Gibbs .30-06 Ammo

[BE Mike]

I just thought I'd mention this. Several of my buddies and I took out our M-1 Garands and shot them yesterday. Yes, it rained hard the whole time, but luckily we were able to shoot from under a cover. Back to the point. I had bought some of this factory loaded Gibbs .30-06 at the Seymour gun show quite a while back. It is supposedly loaded with 150 gr. FMJ bullets. The first thing I noticed when comparing it to military M-2 ball was that the cartridge overall length of the Gibbs was much shorter. When I fired this ammo, some primer pockets blew out and the others were flat and cratered. If you see any of this ammo floating around, steer clear of it. I'll either give mine away to a buddy to pull and use for components or I'll do it myself, but I won't be shooting any more of it. I suspect that the excessive pressures were caused by the bullet being seated way too deeply in the case. I doubt that there is much of this ammo floating around, but I thought I'd give a report, just in case. BTW, I did have some rounds of factory M-2 clone ammo, and it performed great!

 

[IndyGunworks]

WOW.... would you recognize him at the next gun show? and do you have any of the cases with flattened primers and loose primers? I would like to take them to him and show him how his lack of attention could lead to his customers injuries.

 

[JByer323]

I'd like to see some pictures of the fired cases, if you have them.

 

[BE Mike]

These are factory cartridges, not reloads. I doubt that the fellow who sold them to me would have known that they are bad rounds unless he had fired some (I'm starting to doubt this previous statement of mine). They didn't look right when I opened the box and loaded them into my Garand clips, but I never thought that factory ammo would have been this high pressure. You can see from the photo, just how much shorter COAL the Gibbs is compared to the M-2 round on the bottom. I bought this ammo a couple of years ago, so I don't think that I would recognize the fellow I bought them from. Now I'm suspecting the ammo on the bottom of the photo, as well as the Gibbs. There was a sticker covering up the "recovered components" statement on all five boxes of the lower box .30-06 which I bought. This lower box of ammo in the "M-2" boxes is made by Talon, whoever that is.

 

[BE Mike]

I posted the photos above. I apologize for the photo quality. After doing an internet search on "Talon" ammo, I feel confident that it is safe ammo to shoot. It is military ball ammo that has been disassembled and re-manufactured using the original components, i.e. bullet, brass and powder. The primer appears to be commercial replacement. There are mixed reviews regarding accuracy. One first-person account reported excellent accuracy and another hearsay account reported disappointing accuracy. I still consider the Gibbs .30-06 dangerously high pressured ammo. Unfortunately I found another unopened box of the Gibbs.

 

[Flintlock]

Yup, Talon is safe to shoot. They took ammo that had to be demilled, took it apart and then essentially reloaded it with the original components. GTG!