Saturday, May 14, 2011

Vintage Ammo Boxes

At the 'historical' section of the NRA Convention, first floor, they had a John Browning exhibit, including a rig for the M1917 water cooled machine gun.



It had a brace of ammo on the carriage that were interesting.  Including vintage ammo boxes that look very similar to modern metal machine gun boxes.

I don't want a real one:



But reproductions?  That'd be fun.  Or just the hardware to make my own.  It wouldn't be too hard to make up a bunch and paint them olive drab.

They hold .30-06, but from the outside they are about the size of a .50 BMG metal box.  The stout wooden size accounts for the size difference, I'm sure.
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2 comments:

  1. Bubblehead Les.May 14, 2011 at 2:37 PM

    My buddy the Gun Smith had one. You are correct, it was the thickness of the wood. I think they started to make the metal ammo cans when they came out with the Air-Cooled 1919 version, but I couldn't give you the exact date. And I know that if an ammo box was still in inventory when WW2 broke out, they used it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Murphy's LawMay 14, 2011 at 6:00 PM

    Dd I even mention that WW1 MG08 and 08/15 guns are some of the cheapest belt-feds out there?

    You need a belt-fed. Come over to the dark side.

    ReplyDelete

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