I Bet I Shot The Reload In The Oldest Case This Week

[max]

I was at the range yesterday and when picking up my brass, I noticed one of the headstamps was ECS 42. That thing is 5 years older than I am and looks to be in pretty good shape.

I have no idea how long I have had it or where I got it. It is now officially retired.

 

[duman444]

Its good you can still bend over to pick them up. Unless you were tunning it through a revolver?

 

[max]

Picking them up is getting more and more difficult.

 

[DWalt]

ECS is the Evansville (IN) Chrysler plant, with the steel case being made at the Sunbeam appliance factory. You can find ammunition with EC and ECS headstamps in both .45 ACP and .30 Carbine (both having steel cases) can be found. Not particularly unusual, certainly not even close to being rare. Vast quantities were made during WWII. I have fired thousands of rounds of each caliber, they were all surefire. A final note, only steel cases were made at the Sunbeam plant. Those cases were trucked across town for loading at the Chrysler plant. Google "Bullets by the Billion" and you should be able to find a free copy of a digital book that will tell you everything about the Evansville ammunition factories.

 

[Shotguncoach]

I don't remember which plant they are from but I have a handful of '42' headstamped cases in my .45 AARP brass rotation. They get inspected every time they pass thru and have always been fine. It makes me smile to see them.

 

[Kp321]

As already stated, millions of rounds of EC 45 ACP rounds were manufactured during the war much of which is still out there. A few cautions. They were all corrosive. With poor storage the bullets can be chemically "soldered" into the cases. When more of this ammo was commonly available this phenomenon was well documented, it raised pressures dramatically when fired. The solution was to bump the bullets slightly deeper to break this bond. Also, the primers were slightly undersized precluding using them for reloading. On the other hand, other GI steel cases , TW for example, have standard size primers and are reloadable. I have a handful of TW 5 head stamped steel cases that I have reloaded around 15 times. They were zinc plated which seems to last even through repeated resizings and dry tumbling. Never tried wet tumbling with them.

 

[Sevens]

I have a single round of Hardball from 1918 but it's not one I loaded. Definitely neat!

 

[biku324]

On November 11 at 11AM in 2018, I fired my last few rounds of FA 19 30'06 cases in memory of 7 million dead. No troubles at all, but I thoroughly scrubbed the bore afterward.

 

[BillBro]

My grandpa flew for the last time in May 1945, he pocketed a 50cal round from one of his guns and brought it home. I now have it.
My great grandpa saved a 45acp ball round loaded in 1928, I have it as well.

 

[Muley Gil]

Somewhere in my stash of cases, I have some .45 ACP brass stamped "W18"-Winchester 1918. I haven't loaded them in many years.

 

[zeke]

Removed these from rotation several years ago when they started to split

 

[Engineer1911]

Sometime / someplace I received a quantity of FA 35 Match brass and other cases with 32 to 39 headstamps. I don't remember the arsenal mark.

 

[desi2358]

I have fired and reloaded US military cases dating back to the 1920's (45ACP & 30-06) as well as a couple 30-40 Krag cases that were even older (1900 & 1902). I did anneal the Krag and 06 brass before reloading them as they were prone to neck splits. I like to see how old ammo can be and still work and if the brass is reloadable I hate to just scrap it when done.

It seems like a link to the people who made them long ago when I use some of the old stuff.................

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

As already stated, millions of rounds of EC 45 ACP rounds were manufactured during the war much of which is still out there. A few cautions. They were all corrosive. With poor storage the bullets can be chemically "soldered" into the cases. When more of this ammo was commonly available this phenomenon was well documented, it raised pressures dramatically when fired. The solution was to bump the bullets slightly deeper to break this bond. Also, the primers were slightly undersized precluding using them for reloading. On the other hand, other GI steel cases , TW for example, have standard size primers and are reloadable. I have a handful of TW 5 head stamped steel cases that I have reloaded around 15 times. They were zinc plated which seems to last even through repeated resizings and dry tumbling. Never tried wet tumbling with them.

AFAIK, which isn't very far, the issue may have simply been further hardening of the asphalt seal. Never heard about storage being an issue, although that certainly doesn't mean it isn't true. I bought a whole "spam can" of stuff that was, as I recall, repackaged in 1942, or maybe it was 1942 ammo repackaged a little later. Trying not to let CRS interfere with the accuracy of my post.

Anyway, a slightly older gentleman, the same who gave me a nearly unique H&R USRA pistol, advised me to "crack" all the sealings by seating a thousandth or two deeper. I did that, and my recollection is that it was very accurate, possibly the most accurate .45ACP ammo I had fired. I think I used it mainly in my Model 25, don't remember whether I used it in my autos.

 

[DWalt]

EC and ECS .45 cases do use slightly smaller primers. But the pockets can be reamed to use regular LP primers. If you really want to go to the trouble to do it. I never did except for a few cases.