I was going thru a 50 cal can of commercial 308 my dad had.
It's mostly 150gr Win & Rem Powerpoints and Clean Bores,
the usual stuff from then.

In the bottom of the can was a box that had 24 RA-61's in it.
They are pristine. For S&G''s I touched one with a magnet. It
stuck to it. I "think" it's M59 ball. Does that sound right?

__________________
never get out of the boat

Does it have an orange bullet tip? If so, it is tracer ammo. I know they were stamped RA-61, but there may be other 7.62x51 ammo that used that head stamp ?

Larry

I believe M80 Ball had a plated steel bullet jacket and the M59 had a conventional copper alloy jacket.

They're copper colored.

No paint on them so they aren't M61's (Black AP),
M62"s (Orange Tracer) or XM262 (Purple dim Tracer).

Thanks for the replies, I might pull one down and
see if it's got a mild steel core.

__________________
never get out of the boat

The 7.62 M80 round can use either of two bullets, one having a alloy clad steel jacket, the other a copper jacket. Both have lead cores. The 7.62 M59 round uses only one bullet which has a copper jacket and a steel slug and lead core.