Functioning Cartridge

[DWalt]

This is just an old story that just occurred to me that I thought might be of some interest. Quite a long time ago, in the early 70s, I bought several hundred rounds of WWII GI .30-'06 ball ammo cheaply and proceeded to shoot it up. There was one round which was a misfire, and I thought it was just a dead primer. I pulled the bullet, but whatever was inside the case was not smokeless powder - it was white crystals resembling salt. It was curious, but I never thought much more about it. Back in the late 1990s I was working with Winchester on some ammunition development projects, and I mentioned that experience to one of Winchester's military sales guys and he solved the mystery. It seemed there was such a thing as a dummy functioning round, the only purpose of which was to be run through the M1 Garand by hand during manufacture to ensure that it functioned OK. In order to have the weight of the functioning round be exactly the same weight of a live round, it was loaded with some inert white granular chemical. He told me what it was, but I don't remember. The strange thing was that my inert round, as I recall, had no markings or features that would identify it as something other than a ball round. Has anyone ever heard of these?

 

[ColbyBruce]

I have never heard of those cartridges but now I wonder how many soldiers may have lost their lives to one of those being in the ammo that was issued?

 

[Paul in Nevada]

I think that Winchester guy was spinning a yarn. Using a test cartridge that looks like a real cartridge is dangerous for so many reasons.

 

[s&wchad]

Action Proving Dummy cartridges are almost always obvious, for safety reasons. I’ve seen Winchester APD’s that lacked primers and flash holes and some CF cartridges that actually lacked primer pockets. I’ve seen others with solid inert primers and holes drilled through the side of the case. Shotgun shells are usually printed “dummy” on the side. Those were pretty typical methods .

Here’s a few military APD’s marked RA 65 (Remington Arms). The cases and bullets are nickel plated. The .45 ACP cartridges have drilled primers and no powder. The .30-06 cartridge has a non-drilled inert primer and the case is drilled and empty.

Here’s a box of Western .22 Long APD’s. I can’t verify what they look like, since the box is sealed.

Edit to add:
I found an old auction listing where some 1943 Winchester .30 Carbine dummy rounds sold. It includes good photos.

.30 Carbine Dummy Cartridges