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Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

Found a pretty nice early .50cal ammo can today. The stencilling indicates API repacked at some later date. My question to the assembled multitude, when did the side hinge ammo can give way to the modern end hinge ammo can?

Dontos · Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:26 am Post subject: Re: side hinge .50cal ammo can

Taking a wild guess, I'd say in the 50's. Mid-50's post Korean war.

Thats with no 'quickie' research, just guessing.

HTH
Don

Kurt_Laughlin · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 577

Close Don. The BOX, ammunition, Caliber .50, M2A1 was recommended for standardization on 12 APR 51 via OCM 33649. It also notes that the deep sides on the lid were meant to act as as feed tray, and that there was no production of the M2 box between 1945 and at least 1951.

KL

Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

OK fellas, that makes more sense. I had a closer look last night. It is stamped makers' mark < BURROWES > and the flaming bomb on one end. The front has < AMM. BOX CAL..50 M2 >. The green paint is overpainted with a drab brown swathe and stencilled with an ambiguous lot number < REPACK'D LOT TW-L-18362 >. The only obvious clue is the TW code, for Twin Cities arsenal. That was near Denver and I have clipped Garand ammo from there.

Since this forum is about applied military technology, what is interesting, besides the fact a 65yr old machine gun ammo can is almost unrusted, is how crude the welds are. The end panels are single stampings, and the centre is another. The joints around the ends look like a disinterested high school shop student cranked the heat up on his arc welder and sparked away. Big lumps and blobs of weld all around the perimeter. I post a picture, but this question is not really worth killing more innocent electrons.

And just to show how connected the world has become, there is a similar can listed at: www.armysurpluswarehou...n-4383.cfm

MarkHolloway · Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:21 pm Post subject: Re: side hinge .50cal ammo can

I never realized the lid is a feed tray. Interesting....

ChrisC · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 26, 2006 Posts: 147

They stole the feed tray lid idea from the German WWII ammo can

The US WWII cans were crude because they were considered throw away items, German gunners were expected to recover their cans and re-fill them, US gunners were not.

Kurt_Laughlin · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 577

"The only obvious clue is the TW code, for Twin Cities arsenal. That was near Denver and I have clipped Garand ammo from there."

I think you'll find that the "Twin Cities" are Minneapolis-St Paul, not Denver-Arvada . . .

The repacked TW-L lot number means that the box was used for a combination of several other lots - usually it was for the ball, AP, and tracer rounds as each would each have their own lot numbers. The L stands for metal links. In this case it might be for the ammo and links.

KL

JG300-Ascout · Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject: Re: side hinge .50cal ammo can

- Kurt_Laughlin

"The only obvious clue is the TW code, for Twin Cities arsenal. That was near Denver and I have clipped Garand ammo from there."

I think you'll find that the "Twin Cities" are Minneapolis-St Paul, not Denver-Arvada . . .

KL

Agreed, the Denver arsenal was RMA (Rocky Mountain Arsenal), as distinct from it's neighbor, Rocky Flats (plutonium and other nasty bits). RMA was also a CW manufacturing/assembly site.

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