This post is a review of the surplus Turkish MKE (Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi) .30-06 ammunition made for a disintegrating link belt-fed machine gun, and purchased from Tactical Shit. It lists for $335 for a case of 400 rounds. The ammo is linked in four round units with disintegrating links and is advertised as non-corrosive. The ad states that it is 151gr M2 Ball and was made from 1962 until 1978, however as you will see what I received is newer. I received my ammo very fast (5 days from order to delivery from Missouri) delivered by UPS. Because of Kommiecticut state law, I had to send them a copy of my state pistol permit to buy ammo, but unlike the CMP this was not a problem, nor did it cause a delay. A range report will be forthcoming as soon as I can get there to actually shoot it.
It came in this outer carton. Weight was 30 pounds.
There was no damage to the outer carton, but the corner of the box the ammo was in had the corner crushed in by handling prior to shipping. Problem?
Nope. The way the ammo was placed in the box allowed the ammo to move and not be damaged. The blue foam on top was hard and crispy from age.
From what I saw and this picture shows, the visible ammo is really clean. Near the end of the Greek surplus from The CMP, they were selling 200 round cans of loose rounds and some of them had exterior corrosion on them that I cleaned off with 0000 steel wool. So I decided to dig down through the ammo to the bottom and see what it looked like below the surface. All clean.
Upon closer inspection there was slight green corrosion here and there, but only on the links, the brass was clean.
UPDATE 7-28-23: It turns out NOT to be corrosion on the links, but residue from the crumbling foam packing on the top of the ammo pile that was rubbing on the ammo on top. It brushes off easily.
As I wrote above this ammo had newer head stamps than what was advertised. All of this ammo is dated 1983.
Next was trying to disassemble the linked four rounds for re-insertion into an enbloc clip for an M-1. It wasn't too difficult. I used a block of wood and pressed the bullet tip downward on the wood while holding the links. The round slid out with little effort. Doing a large number of dis-assemblies, it might be wise to wear some mechanics gloves. As you can see, there was no corrosion under the links. All the assemblies I took apart looked like this.
I noticed these rounds looked different from the Greek ammo. You can see ribbed cannelure at the case neck. I wondered about overall length, so I grabbed my Vernier Caliper to measure. Sure enough they are slightly longer. The Greek M2 measures 3.320" and the Turkish ammo measures an average of 3.327". As a reloader, I know better than to fool with changing the bullet seating because those little 0.007" changes can increase pressures and that is never good for an M1 Rifle.
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Greek HXP on the left, Turk MKE on the right
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Because US Rifle M1 is semi-automatic, I was concerned about possible feeding issues. I loaded an enbloc clip with 8 rounds of the Turkish ammo and took my rifle outside to test loading and hand cycling. With my rifle pointed in a safe direction, I set the clip in the grooves and eyeballed the line up. The tips of all the bullets had plenty of visible clearance from the front edge of the receiver. I pushed the clip down and into the magazine and sent the bolt into battery. It fully locked into place. I then pulled and released the charging handle as hard and fast as I could ejecting and loading all the rounds until the clip popped out with the telltale 'PING!" I picked up and closely examined all the rounds, paying attention to the bullet tips to see if any of them got jammed into the rifling. Not one showed any rifling marks. I went back in the house and proceeded to break apart several more link assemblies so I have about 60 loose rounds. I plan on breaking apart the remainder on the next rainy day I am just hanging around. The links appear to be for an M1919-A4. Once I have all the links separated I will try and sell them to a collector for cheap to offset the price of the ammo a bit. I refuse to just throw such things away. A quick look online shows about $50 for 400, but I saw an interesting notice from AmmunitionStore.com that they WILL NOT sell links to a resident of any state that has magazine restrictions, because links are "feeding devices" and if you link too many rounds together.... well you might be a law breaker.
