Cartridge, 30mm,Target Practice,M788 ( sorry I can't read the specs on the round...)

Powder specified for that round should be...WC-855, MBR, 50 grains.
Chamber Pressure (Avg) 40,600 to 44,950 psi ( 380-310MPa )
Velocity:2640 fps, ( 805 Mps ) .

"PJ":smile:

[Linstrum]

I just looked in my TM-43-0001-27 ( Army Ammunition Data Sheets, Small Caliber Ammunition FSC 1305 ) ( April 1994)

Cartridge, 30mm,Target Practice,M788 ( sorry I can't read the specs on the round...)

Powder specified for that round should be...WC-855, MBR, 50 grains.
Chamber Pressure (Avg) 40,600 to 44,950 psi ( 380-310MPa )
Velocity:2640 fps, ( 805 Mps ) .

"PJ":smile:

I wonder if that was a typo and was not 30mm but .30 caliber instead because 50 grains WC855 powder is a .30-06 or .308 Win load. Are you sure that isn't WC875 instead of WC855? I seem to recall that WC875 is the 30mm powder and WC852 and WC855 correspond to about H380 and IMR4350 burn rates respectively and are .30 caliber powders that have been used for 7.62X51 NATO machine gun ammo.


rl882

[Freightman]

There was 385 grains of powder in the case (One)and the projectile (bullet) was 3675 grains. so I am assuming that WC875 is slower than WC872. right!

[Papa Jack]

I wonder if that was a typo and was not 30mm but .30 caliber instead because 50 grains WC855 powder is a .30-06 or .308 Win load. Are you sure that isn't WC875 instead of WC855? I seem to recall that WC875 is the 30mm powder and WC852 and WC855 correspond to about H380 and IMR4350 burn rates respectively and are .30 caliber powders that have been used for 7.62X51 NATO machine gun ammo.


rl882

Well, I just looked again at the spec sheet..."MBR" means MEET BALLISTIC REQUIREMENT and the Gr means GRAINS...
It could be a Typo.... I just looked at the other 30mm rounds listed:
30MM M788 Target Practice, WC855,MBR 50Gr
30mm HE Dual Purpose, M789, WC 855, MBR 50Gr
30mm TEST, M883 (Proof Test Round ) ( 120%chamber pressure to proof test the weapon and barrel) Powder: WC 855, 772 Gr., Projectile weight 5031 Gr, Length 79.13mm
Hard telling what the LOT Number is compared to the year of this book ( 1994 ) , powders and lots change...
Your round may be a lot newer than this book ( 1994) so specs change.
Here is additional specs :
Total Cartridge length = 7.864"
Primer : Electric , PA 520
Weight : 5371 Gr
References: SB 700-20
TM 9-1300-206
I looked thru the loads listed for the 30 calibers.....None listed WC855....
7.62 ( 308) rounds listed WC846 and IMR-4475. The 30-06 rounds loaded with IMR-4895 and WC852

Might google some of these Ref numbers and see what ya find.....or even the Powder number....

Don't read me wrong here guys !! I was just using my TM as a reference book for the powder numbers. I'm in no way arguing about the powder charges......It's seldom I get to use this manual, but it has come in handy when looking for Surplus powders and charges.....Long as there isn't a TYPO ...LOL "PJ"

[Linstrum]

Hi, Freightman, yup, WC875 is a bit slower than WC872 but not by too much because the WC series of powder numbers are mathematically related to the powder burn rates. I can't say for sure what powder is in the 30m practice round, I was just guessing that it is WC875 because that has been used in 25mm and 30mm rounds.

The 385 grain powder load is awful small because the 20mm Vulcan load is 605 grains of WC872 or 585 grains WC870 with a 1800 grain projectile.

rl883

[Linstrum]

Hi, Papa Jack, no, I wasn't "reading" you wrong, what I was wondering out loud about is I have seen those same WC powder numbers used in reference with the 7.62 NATO and .30-06 military loads and I have seen occasional typos in military paper work. The old thing of "stuff" happens! Some tired manual writer at the end of a 12 hour day accidentally writes "mm" instead of "cal".

I figured you were taking it directly from the publication and you certainly can't be faulted for simply relating what is in front of you. That would be as crazy as the old thing of blaming the messenger for the news! What I was thinking about was if there were a printing problem with the spec sheet, like if it was in real small print and the "WC855" was smudged, typed over, or the characters jammed together. It could be that what I saw was wrong, too, maybe what I saw was smudged, typed over, or the characters jammed together. This has got me wondering now.


rl884

[Freightman]

I think you are right on the powder weight as my little scale would not go any higher and rebelled at that much weight. There are 13- 60gr cases of 45/70 of powder and each case so the powder weight was 780gr. Another interesting thing is in the center of the case there is a pipe over the flash hole that extends to 1/2 way up the powder column, it has a clear cellophane looking thin plug over that. the primer looks to be a Shot Gun primer. This is the head of the case, side view and top view.

[Papa Jack]

If you guys like and if it hasn't been done already ,I will compile these loads from this manual and post em in a separate thread for your reference.....It starts out with .22 hornet and ends with 30mm and also covers pistol and revolvers, shot guns and Line throwing rounds and radio tower erecting rounds....... "PJ"

[Freightman]

Great if you had rather PM them that is fin also.