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12-01-2011, 20:01 #1
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Military ball .30-06 in a Hunting rifle
Hi
Excuse my ignorance, but I was wondering if it is possible to use military surpluss .30-06 in a hunting rifle?
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12-01-2011, 20:46 #2
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12-01-2011, 22:17 #3
Re: Military ball .30-06 in a Hunting rifle
We are ALL ignorant, bru...just on different subjects!
Best I can tell, as long as you are shooting surplus US or foreign equalivalent M2 .30-06 ball you should be good to go in a commercial 06 bolt rifle. The M2 load was adopted in about 1940 because the older, heavier-bullet loads did not wanna play well with the M1 Garand rifle....the heavy bullet loads tended to bend operating rods. It uses a 150gr bullet at 2640FPS and pressures are not extremely high.
US Surplus from before 1955 is suspect as being corrosive although some say the cutoff date was 1952. Pre WWII stuff used heavier bullets that also changed pressures, etc...and that is not even beginning to address non US manufactured ammunition, which might be damned near anything!
Unless you have stacks of surplus, I think I might just sell it to a shooter with a military rifle who would be glad to get it or either break it down and load it with new primers, powder and bullets. Several guys on GS have Garands I think...one or two for sure.Run Fast, Bite Hard!
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04-12-2011, 15:31 #4
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Re: Military ball .30-06 in a Hunting rifle
The word I got from a friend is that to waterproof the rounds different sealant were used that make start pressures sky rocket. His advice is to pull the bullets, add safe load of new powder and reseat bullet. You are then sure you are not getting high pressure. If primers dont ignite properly then rather discard. Clean well after shooting to counter corrosive primers.
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05-12-2011, 03:45 #5
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Re: Military ball .30-06 in a Hunting rifle
American produced M2 or 30-06 will be fine in a bolt action rifle. I have shot tens of thousands of it over the years in my 2 Garands and an old Winchester 70 30-06.
Just make sure you clean the barrel if the cartridge primers are the older chlorate type, else corrosion will set in. Like Ikor said any US produced prior to '55 is probably the old type of primer.
Any other 06 milsurp produced by other countries such as Greece or whoever should be treated as if the primers are the old chlorate type.
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05-12-2011, 07:19 #6
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Re: Military ball .30-06 in a Hunting rifle
Please DON'T! I will swop your surplus ball for new commercial ammo.
"Always remember to pillage before you burn"
Unknown Barbarian
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05-12-2011, 09:08 #7
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Re: Military ball .30-06 in a Hunting rifle
Dont worry Paul.
This was yonks ago. And it turned out it was factory reloaded ammo anyway.
Thanks for all the info guys........
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07-12-2011, 14:20 #8
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07-12-2011, 16:04 #9
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