Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com, I'm Ian McCollum
And today we are going to do a brief evaluation of some Ethiopian
.30-06 caliber ammunition. For you metric folks, that would be
7.62x63mm. And we have this in two different types of packaging
Although it's the same ammunition. We have one ammo can here that is loose packed in 15-round boxes
We have one ammo can that here that is packaged in M1 Garand clips and that gives us a hint as to why
Ethiopia was manufacturing .30-06 caliber ammunition
They had a bunch of US surplus firearms to use it in- M1 Garand rifles,
1918 or 1918A2 BAR automatic rifles, and then they had also Browning machine guns, both 1917 and 1919
Air cooled and water-cooled machine guns that all used .30-06 caliber ammunition.
So, these were manufactured at what began as the Emperor Haile Selassie- I think something pronounced vaguely like that-
The First Ammunition Factory, which was set up in the late 1940s in Addis Ababa
With technological assistance from the Czech government
However, these were manufactured- these particular cartridges, these batches-
In 1977 and
Selassie was removed from power in 1974
So when these were manufactured, the name of the factory had actually changed and you'll see that the head stamp is different for that reason
So we're gonna go ahead and run fifteen rounds of this through a rifle. It is specifically a
US Model of 1917 Enfield rifle, has a 26 inch barrel and it is a nice strong action
So it should be perfectly capable of handling
Whatever these cartridges might throw its way. So let's go ahead and take a look at that
This will hold six, we're gonna do batches of five just to keep track
Alrighty, here we go
2955
3015, and I popped the shade off of my chronograph
Alright, got that back up
3028
2993
2992- go ahead and load five more
2976
3009 I popped the shade off again. We are doing this at three meters distance, by the way
3017
3020
2995, last set of five rounds
2941
3001- popped the shade one more time
3031
2994
Last round
3007
So our overall assessment with fifteen rounds as our group for firing
We got an average velocity of 2998 feet per second, so we can round that to 3000 basically
Spread- extreme spread was 90 feet per second, which gives us a standard deviation of 25.36 feet per second
That's not the worst we've ever seen, but it's far from the best. So that's less than you would expect for good quality
modern factory ammunition
However, there was nothing else with this ammunition that gave problems- no hang fires, no double strikes required
Nothing- nothing to give potential issues.
As for corrosivity,
Century, when they brought this ammunition in, listed it as corrosive. I have seen other
Retailers listing it as non corrosive
I would assume this to be corrosive and clean it as such but I did not actually test that specifically
it is however brass cased and Boxer primed and so it is potentially reloadable
If we look at a couple of these cartridges up close, you'll see some good annealing
Coloration on the necks. This- there's no corrosion that I found on any of these cartridges. They appear to all be well packed
If we take a look at the head stamps here you can see we have a primer sealant. These are dated '77, that's 1977,
And then they have a three character
Abbreviation at the top of the head stamp that is in
Amharic which is the Ethiopian
Written alphabet and each one of those characters actually translates into both a consonant and vowel sound
If you were to translate that in English, it would be "M E D"
Which I believe is an abbreviation for Defense Industry Organization
Which was, I believe, the name of the factory after
Emperor Selassie was overthrown in 1974
The bullets are an American M2 style of flat base-
Hollow base, flat base- pointed bullet, a little crimping cannelure there
the average weight of the sample of ten that I took was 150.7 grains
Extreme spread was 1.6 grains with a standard deviation of 0.52 grains
So a pretty well made bullet. A pretty consistent bullet. Ignore the scoring that you can kind of see there on the sides
That's because I couldn't find my kinetic bullet puller and used pair of pliers to pull these samples
Packaging for this is
15 rounds in a plain, completely unmarked cardboard box. We do have a nice little cloth pull tab there. Open that up,
There's your 15 rounds
1977 head stamps there, and you get of course 15 in the box
There are 300 in the ammo cans, you get 20 of these boxes
In this ammo can I have already pulled a couple out for shooting
But that's how the stuff's packaged
