Ammo / Head Satmp ID - 30-06 Military?

[VaTom]

Today when I played golf with my retired buddies, a close friend asked if I could identify these rifle cartridges. He is helping clean out a recently deceased neighbors basement (she was 95 and he and his wife helped look after her). He said there was a box of about 20 stripper clips of 5 in a box. Apparently the widow had sold her late husband's guns years ago.

Looks like military 30-06 for a Springfield 1903. One head stamp reads R A 5 4 , the other reads W T 5. Thanks for your help. I will pass it on to him.

 

[Sam McCord]

RA is Remington Arms, TW is Twin Cities ordnance plant. 54 would be 1954 5 would be 1955.

 

[VaTom]

RA is Remington Arms, TW is Twin Cities ordnance plant. 54 would be 1954 5 would be 1955.

Thanks so much.

 

[22lrfan]

RA should be Raritan Arsenal in NJ.
Raritan Arsenal - FortWiki Historic U.S. and Canadian Forts

 

[max]

From what I just read it doesn't appear they manufactured ammunition there.

RA should be Raritan Arsenal in NJ.
Raritan Arsenal - FortWiki Historic U.S. and Canadian Forts

 

[Sam McCord]

RA should be Raritan Arsenal in NJ.
Raritan Arsenal - FortWiki Historic U.S. and Canadian Forts

Raritan did not produce ammunition. RA is Remington.

 

[DWalt]

There is absolutely no doubt that RA is Remington and TW is Twin Cities AAP - which was operated by Federal. There were many headstamps in use during WWII as there were quite a few military small arms ammunition plants in operation then, and Remington, Western, Peters, and Winchester were making ammo under contract in their own facilities in addition to operating government-owned ammunition plants. The only company not already in the ammunition business that I know of which operated a WWII small arms ammunition plant of any size was Chrysler, who operated the Evansville (IN) AAP (which was a converted auto assembly plant). Kelly- Springfield (the rubber tire company) operated a small plant near Cumberland MD making .50 BMG ammunition for two years.

 

[Nevada Ed]

I got to thinking about my old 30-06 cases that I have been using over the years.
Wow.......... you guys really know how to make a guy realize how old he is.

Here is a picture of some of my old cases that are still hanging on and being loaded
for my trips to the range with my light target loads, for my 1903 rifle
that was handed down to me from my father.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

So Springfield paid Mauser (as S&W paid GLOCK) for patent infringements on the 1903 Springfield...?

As the rest is... History!

Love those old 30-06s, Ed!

 

[growr]

That is correct.....insane but correct. Anyone know when this stopped?

Randy

 

[tndrfttom]

Payments to Mauser stopped in July 1909 when a total of $200,000 was reached. It was based on 50 cents per thousand stripper clips and 75 cents per M1903 rifle manufactured after November 1905.

 

[Jack Flash]

Around the time the Lusitania sank, I'll betcha.

I don't think it was all that insane. The M1903 was darn near a copy of the Mauser M96. If patents mean anything, you would think royalty payments would be necessary.

 

[DWalt]

At the time that the M1903 Springfield was being developed, the Mauser bolt action rifle design had already been well established as being the best in the world. There wasn't much the US could do other than make a near-copy of it and pay royalties to Mauser. The Krag rifle had proved that it couldn't play in the same league as the Mauser, and about the best that could be said for it was that was better than the trapdoor Springfield.

 

[tndrfttom]

Around the time the Lusitania sank, I'll betcha.

I don't think it was all that insane. The M1903 was darn near a copy of the Mauser M96. If patents mean anything, you would think royalty payments would be necessary.

From my reading, Mauser originally claimed up to 7 points of infringement by the Ordnance Department in the design of the M1903 but the issues were negotiated and resolved without litigation. The strange thing is DWM said the M1906 flat based, spitzer bullet (similar to the later M2 ball bullet) infringed on their patents. Ordnance disagreed and said he U.S. Design was based on an earlier U.S. patent. The litigation was set aside due to WWI and not taken up again til 1921. Long story short, in 1928 the U.S. ended up paying DWM $412,000 for a baseless infringement claim!

 

[cgt4570]

I lucked into a trade for a thousand 1943 RA rounds about 20 years ago. I still have most. I shot them in CMP matches until I moved in '14 and don't have any matches nearby. It was easy to find my brass, and most folks were amazed that they all went bang.