From factory to shipping point from USA, to shipping point in Afghanistan, to forward bases, to the soldiers themselves?

Is it loose rounds in bulk ammo cans?
Is it in boxes of 20?
Loaded into ten round stripper clips?
Preloaded into 30 round magazines?

Mix of stripper clips for M4/M16-use and belts for M249 SAWs would be my WAG (wild assed guess).

I would doubt loose rounds in bulk cans, but shit it's the military so who knows?

Here is a photo of a Marine in Afghanistan - 9MM in 50rd boxes and stripper clips visible.

Comes in ammo cans with 840 rounds in 30 round open boxes with rounds on stripper clips. 2 ammo cans in a wooden crate. Linked 5.56 comes 800 to a can in 4 200 round plastic drums.

quote:

Originally posted by PossibleZombie:
Comes in ammo cans with 840 rounds in 30 round open boxes with rounds on stripper clips. 2 ammo cans in a wooden crate. Linked 5.56 comes 800 to a can in 4 200 round plastic drums.

So, the warriors load their magazines from stripper clips and tuck them into the battle vests before a mission?

Do they use a stripper clip loader of some kind or just fingers on hands?

Everything I've ever gotten from Lake City on stripper clips included 1-2 of these guides to load mags.



I'd bet some load using the strippers / guide, some load by hand, some buy speciality tools.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:

quote:

Originally posted by PossibleZombie:
Comes in ammo cans with 840 rounds in 30 round open boxes with rounds on stripper clips. 2 ammo cans in a wooden crate. Linked 5.56 comes 800 to a can in 4 200 round plastic drums.

So, the warriors load their magazines from stripper clips and tuck them into the battle vests before a mission?

Do they use a stripper clip loader of some kind or just fingers on hands?

Most do it the old fashioned way, strip the clip and load 30 by hand. It's especially fun when you have to do regular round counts in country.

5.56 comes in a wooden wire bound box that has two 50 cal cans. Depending which type ( DODIC/NALC) was ordered it can be in 10 round stripper clips that are in a cloth bandolier and the can has 820 rounds, or it can come in the can in cardboard boxes with 20 rounds per cardboard box.

So stateside for training ammo we ordered the stuff in cardboard boxes, cause the guys had time to load mags...aboard ship we ordered and stored the stuff in the stripper clips.

9mm ammo came 50 to a box and the 50 cal can was full of as many boxes would fit in the ammo can, and two 50 cal cans to a wire bound box

Linked ammo was different, usually four 30 cal cans came to a wire bound box, and the belt had 200 rounds per ammo can

Belted 50 cal ammo was 100 rounds to a belt, with two ammo cans per wire bound box...

Of course there are more combinations of different ammo....

So, every caliber could be in boxes or bandolier s, pistol ammo and shotgun ammo was usually in cardboard boxes inside a 50 cal can, with two cans per wire bound box.....

This size is around 75 pounds and keeps the sizes uniform for storage and handling, obviously 50 cal ammo is heavier...but still came in the normal wire bound box.

We were issued a box of 50 9mm, even though the standard combat load is 3 full magazines for a total of 45 rounds ready. For 5.56 two bandoliers of ball (240 rounds) and 3 boxes of 20 tracers each. While the standard is to load so many rounds of ball then a tracer, my method was to put all the tracers in the bottom of the mag so you saw multiple consecutive tracers as a signal you were running low.

quote:

...my method was to put all the tracers in the bottom of the mag so you saw multiple consecutive tracers as a signal you were running low.

"We here at ISIS/Al Quaeda/Taliban planning wish to thank you."

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Everything I've ever gotten from Lake City on stripper clips included 1-2 of these guides to load mags.



I'd bet some load using the strippers / guide, some load by hand, some buy speciality tools.

the guides are called Spoons

quote:

We here at ISIS/Al Quaeda/Taliban planning wish to thank you."

I am sure they already figured that stuff out. They may be poor and illiterate but they are tricky and somehow are able to work their way around our high tech stuff as well.

So load three ball, then two tracers, and then proceed to fill to the capacity you normally would. I always wondered how often the Russians tried to sucker the guys who thought the Russians' magazines were empty if they saw a couple of tracers.

Early in the Vietnam War they toyed with the idea of the ammo coming preloaded in 20 round mags which would be disposable. I guess that was deemed too wasteful even by DOD standards.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
From factory to shipping point from USA, to shipping point in Afghanistan, to forward bases, to the soldiers themselves?

Is it loose rounds in bulk ammo cans?
Is it in boxes of 20?
Loaded into ten round stripper clips?
Preloaded into 30 round magazines?

I've seen 5.56mm in boxes of 20 (it may have been called "carton pack") here in CONUS, but it was a long time ago in the Air Guard and it may have been issued for training use only.

BTW, with the conflicts winding down ammo will now typically go from the factory (mainly Lake City) to a depot for initial receipt inspection (IRI) and then storage before OCONUS shipment. They prefer to use the oldest ammo first.

quote:

Originally posted by Fundman:
Early in the Vietnam War they toyed with the idea of the ammo coming preloaded in 20 round mags which would be disposable. I guess that was deemed too wasteful even by DOD standards.

One of the reasons the original M16 magazines were so lightweight in construction was they were originally designed to be factory loaded, then disposed of when used. That's right, a disposable magazine. The bean counters took care of that idea, but they never redesigned the magazines.

Somewhere the Army has a regulation saying no loose ammo as a resupply item to troops in forward areas. It's all supposed to be on stripper clips, although it can be boxed.

another factor may be how far 'forward' you are

it would be possible - even likely - that the Supply SGT / Company XO might have 'HQ troops / extra / limited duty' personnel in the supply area loading mags and sending them forward already loaded

that might be done if the situation allowed / called for it

------------------------------

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
That's right, a disposable magazine.

They also designed a "plastic" one time use mag that could be stepped on and destroyed after use, but apparently they didn't hold up well.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
That's right, a disposable magazine.

They also designed a "plastic" one time use mag that could be stepped on and destroyed after use, but apparently they didn't hold up well.

Not the first crappy mag design. The M1 Carbine and the BAR rifle had poorly designed magazines. The BAR mags were pre leaded and the brass would corrode\tarnish in transit. Soldiers had to knock the mag against something to loosen up the ammo so it would feed correctly.