military issue 30-06 rounds

lumacraft Said:
I recieved a "gift" from my grandmother-in-law of 400 rounds over the holidays. She and her late husband used to reload (not these however), and wants to know how they shoot. She can't tell me how old they are. They are all new looking and are in original boxes. Are they safe? Can I shoot them . I by no means am an expert.

The ONLY problem, if any, is that they are probably a steel jacket projectle... so, dont shoot them in a high dollar 30-06.

just my bolt action, about 20 years old Browning, synthetic stock rifle,.. What kind of damage could occur?

If they are steel jacket rounds, they would increase wear on the barrel. 

Any knid of markings on the container?

just plain cardboard box, but there may be some other markings. I'll check when I get home and return from pheasant chasing on sunday. All 20 boxes appear unopened though, and are in that metal ammo carrying type box. That might have a specific label as well.

Back in the late 50's, all of us kids had old surplus .303's, 30 - 06's, 6.5's  and the like, and literally shot thousands of surplus rounds of ammo through them, most of which had been loaded before WW1 and between  the two wars.    We never had a problem with it.  Powder will last for years and years.  
Heck, sometimes we'd grab pliers and pull bullets just for the heck of it once in a while , and sometimes we'd find, believe it or not, real pre smokeless CORDITE.  Looked like long strings of soft pencil lead.  Wierd stuff.  
One year a bunch of us reform-school-wannabee rreprobates took some old cordite, mixed it with sugar and salt peter and laid it on our desks to form our names, then lit it.  Wow, the school principal was MAD, MAD, MAD!    He told us, again believe it or not - No going out to the junkyard during noon hours to have lunch and shoot rats, we had to stay and sand down all the desks that we 'initialed!'    So the guns sat in the cars during noon hours for a change.   The school principal and a couple teachers usually went out with us to shoot rats and eat lunch. 
Things have changed now - - sorry to warp the thread a bit.  But I wouldn't be afraid of old ammo.   That old stuff was always Geneva convention solid point, but was it steel or guilding metal?   I don't know.  Sure killed jack rabbits anyway.

300 and 375 H&H were the pinnacle of Chordite perfor$ance.

Heh heh heh, that's a great story Bob!  I bet that made you an understanding sort of guy when the kids got in trouble.  LOL

Awesome experience. great post.  And in some way he always gives the commies/terrorists the benefit of the doubt.  Pisses me off.