Does anyone have information about privately purchased nonstandard ammunition being used in Vietnam Were hollow points used?

One advantage to a tank is you have a way to carry any non standard arms you acquire. However, all the ammo we had was standard issue from someone's army. Heard tales of .357 being sent pushed down into fruit cake in a tin, but all second hand. I never saw anything verifiable.

Never saw anything but issue stuff. Probably was some over the counter ammo there, but never saw it.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Worked with a guy who was a Capt. "over there"; artillery IIRC, talked about having a Swedish-K and a Browning HP...... I'd assume FMJ in the late 60s; but definitely not standard issue.

Factory .38 Special only for my 4" Model 19.

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Sag Harbor & Manhattan, N.Y.

Whether it was for deniability during cross border ops or other reasons the Carl Gustav M/45 submachine gun was used by SEALS, MACV SOG and other Sneaky Pete types. In country it most commonly became known as the "Swedish K". ("Kulsprutepistol" was probably to hard to pronounce.)

Sweden ceased exporting the gun to the US in 1966 over Viet Nam so DOD prevailed on S&W to provide a substitute in the M76 submachine gun.

The Aussies, had their issue High Powers. Wheelin' and dealing in other peoples' stuff was not uncommon. Scrounging is a long and time-honored soldier skill. It was not really stealing, just moving Army stuff to another part of the Army where it might be put to better use.

IIRC, Charles Askins related an incident where he used a .44 Magnum to kill an armed man he suspected of being a VC. I doubt the ammunition used was USGI.

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You're shy a few manners.

From what I can recall. Hollow point ammunition only became available in the middle 1970's. The only 38 Special ammo I can remember seeing in Vietnam was the standard issue Ammo. I only knew one person that carried a civilian weapon. It was a Rossi 5 shot 38 Special with a 3 inch barrel. I seen a Ranger with a Colt detective Special. The Rangers carried all kinds of different weapons such as Swedish K a silenced Grease Gun, a AK 47 and of course the M 16. This was all in 3 Corp.

I know a helicopter pilot who had a Colt Python and belt loops full of hp .357 Mag. ammo. I don't think he ever used either while there. All disappeared when he was wounded in action and sent to Japan for hospitalization.

I a Navy Corpsman (HM3) w/the Marines in ‘66 & carried a standard military 1911 w/ball ammo.

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

at one point in late 64 i had a chance to buy a model 19,nickel, 4 inch and i did for $ 50 bucks. it came with half a box of .357 ammo. never found anymore .357 , but had all the .38 i wanted. sold it when i deros's for a $ 100. of course never wasted the .357, saved it for social occasions.............

My M29 was carried in Vietnam by a Navy Lieutenant. It was re blued sometime afterwards.

I believe it was the Hague Convention (1899) that restricted the use of expanding bullets in warfare, which we complied with. It always seemed a bit silly to me, considering all the other tools being used by both sides. Regulations from the various branches put more restrictions on the trigger pullers but that didn't stop the "run what ya brung" (or could get your hands on) attitude.

The Swedish K and CAR-15 (XM 177) were the coolist survival weapons a Helicopter pilot could carry. Hollow point pistol ammo was extremely rare in my circles.

I flew out of Thailand and carried my Model 19.
It was loaded with Issue 38 Ball and I carried some Tracer.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Udorn or Ubon?

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Back when we still carried M-14s a buddy of mine had a box of 308 soft point hunting ammo he loaded in a magazine when he had peremiter duty.

In III Corp and the Saigon area, I had access to 38 spl., .45, 5.56, 7.65, all were standard Army issue. I heard tales of various type of ammo being carried, but it was not something I had direct knowledge of.

Takhli and Korat.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

i don't know about hollow points, but i do have personal experience with .38 special bird shot. somehow, when i went back in jan of 71 ten 6 packs of CCI #6 bird shot fell into my bag under the false bottom. had a lot of fun with it, but that's a whole nuther thread. Lee

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VFW, NRA, VVA, S&WCA 1758

All sorts of "stories" but when someone tries to pin them down....as noted, personally owned weapons usually disappeared when someone was wounded, medevaced, etc. Hollowpoints really didn't come in until the 1970s-Lee Jurras and Super Vel. Uncle Sam did a pretty good job of supplying weapons and ammunition-if he'd been as generous with the rations, he'd have avoided a lot of problems. And when a weapon was lost due to enemy action, no reams of paperwork, lockdowns, Article 15s, etc.

Ikabug: Did you mean 7.65 or 7.62/51?

"Enemy action" was sometimes defined as a couple mortars that otherwise did little damage. Opps, there went two more M-16's! The hard part was hiding all that stuff when an IG inspection came around.

I only saw ball ammo and tracer ammo as an M60 gunner. My 1911A1 was loaded with ball also; although I did have a magazine of tracer 45 ACP.

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Keep your powder dry.

