I have a bad habit of buying ammo but not keeping track of it.  I recently found some stacked in the corner, have like 500 rounds of each of the following but have no idea what they are...  rounds has the following stamping, cardboard box with 20rds per-box, no marking on box.

7.62 =  NATO cross FNM 83-34
5.56 = NATO cross FNM 93-1

Thanks,


~nb

Quoted: I have a bad habit of buying ammo but not keeping track of it.  I recently found some stacked in the corner, have like 500 rounds of each of the following but have no idea what they are...  rounds has the following stamping, cardboard box with 20rds per-box, no marking on box. 7.62 =  NATO cross FNM 83-34 5.56 = NATO cross FNM 93-1 Thanks, ~nb

Portuguese.  '83' and '93' are likely the manufacture dates.  Excellent plinking ammo, but I wouldn't trust it for SHTF because of their age.  You wouldn't have enought there for SHTF anyway.

Quoted: Quoted: I have a bad habit of buying ammo but not keeping track of it.  I recently found some stacked in the corner, have like 500 rounds of each of the following but have no idea what they are...  rounds has the following stamping, cardboard box with 20rds per-box, no marking on box. 7.62 =  NATO cross FNM 83-34 5.56 = NATO cross FNM 93-1 Thanks, ~nb Portuguese.  '83' and '93' are likely the manufacture dates.  Excellent plinking ammo, but I wouldn't trust it for SHTF because of their age.  You wouldn't have enought there for SHTF anyway.

I've shot thousands of rounds of this stuff and not once did I have a failure. It hits hard too. Wouldn't trust it? I'd trust it better than some of the newer stuff. Remember, this is sealed ammo and ammo can last a long time if stored right. I have 60 year old ammo that shoots like the day it was made. 1943 Nazi 9 MM ammo still shoots pretty darn well!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I have a bad habit of buying ammo but not keeping track of it.  I recently found some stacked in the corner, have like 500 rounds of each of the following but have no idea what they are...  rounds has the following stamping, cardboard box with 20rds per-box, no marking on box. 7.62 =  NATO cross FNM 83-34 5.56 = NATO cross FNM 93-1 Thanks, ~nb Portuguese.  '83' and '93' are likely the manufacture dates.  Excellent plinking ammo, but I wouldn't trust it for SHTF because of their age.  You wouldn't have enought there for SHTF anyway. I've shot thousands of rounds of this stuff and not once did I have a failure. It hits hard too. Wouldn't trust it? I'd trust it better than some of the newer stuff. Remember, this is sealed ammo and ammo can last a long time if stored right. I have 60 year old ammo that shoots like the day it was made. 1943 Nazi 9 MM ammo still shoots pretty darn well!

I know, I know, lippo.  But there is no way of knowing how the ammo was stored.  I have South African 5.56 battle packs from 1983 which short-cycle in my 16" AR's but work perfect in 20" rifles.  I have some from 1986 that work perfectly in both barrel lengths.  Three years can't possibly make much difference unless they were stored in different conditions, with the 1983 batch degrading far faster as a result.  

Many of us here have shot FNM 5.56mm and 7.62X51mm ammo and know that it is of high quality and reliable.  But I still can't recommend using it as your first goto SHTF supply when there is new production ammo availble.  Well, was available.  For those of us who have stored away Q3131A and Fed XM193, I would not use FNM 1980's ammo as first tier.  Now if you ran out of the new production ammo then that would be an entirely different story.

Thanks for the info guys...

As for answering if these are still good... just went to the range with some, shoot fine... all went bang without issue.   My ammo storage method is pretty good... in a water-proof chest, in the garage, away from any heat/cold source.  Some of the stuff, like these FNM, were vacuum packed.... than stored.

Lates,


~nb

I don't know about Portugese (FNM....) surplus but there commercial sucks, I use there 7.5 French for my MAS 49/56 (only stuff I can find....), and at best it works 50% of the time, it goes bang everytime but only about half of the rounds actually cycle the action, eighther stove pipeing of short strokeing, theres no consistency whatsoever, non of the rounds appear to be crimped, and the bullets must have been seated by hand because, if I chamber the round, and don't fire it about half the time the round actually FALLS APART on extraction, the bullet seperates from the case, and it spills the powder into the action, and sometimes the bullet is pushed back into the case when chambered....  If you shake the cases you can hear the powder moveing around in there like theres just a little bit at the base, and the rest of the case is empty, and the stuff is DIRTY, it makes the nastiest Wolf look downright clean in comparisson....