Military ammo question

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by BlueJ1
Filling the bigger magazines to the max will make the spring inside weaken and also increase the tendency for jam or along those lines. Had a Marine tell me that when we were cleaning M16's. Im pretty sure he knew what he was doing seeing he just got back from a tour in Iraq.

In Vietnam, you filled your own magazines from a big box of bullets. 15-20 magazines of 18 bullets (weapon might jam if 19 or 20 rounds were loaded) was a standard load. Sometimes troops would carry up to 40 magazines.

Myth.  You could fill the magazine to max capacity and not have problems.  But the problems came when you didn't do things you were supposed to do.  

You were supposed to clean the magazine as well as the gun.  But if you remount the spring or the traveler wrong, you lose 1 or 2 bullets worth of capacity.

You were also supposed to keep your magazines unloaded.  It wasn't the max capacity that weakened the spring, it was the constant compression.  Leaving your bullets in 24/7 will weaken the spring after a couple of days.  But even taking out the bullets over night every other or third day will keep the magazine in top condition with no residual wear or tear.

[BlueJ1]

I wasnt about to correct him.

[AquaShrimp]

I have read approximately 500 first hand accounts of American marines and infantrymen in Vietnam.  

The issue of the magazine springs has come up many times in the accounts I have read.  Even with 30 round banana magazines, only 27 rounds would be loaded.

Yeah, we all know about the powder change in the M-16 causing jamming problems.  But did you know:

-A round left in the chamber overnight could swell due to humidity and jam the rifle.

-The gas return port in the M-16 was of such small diameter that a droplet of water could clog it due to the adhesive properties of water.

[Dichotomy]

According to my BIL

SAW 4 mags
9 mm  3 clips
Army Standard is 7 30 round M16 clips
Kpot  = 5 lbs
Add in body armor etc

its about 180 lbs

If you're not carrying a SAW you drop about 30 lbs
M16 weighs about 8.79 lbs with clip



when ammo is dropped at the supply depot are the magazines filled already?  no and ammo doesn't come from supply

what exactly comes in an ammo box?  Ammunition.. depends on what it's a box of

[Edbert1]

Originally posted by AquaShrimp
-The gas return port in the M-16 was of such small diameter that a droplet of water could clog it due to the adhesive properties of water.

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by AquaShrimp
I have read approximately 500 first hand accounts of American marines and infantrymen in Vietnam.  

The issue of the magazine springs has come up many times in the accounts I have read.  Even with 30 round banana magazines, only 27 rounds would be loaded.

Exactly like I said.  It would be better to load 27 rounds in a magazine for any mag you do instead of worrying if you put the mag back together correctly.  Or even if someone else put the magazine back together correctly.

[rabbidrabbit]

Originally posted by AquaShrimp


-A round left in the chamber overnight could swell due to humidity and jam the rifle.

-The gas return port in the M-16 was of such small diameter that a droplet of water could clog it due to the adhesive properties of water.

These both sound like bs to me.

[gunnss]

I was "in" from 83 to 96, did my first 4 in the SF, the rest in "3rd shop" maint Co's.  I was in electronics, but the way it worked was every one covered any job that came in, (the tranny packed it in on my Duce, in KS, and all I got was a wrecker, a TM, an engine can, and my squad dogs.  it took us about two hrs longer then the motor maggots avg time)  Of note was all the times we would go through testing small arms magazines.  The most common fault was bad springs, followed by bent cases.  and in GW1, I carried 6 ammo pouches om my LBE, 3 mags per pouch and one in the bang stick. (BTW don't ever tape two mags together, yer just begging for a jam)  In positional defence, (perimeter fox hole stuff) the day guys would spend all day loading, and the night guys would usually shoot it all up, one time there must have been 60+ mags on the firing step.  last note, mags loaded by other troops can be an adventure..... one night I had a mag that was all tracer..... can ya say Star Wars?
Gunns

[VOR]

CptA is correct and what he says is accurate.

I have loaded my mags to 25 rounds each ever since I was unable to chamber from a 30 round mag that had gotten dusty. No problem since. Lesson learned.

Firefights are the rare exception rather than the norm and nobody unloads their mags when "not in use". Short loading them by a couple will keep the spring healthy enough to work fine when you need it to.

[cpxxx]

Originally posted by gunnss
last note, mags loaded by other troops can be an adventure..... one night I had a mag that was all tracer..... can ya say Star Wars?
Gunns

I'd love to have seen that!

[Maverick]

Not if you were the one firing. Tracers work both ways.

[BlueJ1]

Good story.

I was up at Fort Drum for a 2 week bootcamp the program Im in had. I was staff. I was assigned Sea Bee duty. We were replacing decks to the building that date back to before Vietnam. How do I know this? We found porn mags dated in the 60's. We found them hidden EVERYWHERE. Anyways, we were taking these decks apart and having fun doing it. I was working on this deck alone when I took all the top boards off. I found stashed under the deck a ton of ammo cans. All were extremely rusted. Some had holes in them and Im pretty sure they were M16 rounds. MP's showed up, bunch of base brass. Lucky thing the sledge hammer didnt go through the deck and into one of those cans or into some of the loose ammo. I doub t anything would have happened. But still...

[Maverick]

Well what did you do with all the porn magazines??????

[BlueJ1]

Originally posted by Maverick
Well what did you do with all the porn magazines??????

Threw em out and replaced them with our own. They were covered in lead paint dust, abestos, and....umm...other substances, maybe some agent oarnge.