EC 43 headstamped .45ACP

[serger]

Last week I was out at the shooting spot scrounging
brass. Among the cases I picked up was a 7 round
string of steel cased 45ACP.

I had shot the last of my EC 43 years ago and finding
the shell cases made me smile.

We routinely have folks asking if "old" ammunition is
still good. The stuff I found was 6 weeks shy of being
about 80 years old. So the "best if used by date"
dictum we have been conditioned to believe in is more
of a marketing ploy that anything else.

I'm still shooting ammo my father traded for in 1968
in Ft. Stockton Texas. That stuff had been all over
the continental US and Alaska in temperatures' from
- 40F to +118F and it still shoots fine.

Here's a link about Chrysler making Ammunition in
WWII. I hope it makes you smile like it did me:

Bullets by the Billions: Chrysler Switches World War II Production from Cars to Cartridges | Defense Media Network

 

[LoboGunLeather]

The police department providing my paychecks back in the 1970s decided to trade off the old Thompson Submachineguns for more modern equipment. That left a huge stack of .45ACP ammunition, which we were allowed to purchase for $0.05 per round ($2.50 per box).

All of it was headstamped FA (Frankford Arsenal) 1917 and 1918, World War I surplus. I burned up hundreds and hundreds of rounds with no problems at all.

All fired brass went into buckets with dish soap for a few days (corrosive priming), then a couple of rinse cycles. Most of it remains in my reloading supplies today after probably 20 to 30 uses and past its 100th anniversary.

Also went through a case of FA-35 .30-06 surplus ammo, and much of that remains in use for reduced cast bullet loads today.

My "emergency stash" includes 6 boxes of FC-85 .45ACP Match military ammo. 37 years old now and no questions about its reliability. I think I paid $10 per box at a gun show years ago.

 

[zeke]

These were given to me, likely be sent to brother who has grandfathers ww1 45 (mismatched). About a decade ago finally culled early 40's brass cases from a batch of range brass that had been reloaded multiple times after i got them in batch of reloads

 

[Mike0251]

I opened the can, still goes bang. I have BBTB, great history!

 

[IAM Rand]

I opened the can, still goes bang. I have BBTB, great history!

Awesome stuff. If you wanted to get rid of a box, might be interested in it for collector's purposes.

 

[zeke]

I opened the can, still goes bang. I have BBTB, great history!

Last time i looked, several decades ago, these were collectibles. Especially unopened tins!

 

[WCCPHD]

When my father-in-law died in 1997 I took possession of his four digit 1911 that was loaded with 1942 head stamped ammo. It was kept under the cash register in a WWII tanker holster which was screwed to the counter in his furniture store. (It actually belongs to my wife. It was her step-grandfather, who was issued the gun in 1912. He entered the US Army when he graduated from VMI in 1903 and retired for the fourth time in 1948 as a full colonel.)

 

[armorer951]

Yes sir....."Evansville Chrysler". Quite a story. Even shot-shells were part of the production.

 

[DWalt]

This was maybe 10 years ago, but I remember that full sealed cases of the WWII steel cased .45 ammo were still available for sale. Sometime around the mid-1990s I bought about 20 boxes of it at a local garage sale for around two bucks per box. I used it up for bowling pin shooting.

Evansville also produced steel cased .30 Carbine ammunition during the war. I have fired up several boxes of it. GI steel cased .45 and .30 Carbine ammunition was also made during the 1950s.

Also, I have the hard copy edition of the book "Bullets by the Billion."