My plan for the range is at least three clips fired for function testing. Subsequent shots will be for accuracy testing compared to the known Greek accuracy. My rifle holds a 200 yard battle zero so if I can at least bang the 8" gong at 200 yards consistently, I will be happy to have some cheap target ammo for blasting away.
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The following post is actually a comment I left at Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated about my US Army basic training Drill Sargents the other day.
My Army basic training Drill Sargent’s at Fort Dix both made such an impression on 18 year old me I remember their names, faces, and voices clearly 42 years later. Sgt. Cupp was white and built like a human fire hydrant. He took no guff but had a quirky sense of humor. One day, we came out of noon chow and began loosely forming up behind our web gear and steel pots. He hollered out “Smoke ’em if you got ’em, and if you don’t then simulate! I began simulating toking on a bone. Sgt. Cupp sees me and come straight over to where I am standing and gives me a sideways stinkeye. “Get on the ground and give me 20, then ask for 20 more!” I drop into the front leaning rest position and knock them out, then ask for 20 more. “Knock ’em out! he says which I do. This repeated until I was at 100 and he told me to recover.
Sgt. Cumberbatch was black, a handsome guy with a great mustache, and he was cut. He was only a little taller than Sgt. Cupp but the guy was super fit. He had a great voice for calling cadence and shouting commands. I didn’t have a whole lot of personal interaction with him. Although I believe it was he that taught us the Claymore. We were all sitting in a classroom as he demonstrates setting one up and explaining the steps as he does. “THIS SIDE TOWARDS ENEMY” was facing us recruits on the front table. He sticks in the blasting cap and starts uncoiling the wires walking backwards away from the Claymore still explaining the steps as he connects the wires to the trigger. Everyone is visibly looking around nervously. “Bye-bye boys!” he yells out and hits the trigger. The blasting cap goes off with a loud pop and everyone jumps and he laughs himself silly. I’m sure that is a gag that was pulled on many recruit classes before and after. Near the end of boot camp, we are out on bivouac. After camp was setup, evening chow was done, and well after dark, a fire was lit and the boombox came out. For the next two hours, Sgt. Cumberbatch oversaw a breakdance party of both black and white participants. I just watched, but it was a heckuva stress reliever for everyone.
Until writing this, I haven’t thought about those guys in years. Thanks for triggering the memories.
The Claymore was obviously a dummy training aid, but the blasting cap and trigger were the real deal. To this day I have a similar type gag I use on fire service newbies. We have to do initial and then annual SCBA mask fitting. This is done using a USB connected device on a dedicated desktop computer. The device then connects to our SCBA mask with a filter assembly and hoses. The person being tested puts on and seals their mask. Then I attach and lock on the filter assembly and start the test program. Whenever I have a first timer, just as I lock the filter onto their mask, I say, "I will give you a wave just before the poison gas comes on" to which I get the dinner plate sized eyes and look of fear. Then I bust out laughing and they breathe a sigh of relief.
The only photo I have of my Drill Sargents is this platoon graduation group photo for Fort Dix A-2-3-2 on May 1, 1981. For those never in the military, A-2-3-2 stood for Alpha Company, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Platoon. Sgt. Cupp on the left, Sgt. Cumberbatch on the right. They are flanked by our squad leaders who were all older and more mature than us 18 year old punks. The squad leader all the way to the right was our platoon PT champion, Pvt. Greggory Heiney. The back of the photos were signed by everyone there. I only remember a handful of faces to go with the names. I am between Mazzarela on the left and Neff on the right. The guy 3 over from me to the right is Edward "Morris the Cat" Morris from Washington state. My family and girlfriend drove down for graduation and he had the hots for my sister. The black guy on the right in the middle of the top row was my friend from Mississippi Carlvet Lee. We were like Forrest Gump and Bubba. He was larger than me and I once carried him just like Forrest carried Bubba for practice for 100 yards. I have a whole story about him and I that took place Memorial Day weekend 1981 and involved me getting fucked on KP. I'll save it for another post.