A friend of mine knew I was a connoisseur of 1911's. He asked me yesterday what did I think of old ammo??? My standard line to new shooters, especially rifle shooters, is "Never shoot ammunition that is older than you are!" My friend replied, "Then you will not want this WWI 45 ACP ammo?"
Yes I did. When sorting brass for 45 ACP reloads over the last 35 years, I have collected a box of old brass. Most have date stamps in the 1950's and 1960's but some pieces are from 1940's.
I was shocked to open this bag and find a web belt with two double mag pouches and a loose ammo pouch attached. It looks almost brand new. I can not account for how it stayed so preserved. The dump pouch has a manufacturer's stamp with a date of 1918. The four magazines all have ammo in them. I removed one round and the spring still works.So much for having to rotate ammo to save your springs!
I went through the dump pouch and looked at the ammo. As you can see in the photos, They have date stamps from 1914, 1917, and 1921. The cases are brass. The bullets look like lead but they don't scratch. Could they be steel jacketed? The primers are copper. It looks as if they had been enameled although the enamel has come off some of them.
So can anyone help with the make of the ammo? The W 17 must be Winchester. The R A and RA UMC are obviously Remington. Is F A 14, Federal??
This Does not surprise me one bit. A friend of mine's father bought a full wooden case, (1000 rds) of surplus ammo in the 1950's. The ammo was produced in November 1918! He and his brother shoot it once in a while and I told them to stop that nonsense since they could probably easily trade a package of twenty for 100 rounds of high quality new ammo.
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