7.62x51 mystery ammo

[cancer]

I got some mysterious surplus ammo from this old fella that was going out of business. When he sold it to me he said he was pretty sure they were tracer rounds. Could you guys help me identify it?

 

[CanAm]

DA = Dominion Arsenals, Canada

The red sealed stuff is super secret ammo used for assassinating heads of state.

Actually if I had to take an educated guess I would say the red sealed stuff is Yugo made at Igman. It is European because of the 3-point crimp and the use of the comma instead of the period for the decimal point. It also uses convex Berdan (larger) primers which Igman and Prvi used until recently.

Most tracers will have red painted tips. I am not up on Canadian markings, but the two black stripes may indicate tracer.

 

[cancer]

Hmm

 

[ckid]

I have a few 7.62 DA and IVI tracers in my collection and both have red painted tips as CanAm stated. I have never come across any with the black stripes - still a mystery.

 

[Sticker]

I remember reading somewhere that black stripes on .303 brit was Palma match ammo. Perhaps the manufacturer of this .308 had the same idea.

 

[cancer]

I would imagine the DA stuff shouldn't be corrosive, but what do you reckin about the Igman?

 

[CanAm]

Igman is anybodies guess. But because it is a NATO cartridge I would lean to NC. How much do you have? The DA is NC for sure.

 

[cancer]

15 DAs (with the black stripes) and 2 of the other (Igmans).

 

[SDC]

I've also heard that the black-stripe stuff is match ammo loaded for the DCRA matches.

 

[cancer]

I remember reading somewhere that black stripes on .303 brit was Palma match ammo. Perhaps the manufacturer of this .308 had the same idea.

Mmm.. 46 year old match ammo

 

[green]

Black stripe 7.62 DA was match grade C21 ball ammo.

 

[CanAm]

15 DAs (with the black stripes) and 2 of the other (Igmans).

I think I have more than that in my pocket! Just add it to your collection.

 

[cancer]

I shot this "mystery ammo" yesterday. Not good. If you guys are correct in your identification, I would recomend that people be very careful with shooting older Dominion Arsenal ammo. Or even just avoid it all together. Not only is it lousy for groupings, but I also had a cartridge rupture on me. Fortunately for me I didn't lose any fingers or ruin my M14. I only noticed the rupture when I was collecting the spent brass. I definitely consider myself lucky.

 

[CanAm]

One of the mnay reasons to make sure you know what you are shooting. For all we know two black bands means high pressure proof load. It is really not worth shooting such a small amount of loose mystery ammo. all it takes is one bad one and you are picking brass, steel and wood out of your forehead. The cases look corroded. They were likely stored under poor conditions.

 

[diopter]

Dcra

This box was still closed when I got it. That was two hours ago.

 

[Halger280HVMag]

The ruptured case looks like it has a lot of external corrosion. The ammo in the box looks new.

 

[diopter]

A lot depends on how it was stored.
There were at least two different years of DA in Cancer's first photos.


Cancer
can we see the headstamp on the ruptured case?

 

[johnone]

TWO BLACK STRIPES;
Shot one hell of lot of this in my youth, many decades ago....

Some of the best match ammo that was available at the time, prized by any serious shooter of the day....

I agree, the pictured cases have a lot of outside corrosion, not a good plan to shoot them.... On the other hand the boxed stuff looks great....

John

 

[diopter]

Someone asked me last night if anyone knows for sure whether:

A) Was it picked from regular production, or made specifically as match ammo.

B) When did they restart black stripping match ammo. He was under the impression the practice stopped before WWII.

C) what was the last year they black stripped ammo.

 

[green]

.303" and 7.62 match ammo was not made as such but was specially selected lots of regular ball ammo. Banding of match .303" ended in the 30s and banding on 7.62 seems to be only on 1960.