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.30 Calibre Labels

Hi Jim,

Yes, I would think this is very scarce. The only other times I have seen the Mk.III ball h/s was on the actual ball round itself (when it was sold!) and on 2 Mk.V blanks in a box of bits at one of Weller & Duffty's auctions a good few years ago.

There were not many of the ball rounds made, and when withdrawn, those that were not used up in practice were converted to the blanks or these short-range types.

Very nice; wish it were mine!!

Regards,

Roger.
 
Ditto to Roger's remarks! I too have seen one on a Mark V blank but do not have one.

BTW, there was a single lot of 119,900 Mark III ball made in October 1897 and they failed proof, I believe on accuracy.

Regards
TonyE
 
When I was writing my article on US National Match ammunition, I accumulated over 100 cartons of match ammunition. I always found a way to open the carton without destroying it in order to see exactly what was inside. I was often amazed at what I found. Cartridges didn't always match (pun) the label. I encourage anyone and everyone to inspect what is inside sealed cartons. You may find your own personal Holy Grail. The story on the street is that the Frankford Arsenal 1941 NM was produced in limited quantity but was boxed and shipped as regular M2 ammunition due to the war effort. Anytime I find a carton FA 1941 Ball I buy it and open it. Who knows, maybe someday I'll hit the lottery. And, maybe that carton sitting on your shelf contains Mk III ball. Let's see, 20 x 3500 Pounds =. . .:)

ray
 
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Hi Ray,

pls let me help you a bit in winning the lottery.
Maybe you remember I wanted to look into LOT Numbers, well here we go:

Valid for Frankford Arsenal M2 Ball ammo:
My last confirmed lot number of M2 ball of 1940 is LOT 3162
The first confirmed lot number for 1941 is LOT 3173.

LOT number 3402 was still produced in 1941 but LOT 3552 is already from 1942.

Knowing that work on Match cartridges was usually started in the beginning of the year, I would say that
LOT numbers starting around 3200 are getting very interesting.

Good luck
cheers
Ren
 
Rene

Thanks for that heads-up. I was wondering how your project was going.

Some knowledgable collectors have suggested that perhaps the 1941 NM cartridges (assuming they existed) may have been sent to the Pacific or the Aleutians where the ravages of weather completely destroyed them. Otherwise, they say, some of them, or the fired cases, would have turned up as surplus (again, assuming they existed).

Unless someone happens to find some official document that details their where-abouts, we'll probably never know.

Ray
 
Hi Ray and Rene,
in Chris Punnetts 'An introduction to collecting .30-06 ' on cartridge collectors.org he quotes " and one that was known to have been made in the thousands but has never been seen since(F A 41NM)"....which would suggest to me that someone somewhere knew/knows that they were made..."in their thousands"....or is this wrong?

I wonder if they come over here for D-Day and we have them all:wink:

Cheers
Tony
 
Tony

I think if Chris was able to edit his book at this late date he'd probably modify that statement to say ". . .one that supposedly was made in the thousands. . ."

You Brits seem to have all of the scarce US cartridges so it would not surprise me if you have the FA 41 NM also. ;) ;)

Ray
 
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