Military Ammo

[bench]

Hello,
I had a friend give me 150 rounds of live military ammo-308
Some are marked LC-83 and some are marked WCC-67
These all have full metal jacket with the crimped primers and even a few are tracers.
My question is should I dismantle them or shoot them or dispose of them.

Thanks
Bench

 

[Larryh128]

I guess the question is how good of a barrel do you have to shoot them thru? I certainly wouldn't shoot them thru a really good lapped stainless barrel although they probably wouldn't hurt it other than round count but in a hunting rifle, blaze away. I would not shoot the tracers thru it though. They won't do your barrel any good. There is also a market for blasting ammo. I'm willing to bet that you know someone who would buy them.

 

[XTR]

I would not shoot the tracers in a good barrel.

The others are probably the 147 grain M80 ball the LC and WCC headstamps are from Lake City, and Winchester military contracts.

If you've got a 308 to shoot them in have at it, it won't hurt to have a dope card for M80 ammo. Don't expect much in accuracy. I have some LC stuff. I found that they would shoot about 2MOA. This was in a factory Remington with a varmint barrel in a B&C stock that I could get to print under 1MOA (true .75MOA gun) at 200 with hunting bullets.

The brass is great for reloading hunting loads or if you have a gas gun.

 

[KevinThomas]

Bench,

Might check state laws, as they vary considerably across the nation. In CA, for example, the mere possession of tracers is a felony, one count per round. I have no idea about what they may be in MI, but I would certainly want to know before heading off to the local public range.

 

[searcher]

In the spirit of improving accuracy and minimizing potential pressure spikes from "cold-welding" of the bullet-to-case, you might consider re-seating the loaded ammo's bullets by just about 3 or 4 thousandths - just enough to move the bullet in the case. If the bullets were stored in less-than-stellar conditions for all that time - you could have some hotter-than-normal ammo if they have fused. Moving the bullet just a bit will alleviate that tremendously.