Help with ammo ID

[MTS Cop]

A friend gave me approx 300 rounds of what I believe to be .30 Carbine ammo today. All the boxes say is "7.62mm LC". The head stamps say "LC 52". They look like every picture I've seen of .30 Carbine rounds, I've just never seen or handled this round before. They basically look like taller, skinnier .38s. This could be a huge score for me as I'm waiting on a M1 Carbine from the CMP. Supposedly he has magazines too. Too bad he doesn't have the friggin gun!

EDIT: I added a picture. I put the round in question next to a 9mm for scale.

 

[MTS Cop]

A friend gave me approx 300 rounds of what I believe to be .30 Carbine ammo today. All the boxes say is "7.62mm LC". The head stamps say "LC 52". They look like every picture I've seen of .30 Carbine rounds, I've just never seen or handled this round before. They basically look like taller, skinnier .38s. This could be a huge score for me as I'm waiting on a M1 Carbine from the CMP. Supposedly he has magazines too. Too bad he doesn't have the friggin gun!

EDIT: I added a picture. I put the round in question next to a 9mm for scale.

 

[ServiceGun]

Sounds like Lake City produced in 1952.

 

[MTS Cop]

I guess that puts it in the right time frame to be a .30 Carbine.

 

[s&wchad]

I'm 90% sure that's Chinese knock-off ammo. The US didn’t mark carbine ammo boxes like that and LC 52 is notorious for being counterfeited. a lot was imported into the US. It's corrosive and berdan primed and I absolutely wouldn't shoot it in my guns. I'll see if I can find more info.

http://www.100megsfree4.com/ai...nd/ammo/lc52ammo.htm

 

[MTS Cop]

Good link. I think I have the Chinese garbage too. Guess it wasn't a good score after all. At least it was free.

 

[s&wchad]

This is how US ammo boxes were marked.

 

[Bruce51]

Good call guys. I've never had any 50 year old ammo that looked that good. Here is a photo of L C marked cases. Bruce

 

[Spotteddog]

.30 M-1 Carbine
Lake City 1952'
Don't forget those will be GI primers when reloading! They'll need to be reamed.

 

[GatorFarmer]

The Chinese stuff supposedly went bang well enough. You just have to remember to properly clean your carbine if you're going to use it.

 

[s&wchad]

The big problem shooting corrosive ammo in a carbine is the gas piston. The retaining nut is staked in place and it's recommended that you not take it apart. I wouldn’t shoot French .30 Carbine ammo in my guns either.

You can pull a bullet and see if it has the two hole Berdan priming if you want to know for sure, but the box is a dead give away.

 

[Spotteddog]

Nice?
The SOB's aren't happy poisoning just our dogs, now they're trying to poison our Carbine's!
Thanks for the heads up on this folks. Caveat Emptor(sp?)

 

[GatorFarmer]

Originally posted by Spotteddog:
Nice?
The SOB's aren't happy poisoning just our dogs, now they're trying to poison our Carbine's!
Thanks for the heads up on this folks. Caveat Emptor(sp?)

The story floating around when the stuff first showed up was that the Chinese made it to be "deniable" foreign assistance ammo to sympathizers in areas where the M1 carbine might be common. I don't know if that is true or not, but that was the "word" at the time.

 

[Peter J.]

That stuff is Chinese for sure and corrosive as hell! It will shoot fine, but clean that Carbine right way, and then re-do the bore and chamber 2-3 days later. Besure to use some WW2 surplus bore cleaner or some equivelent for those corrosive salts. Like S&Wchad said, make sure you get some bore cleaner into the gas piston/system.

 

[max]

I had read that the Chinese bought some loading equipment from us and never changed the stamps that identify it.