We do have some markings on the outside of the ammo can, again in Amharic as you would expect in Ethiopia
This is 300 cartridges, caliber .30- or .30 caliber,
15 cartridges per packet or box on this line, and then we have this line
Which is we're gonna see repeated
That translates to "this box will be reused so return it to the ground forces armory"
Don't just throw the thing away in the desert when you're done with your training exercise
We do also have some markings in English on the other side
Not sure if that was originally Ethiopian or if those have been over stamped
Just before- y'know, on purpose of the American importation, but they say the same things. Note we have a 1978
manufacturing date on this ammo can
As well as 1970, and the lot number 30
exactly why we have the disparity between the dates- '70 versus '78 versus
1977 on the head stamps. I do not know
We do also have a can of this package on M1 Garand clips
These are- it's a little hard to see there, but this is an SF marked clip that is almost certainly not Ethiopian
That is from another country supplier. Maybe the US, maybe someone else. I don't know all of my M1 Garand identification codes
But again, the ammunition looks pretty good. It is packaged in a typical M1 Garand type bandolier
You have six pockets. I've pulled this one out of that pocket. Eight rounds per, that gives you 48 rounds per bandolier
The bandolier is stamped with basically the same thing that we just saw on the ammo can, says
Says "this carrying belt will be reused so return it to the ground forces armory. Carrying belt." Of course, they mean bandolier
the can itself doesn't have any particular organization inside, just four bandoliers kind of stuffed in there and
On the outside the markings you would expect. It's basically the same thing except it says 192 rifle cartridges
caliber .30 and packaged- each clip contains eight
cartridges in carrying belts. And then once again, "return the ammo can to the ground forces armory" and
As with the previous can we have basically the same markings in English on the reverse side along with, again, a 1970 and a 1978 dates.
Lot number 31, where the previous can was from lot number 30, and the ammunition in this can is also once again dated
'77 so we have a disparity in dates for some particular reason.
I do want to point out that while this would appear to be intended to be basically American M2 ball, or to follow that pattern
With a flat base 150 grain bullet, it is higher velocity than one would expect from M2 ball
The US standard is 1740 feet per second at, I should point out, 78 feet from the muzzle
I was doing my velocity measuring at approximately ten feet from the muzzle
however, still the the difference between 3,000 feet per second and
2740- er, 2760 is
Way more significant than you will get just from an additional 68 feet of travel
So I would, if I were using this ammunition,
I would consider it to be slightly hot
and take that into account when choosing what firearms to run it in. A proper bolt-action rifle, something with a Mauser action like the
1917 Enfield I'm using, will have absolutely no trouble with this ammunition. But in theory if you have a relatively old or fragile rifle
Talk to a gunsmith before perhaps considering using this ammunition. I did not try this in an M1 Garand
I have not measured slide velocity, bolt velocity in an M1 Garand using this ammunition
And so I cannot comment on that beyond being able to tell you that it does in fact, in my sample of 15
Chronograph out to 3,000 feet per second from a 26 inch barrel at 10 feet from the muzzle
Hopefully you guys enjoyed this brief. Look at Ethiopian .30-06 ammunition. This was originally imported by Century
It has been distributed out to a number of retailers and I think there are a few places that still have it in stock
But a bunch of them have sold out. It appears that they didn't import all that much of it when it did come in
So Ethiopian ammo historically has been quite rare to find in the United States
This is a neat batch of it to be able to take a look at. I am enjoying doing these assessments
I think we're going to make this an occasional repeating series on the channel. So if you're interested in
Certainly, if you're interested in surplus ammunition for shooting
I think this will be a valuable source of information and if you're not, it still gives us some interesting insight into
what countries were- what countries were making, what kind of quality was involved, what sort of
Getting to see what actual ammunition was being produced at different times and places through history. Thanks for watching