Vintage Ammo?
Found two 20 rnd boxes of 30-06 Frontier Cartridges loaded with Hornady Super-Sshock Bullets. The Box is Brown and Orange in color. The carton is carboard and the rounds are either marked W-T-5-3, S-L-5-3, T-W-4-5, L-C-53, L-C-54, T-W-4-3, L-C-4, or R-A-5-5. Should I treeat them as vintage ammo or give to my buddy who has a 30-06?
Born To Hunt... Forced To Work... #@!#$!!
Born To Hunt... Forced To Work... #@!#$!!
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Frontier apparently used fired military shells to load those rounds. There is no reason not to use them. As an aside, I have a lot of Remington no. 1 1/2 primers that are almost 80 years old that I use for reloading all the time. I have never had a misfire with them. I keep them in a cool dry environment and suspect they'll still be usable when they're 100 years old. 0 -
gin, shoot the suckers. The empty boxes are of some collector interest, but the ammo is basically commercial reloads and valued accordingly. Plus which, if these were loaded by simply pulling the FMJ bullets and replacing with SP, some of these are corrosive primed.
BTW, even if this were original "vintage" ammo, my answer would be the same. We made billions upon billions of rounds between 1941 and 1955 to fight WW2, the Korean War and arm our allies big & small. It has virtually no collector value unless an exotic loading or the buyer is very new to collecting. Ball ammo of this vintage is cheap shooting fodder, nothing more.
"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain) ". . . And liberals / DemoWipes" (me)0 -
Hello. WW2 30-06 ammo is very collectable. Not by cartridge collectors but by WW2 collectors. When I do a Gun Show I sell anywhere from 8 to 20 boxes of Ball, Tracer, AP and incindeary. In boxs and bandoliers.If you do a Gun /Military its even more. I get more than a few bucks for them.
Old Ammo, have lots always looking for more.0 -
Thanks guy's. I was just kinda wondering. I bought a gun rack and opened the drawer and found three boxes of 30-06, 2 as described above and one made by Remington. Also found a lot of old 12ga shells, most made of paper. No box, so I guess their just accidents waiting to happen?
Born To Hunt... Forced To Work... #@!#$!!0 -
I think way too many persons are escalating prices for older, but once very common boxes of ammo. These boxes of ammo are not rare, unique, or collectible. They are just old(not antique)outdated boxes of commercial loaded ammo. I have even seen boxes of Montgomery Wards .22 ammo (made by the millons) for more than a few dollars and these simply have no value. The old adage about "anything for a buck applies here".
If the boxes were for .35 Newtons or something - these would be desirable from a collectors perspective. Absolutely don't shoot those, but then the guns would be collectors items. See the relationship.
My humble opinion is they should be used for target practice and to enjoy them for the purpose they were made.
Have fun!
HI [8D]0 -
oldammo, the difference our responses is in the packaging - nice original WW2 era and earlier boxes with the color coded labels have value, and especially so if they are something other than standard ball - particulary the incendiary loadings. Original bandoliers also bring a premium. Commercial reloads and loose ball are still shooting fodder and I could buy it quite cheaply if I chose. Heck, I sent another forum member around 400 rounds I'd accumulated in buying bulk lots of collector material as part of a giveaway in the late spring. I specialize in collecting / selling US military ammo and this stuff ain't collectible unless it is packaged.
iron, you are correct to a point. With .22 boxes, there are myriad minor packaging differences which can separate a $100 item from a $3 one, and only those obsessed with this particular niche can tell or much care. Condition is a key factor, as well. An old box in mint condition will be far more scarce than the average one which has been sitting on the back shelf of a closet since 1947, regardless of how many were mfg originally. Then, too, as you noted, there are many sellers who erroneously equate age with value because they simply have no clue and / or want to make a silk purse from a sow's ear with a commensurate profit. The unsold "collector" items seen here and on other sites often are in this category.
"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain) ". . . And liberals / DemoWipes" (me)0
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