Have you come across these

[JohnMOhio]

I don't remember when or how I acquired these but I thought I would share them here. From what I have been able to observe, with a magnifying glass, these are 30.06 practice ammo. I am guessing the bullets are of the cupro-nickel variety used many years ago. The carton lists them a 1200 FPS and provides the sight settings for the 1903. At `100 and 200 yards, set the elevation to 450 and 650.
Manufactured by Frankford Arsenal, Class 47, Division 3, Drawing II. Indicates in large letters, Smokeless Powder, Bulls Eye, H-29. After firing instructions state to de-cap, throw shells into water, brush out, dry them and place loosely into a ammo box.

Thought someone might find them interesting. Anyone know if they are considered of collector value and what that might be?

Thanks to all that commented to this post. Now how to figure out how to post a photo.53625

[lyman]

never seen them before,
surely they are collectible

[JimF]

“Once Upon a Time”, there was what was called “Guard Cartridges”.

Mebbie’ these are those???

[bruce]

The description in the OP matches information found in the 1903 Manual. Sincerely. bruce.

[Allen]

Odd how they would make these live rounds resemble dummy rounds.

[Art]

?Once Upon a Time?, there was what was called ?Guard Cartridges?.

Mebbie? these are those???

Just got out my copy of "Brophy." Those are indeed guard cartridges, to be exact "Guard Cartridge New Issue." They differ from the old issue in that the corrugations are on the shoulder instead of half way down the case. They were made using rejected projectiles having slight imperfections which didn't affect them at all for the intended purpose. The corrugations were on the cartridges so they could be distinguished by touch from regular ball ammo.

[JohnMOhio]

Thanks Art. I should have looked at my copy of "Brophy." I had forgotten there was additional information on the cartridge as I was more insterested in the rifle itself and that is what I had concentrated on looking up my 1903.

Interesting item is that the bullet is made of lead and tin. I was thinking otherwise. Seems I have a small supply of these in my possesion. Even made up some dummy rounds for the Garand. To safeguard the firing pin I filled in the primer pocket with a small dab of caulking. It seems to work.

[Art]

Interesting item is that the bullet is made of lead and tin.

The earliest .30-06 cartridges used cupro-nickel jacketed bullets which are almost surely what you have there. Those jackets are extremely tough, by the way. We went to copper alloy or copper over mild steel jackets on our ammo pretty early but a lot of countries used cupro-nickel jacketed bullets right up through WWII. I have some .303 Brit cupro-nickel jacketed bullets I pulled from WWII Mk VII ball that I'm in the process of reloading into what amounts to Mk VIIz rounds with new components (bullets excepted of course.) I've got about 40 of those left plus a few 174 gr. Sierra Match Kings. After that I'll have pretty much exhausted my .303 Brit components.

[JohnMOhio]

I put 8 of those dummy cartridges into an en bloc (spelling?) and it makes a great paper weight. I have heard different stories regarding these cupro nickel bullets. One that they stopped using them as they were to hard on barrels. The other was that they were not a consistent weight for accuracy on the target range. However when they were very available on the market, they were inexpensive.