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Cartridge, Shot Cal. 45 M15 & M12


Brian Keith
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I picked up this nearly full box of Remington made, 1944 dated, M15 cartridges a number of years ago when I was working on filling my C-1 USAAF vest. Also shown is an example of the M12 shot shell. The .45 shot shells were developed for survival use.

The M12 example was made by the Evansville Chrysler Ammunition plant in Evansville, Indiana. That plant was asked in November, 1944, to develop and manufacture over 5 million .45 shot shells by the end of the year, they did! This information is from, Bullets by the Billion, a post-war publication published by Chrysler Corporation.

Thanks for looking, BKW

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Information sheet included in the box of M15 shot.

 

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Illustration is from TM 9-1990, Small Arms Ammunition Sept. 1947

 

BKW

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Because the rounds were designed for survival use, they came enclosed in a foil and paper sealed wrap. M12 is shown here.

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Several years ago I found a dealer with several cases of the sealed boxes of M15 rounds. Sadly, they are long gone.

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Thanks for the comments everyone! Silverplate, great addition to this thread! Love the EC boxes! I'm a Hoosier a love Indiana Made militaria.

BKW

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Here's a bit more for the discussion. The first pre-production lot of.45 shot cartridges were designated T-23 before being standardized as the M12. The 20-rd boxes had the small game hunting warning printed in English, German, and Japanese, a feature omitted by a decision of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General once officially adopted as the M12.

 

These boxes were only used with the initial 10,000 round test lots. Contracts for the standard M12 numbered 10,500,000 rounds but they either reduced that number when the M15 was adopted or used/destroyed a tremendous amount as M12s are pretty scarce today.

 

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WOW Ordnance, what a great box of ammo! I have never seen that before. Thanks for adding it. I wonder what kind of discussions went on about adding German/Japanese writing to the ammo! Must have been interesting!

BKW

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