200rds Meridian .30-06 (7.62x63mm) 150gr FMJ - Military Surplus - PLUS! add. 60rds FREE! (to cover 20% dud rate)

I Knew what I was getting into when I bought this ammo so please do not misunderstand this review as trashing the ammo or Centerfire Systems, I would just like to pass along some numbers from my experience with this ammo. I ordered two units of this 30-06 ammo after reading other reviews and doing a small bit of research. The main reason for buying this ammo was in the hope that I would be able to feed my M1 Garand for cheap while saving the stockpile of other 30-06 ammo that I have. The secondary reason for buying this ammo is to use for a display of a Browning M1919 Machine gun belt (Machine gun belts are a little piece of my overall gun/ammo collection). I figured that any ammo I decided not to shoot or that would not shoot I would put it in a belt. So down to the brass tacks, I was surprised when the ammo arrived that it was a mix of different Lots from different years of manufacture, I was expecting one year or maybe two years. All of the ammo was from the early 1950s. The ammo came in 20 round boxes with some being on 5 round stripper clips and the rest being loose in the 20 round box. Some of the bullets have a nickel alloy or nickel coating ( I am not an expert on this but I have come across it before with some 8mm surplus ammo in the past) and some bullets had a copper jacket Lot-years and amounts I received are as follows: Lot 875-50 120 Rounds on stripper clips with Nickel coating/alloy Lot 341-52 260 Rounds on stripper clips with Nickel coating/alloy Lot 708-53 20 Rounds loose with Nickel coating/alloy Lot 767-53 20 Rounds loose with Nickel coating/alloy Lot 302-54 100 Rounds loose with Copper jacket Firing results for the lots as follows and remember I am using a 8 round M1 clip and yes Hangfires were involved. Lot 875-50 Rounds tested-8 Duds-4 Hangfires-3 Lot 341-52 Rounds tested-40 Duds-40 Hangfires-0 Lot 708-53 Rounds tested-8 Duds-0 Hangfires-0 Lot 767-53 Rounds tested-8 Duds-0 Hangfires-0 Lot 302-54 Rounds tested-8 Duds-3 Hangfires-4 That is a total of 72 rounds tested for a 65% dud rate and a Hangfire rate of 9%. Doing the math on the rest of the ammo using these numbers as a base it shows what the possible Dud rate and Hangfire rate could be. Lot 875-50 Total Rounds-120 Potential Duds-60 Potential Hangfires-45 Lot 341-52 Total Rounds-260 Potential Duds-260 Potential Hangfires-0 Lot 708-53 Total Rounds-20 Potential Duds-0 Potential Hangfires-0 Lot 767-53 Total Rounds-20 Potential Duds-0 Potential Hangfires-0 Lot 302-54 Total Rounds-100 Potential Duds-37 Potential Hangfires-37 These numbers show a Potential Dud rate of 68% and a Potential Hangfire rate of 18%. Then by combining the Potential Dud rate and Potential Hangfire rate we can form a Potential Malfunction rate of 86%. I know that 8 rounds is a small test variable for some of those lots and I had full intention to shoot 20 or more rounds from each lot but to be honest the Hangfire rate is what kept me from trying more. As for the two lots that have a 0% Dud/Hangfire rate I wanted to save the rest of those for later. As a control I did take 24 rounds of 150 Gr Sellier & Bellot which preformed flawlessly. As a side note I have been shooting for 25 years (god I feel old now) and in my current setting I shoot thousands of rounds of ammo a year (be it pistol, rifle, shotgun, and rimfire also new manufacture and old milsurp) and in my life I have never experienced a Hangfire until today and I got to say it was a bit unnerving to experience that malfunction just once let alone as many times as I did today My conclusion is that I am okay with the results of these numbers due to the secondary reason for me buying this ammo for the M1919 ammo belt. But if I was buying this ammo with the sole purpose of shooting it then I would be more that upset that the results are a potential 68% dud rate and not the 20% dud rate that was advertised as well as the potential 18% Hangfire rate. If you order this ammo just hope that Centerfire Systems sends you Lots from 1953 and not the 1952 Lot. It is just to bad that of the 520 rounds I received, the 1953 lots only account for 40 rounds (just my luck I guess) while the 1952 Lot accounts for half of the 520 rounds. I will say that I was more than pleased at how fast Centerfire Systems shipped the units to me. I ordered the units on 12/20/2020 and received them on 12/23/2020. Every experience I have had with Centerfire Systems has been a positive one, including the one time awhile back when I had to deal with their customer service (which was one of the best experiences I have ever had with any customer service). I knew I was getting bad ammo, I was just hoping for better results than the results I got.

All-in-all, not bad! I have only had a 5% dud rate, but can only give a 3 star rating. After 71 years in storage - NOT BAD! I do agree that the price should be a bit lower on these, but NOT BAD!

I read Centerfires product description and received exactly what they said I would. It's plinking ammo, there were duds, I have been putting the duds aside and plan to pull the bullets and maybe reload them. Overall, no real complaints. Thank you Centerfire for some ammo that hit where I aimed and sometimes didn't - as expected!! I hope to buy more.