Interesting find in the park

[Kodiak43351]

Found this about 5" down in the park in an open area. I am a veteran and pretty sure this is a blank 5.56 mm round. When I was in we were using the m60 still and slowly phasing in the saw. It is def belt fed and the size is correct for a 5.56 or 223 just wondering if this may have came from a saw. No clue how it ended up in park. Maybe some kid took from dad's stash of stuff he pocketed while serving. As far as I can remember I don't think there has been any nat guard or any other training in the park. I wouldn't think a jet would fire a round this small but could see a heli firing a belt fed round this small from a door gunner maybe. Anyway I just wanted to know if I'm am correct that this is from the saw. It is def a blank and still live. Marking on round is L6 61 from what I can tell. Here are some pics. Thanks for any help.

 

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[Kodiak43351]

I also wanted to say the blanks we used when I was in were crimped on the end and we never used any that looked like this. I know it's a blank but just curious if it's from a saw. It def has the size of the 5.56 mm round and not 7.62 mm.

 

[46Wheat]

Would it be possible that is a LC 61 . I cant tell in the picture . But if it is a LC then it would be a Lake City armory ammo produced in 1961

 

[46Wheat]

Lake City Army Ammunition Plant found this link to the plant and some info

 

[RJ55]

Might be surplus 223 ammo put on to belt for training on the M249 SAW. As far as the Lake City head stamp of 1961,I'm thinking the 30 caliber Browning which fired a 30.06/7.62x63 round and the Browning M2 50 caliber. were the only belt feds at that time. Later I think the early 1960's was introduced the M60 which fired even a different round, the 7.62x51. The development of the SAW if not mistaken was in 1977, and was first adopted in 1984.

 

[BosnMate]

It's a training blank made with the fake bullet part built in so it will feed in a full auto weapon. The regular blanks like we used with M1 Garand's wouldn't feed in a machine gun.

 

[Kodiak43351]

Thanks guys I'll look to see if it's lc but sure it's l6.

 

[releventchair]

Any chance of a memorial service having occurred in the area of the recovery with weapons to salute with using that round?
A monument or flag in sight may be a clue but not necessary.

 

[Hendo0601]

No memorial service would use a belt fed machine gun during the salute.

 

[releventchair]

No it would not seem likely. A few rounds on a belt section would not rattle or butt bullets against primers though.M1903 and Garands are what I've seen used I don,t know what they all digest beyond an 06 Garand. .An AR 15 or M16? not much for sautes but looking for a reason on recovery site beyond a kid swiping some of dads memorabilia..
A mounted piece or several at Kent State having spread out at one time another possibility but I don,t want to know sites location for o.p's privacy.

 

[Hendo0601]

Whenever I did honor guard we would use either an M16 or old wooden stocked M14s.

I can only imagine that is a section that was used for training at some point in the past. The M14 was adopted for use as the general service rifle in 1959 so it would have fired the 7.62x51 NATO or .308 round. The general service machine gun in 1961 (when that round was made) would have been the M60 belt fed machine gun which also fires the 7.62x51 NATO round. The BAR was also still in service but it fired from a box magazine not a disintegrating belt and it fired .30 caliber.

What you have there is an old 7.62x51 NATO blank with a section of M13 machine gun link.

 

[Kodiak43351]

Yea the more I look at it it does look like a m60 7.62 mm round. It's been a while since I fired one 20 years at least. This area has no military exercises going on anywhere close to it. Closest nat guard base is 35 miles away. I'm leaning towards a kid getting into dads box of things he brought home. I could have brought cases of 5.56 NATO blank rounds home with me they were not accounted for after training exercise like artillery and grenade simulators. Heck we even had to turn in spoons from smoke granades but nothing for blank m16 rounds.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Machine gun belts are popular with metal heads and punk rockers....

 

[MuckyBottles]

Interesting find due to the location, this spring I found literally a pile of .30 cal casings enough to fill an ammo can in the woods at a local park, it was like somebody had a spare belt laying around and a Browning .30...strange days