Yes, 7.65 or .32 ACP was issue ammo. The Colt Pocket Hammerless M1903 was still an issue item for Generals. Rock Island did not start building M15 GO Model .45s until 1972.

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I'm not sure if this is true and it kind of sounds like BS, but maybe not. A friend of mine told me that they took 12 gauge shotgun loads and dumped out the shoot and replaced it with very small nuts.

Happen to “ know of” a few guys that had private pistols. Guess they had ammo that came with it as they were kept in the hootch. One guy had a chink PRD machine gun with several lead sealed tins of linked ammo.

Our perimeter was equipped with these things; 55 gallon drum buried on a 45 degree angle with a claymore in the bottom. It was filled with all kinds of scrap metal and gelled gasoline. The clacker was on the shelf of the port with the other claymore detonators. They were much more devastating than any JHP fired from a pistol. We had a hamlet right on the other side of the wire in our sector so M-16/M-60 fire was restricted, but not prohibited.

I met a US Army LTC IG-type who traveled from FOB/FB to FOB/FB. His SGM acquired for him an (I think) Mossberg 12 pump shotgun and a good quantity of 00 buck. He said he used that to great effectiveness at short range in the dense jungle during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Of course, it's hearsay; I wasn't there. I was a freshman in High School. But still...I suspect he was telling me the truth.

I never saw any ammo other than what the helicopters dropped to us...That included 106 mm rounds..

I purchased a M-1 Carbine while I was Stationed at FSB Mace in 1970. I kept it in my locker while I kept my M-16 in the M-113 that I was the Driver of. Ammo was kind of scarce for the Carbine. I had to trade the local Militia for it.. I always managed to keep 2 or 3 of the 30 round Magazines for it.

I flew over Mace, A.K.A. Hill 837. quite a lot in 1970. Don't remember landing there but we always contacted Arty on FM 39.40 to make sure you guys didn't shoot us out of the sky.

Photo of the map I carried for a year.

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Fougasse (sometimes spelled foo gas) was the last line of defense at the fire base perimeter. We had napalm filled drums, just inside the wire, rigged to go simultaneously, with the detonator in the command bunker. It would have been a hell of a show, but they never hit FSB Buell when we were there with our tanks.

The diagram shows the basic layout with the exact construction depending on what you could get. We used 15 pound shaped charges as the kickers. Since we had M1 thickener for the Zippo track, the drums were napalm, not just MOGAS. Crispy critters!!

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Some might enjoy watching this little video:
I served with the men of this jungle Clearing unit in Nam. We uncovered a lot of tunnels and underground storage areas of the NVA while doing our dirty job. Along with a lot of rice and various things we uncovered firearms and explosives. I think there was everything from the time the Chinese developed the first crude long gun until modern times. We ran over a lot of it with our D-7's and buried it. I suspect we also buried alive enemy soldiers that failed to come out of their network of tunnels.

The 1st ID had Rome Plows (made right here in Georgia). The tunnels from Cu Chi, all the way through Tay Ninh Province and into Cambodia were quite extensive.

Retired W4. I was in the 152 MP platoon we ran convoys from Mace to other FSB's. The M113 did not handle the paved roads very well. So the 2 M113's escorted Convoys from there on out. I was not at FSB Mace the date in question but I do remember 2 MP's that were wounded in a ambush in that area but I do not remember the date. It was before I got out there.

My Dad carried a Model 12 shotgun, and wrangled a Browning Hi-Power off of the Aussies. His M16 was wrapped up in oily rags in his hootch. A talented scrounger like him had no problem getting ammo. He spent quite a bit of time in the field with ARVN troops as part of MAC-V Intelligence after 32 weeks of Vietnamese language training at Biggs Field, so his duties and chain of command were a bit fluid.

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Only a cold warrior

i know the date, May 29, 1970 because Hal and Tom were both awarded DFC's for the action.

To rincar. sorry.

I actually had a fairly recent conversation with the pilot who had the Python in 1969. I thought it was a Colt Trooper, but he corrected me. Super Vels actually started out with very light weight bullets traveling at much higher velocities than the then available ammo from the "big three" (Winchester, Remington and Federal). I can't say when the first manufactured JHP ammo from the big three first came available, but Speer produced hollow point bullets for reloading circa 1959. My account isn't a "story", but an eye witness account, backed up by the other soldier who was there.

There are still a bunch of us around to talk about it. Unfortunately the VHPA newsletter (magazine) now devotes several pages to it's TAPS section. That section gets bigger every issue.

Wow, never thought foo gas would show up in a thread. Here’s a can of the thickening powder.B8D208A7-BBB9-408F-9342-08E3BE9729AB.jpg

Some of us are getting older, and some of us aren't. I get notices every month or more that someone has gone on before the rest of us. At least I will be in good company when I arrive........

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

I had several fellow Maries that had friends from " the world" send them non military ammo for 38 special, 44 magnum or special and other personally owned weapons.