Have you ever seen a 5.56mm casing like this?

[Andy in NH]

Plastic?

 

[Supermoto]

yep

 

[MassMark]

Looks like Natec ammo... I shot s bunch of it a few years ago. I think they were an outfit out of New York State, but am pretty sure they're out of business.

 

[LoginName]

I remember when that stuff came on the marketplace.

My first reaction was "Oh... this will be a hot seller" (insert sarcasm tag).

Up there with caseless ammo as the next big thing in ammunition that failed to materialize.

 

[ShadeWPI]

Was originally developed under a US GOV R&D contract - polymer cased ammuntion to save brass and weight. In the end, the increased cost and marginal incremental improvement caused the military not to convert to it as expected, dooming the companies who tooled for its manufacture since they were stuck holding very expensive equipment with no market.

If I recall, it offered like a 10% reduction in ammunition weight, which would allow a soldier to carry 11% more ammunition for the same weight, but it cost like 2x to manufacture.

 

[bambame2]

You still see it a gun show's some times.

 

[MassMark]

It was cheap as well - especially by todays standards. I picked up 1500 rounds for $200.00. It functioned very well and was pretty clean and accurate. I seem to remember some video of contractors using it during a fire fight in Iraq. They must have had a stockpile of it or something...

 

[Pilgrim]

I've got a couple .38spl in plastic.

 

[iefstath]

I have just over 5k of this stuff, except the case is a lighter gray. Its actually quite impressive to pick up a dry box loaded with regular ammo and then one filled with this stuff...there is definately a difference

 

[C-pher]

I have just over 5k of this stuff, except the case is a lighter gray. Its actually quite impressive to pick up a dry box loaded with regular ammo and then one filled with this stuff...there is definately a difference

I think that I still have some of this as well. I too couldn't believe the difference in weight. Holding a full box of 20 standard cartridges, then hold a box of 20 of this and you almost thought that it was an empty box. It was VERY different.

I wanted to say that it wasn't that bad either...and if I remember, mine was a multi color box. The cases were red, yellow, blue and black.

 

[mr_hao]

This may sound like a stupid question but I have no knowledge on these casings, are they re-loadable?

 

[Serapis]

I shoot some before. No problems. Would I shoot them through my gun? No.