Summtin Ya Don`t See Everyday !!!

[GP100man]

Stopped by a range to scrounge & found this casing .

Now I`ve shot plastic 38s but this is a rifle ???

The numbers are on the headstamp .

That is 7.62x51 , a slip of the pen, & the rim is a lot smaller than a regular 308 casing.

[TXGunNut]

I seem to remember seeing some of these awhile back but IIRC it was a223/5.56 case. Seems to me it had roots in eastern Europe but I'm probably wrong about that. Interesting idea, apparently it didn't work out.

[TheGoldenState]

What would be the pros/cons to plastic casing?

[GP100man]

With the 38s you needed only to replace the primer , add powder ,then push the bullet in with ya finger.

I seem to remember American Ammo to be the brand ?????

[snuffy]

PCA spectrum.



The reason for the plastic front, was simply to save weight. It allowed a soldier to carry more ammo.

Yes it worked, the plastic was a special polymer that resisted melting and would not stick to a chamber. It was tested after firing a full auto until the barrel was extremely hot, then allowed to sit with one in the chamber. No melting or cook-off.

The company failed after the military passed on the concept.

Those that I fired in my otherwise very accurate Bushy AR, weren't hardly all that accurate. 3-5 inch groups @ 100 yds. I kept the cases and a few still loaded, just for the halibut!

I even tried to reload them, the neck could not be resized to hold a bullet firmly. They molded the case around a bullet so the factory load had a good grip,(case neck tension), on the bullet.

[TXGunNut]

I had some modified .38 cases that used reusable plastic bullets and a primer with no powder. Target was a cardboard box stuffed with an old bath towel. Used it for indoor shooting when I got tired of setting off the smoke alarm with a .22 and a bullet trap.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Now I'm tearing my gun stuff apart trying to find some of this stuff I bought in 1990 or so, same thing but had plastic bullets, chambered in .308win.

They shot about the same as regular stuff out to 100yds or so, but as I remember, some three letter agency had a fit about them and wouldn't allow them to be imported anymore.

Mine were .308 training ammo with plastic cases and bullets, only the head of the case was metal.

I've got a couple around here somewhere, I'll post pics if I can find them.

[243rem700]

Here is a link to the loaded plastic ammo. http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=502766

[spacecoast]

4400 fps... wow!

[zippy13]

I had some modified .38 cases that used reusable plastic bullets and a primer with no powder. Target was a cardboard box stuffed with an old bath towel.

I've got the same thing in .45

[Dave R]

Referring to the Sportsman's Guide link...

50 rounds for 10 bucks? I can't reload that cheap.

Might be a heckuva (short range?) varmit round, if its accurate enough....

[jmorris]

I have the same stuff that snuffy has a friend gave me around 500 rounds as it didn't work in his AR and he knew I had a contender in .223.

[Stargazer]

I found a few cases of the .223 gray plastic cases and they had burn through marks on most of them. Some had the neck melted as well. I did find one or two out of (10) that had no visible issues on them.

Has caseless ammo died as well? I do not read or hear much about it anymore.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Originally Posted by 243rem700

Here is a link to the loaded plastic ammo. http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=502766

Yep, that's the same stuff. I started to order some, but the shipping cost is out of line with the product cost, and I don't need it, it would just be nice to have some to mess around with.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Originally Posted by Stargazer

Has caseless ammo died as well? I do not read or hear much about it anymore.

It's all about cost, no one was able to build a firearm that worked with the stuff at a reasonable price. There just wasn't a large enough increase in efficiency to justify changing over.

[B. Lahey]

It is German short-range (sort of) training ammo. One online dealer had a deal a while back where you could get the special blowback-only, non-locking bolt for your G3 clone, allowing semi-auto operation with the blue plastic cased training ammo.

http://hkpro.com/forum/showthread.ph...-Training-Bolt

Some folks have indeed used them as varmint rounds, with good results, as long as the range is kept semi-reasonable.

They are very different from the PCA rounds, as they do not fire a traditional projectile... And they function properly for their intended use. No plastic casing-tubes stuck in the chamber.

[t45]

I guess you learn something every day. I never new plastic cases ever existed. Plastic training bullets yes. Im suprised the cases dont come apart from the pressure especially if you are a little long in the headspace.

[riverwalker76]

I never knew that! You learn something new everyday.

The military probably passed on it due to the longevity of plastic. In other words ... a brass case will sit in the ground for 100 - 150 years maximum before being turned back to it's original elements.

A plastic case however ... that's an indefinite amount of time in the ground. Probably close to 400 or 500 years before it is completely broken down. Who knows with that polymer composition. Maybe closer to 1000 years!

Can you imagine ... 500 years from now, and the only thing left of our civilization is plastic? That will be our legacy!

Then there is the whole dependency on oil thing .... plastic is made from oil. If we are fighting over oil in the future ... we would have to revert to brass for our ammo casings if they went with the plastic.

Then ... ATK / Olin would be out of business .... 300,000 people laid off because of the loss of the military contract ... it's all economics with the government. That's their bottom line. What is the bottom figure ? I'm not speculating ... only stating facts. You have to consider ALL of the ramifications of such a revolutionary idea.