Hopefully someone over here will know............

[Bob - The Beagle Master]

I just got a 20 round box of M2 ball ammo but it's British not American. The box is a standard US military type box and the label is white with a large red band down the middle. It's marked as follows:

20 CARTRIDGES
BALL
CALIBRE .30 M2
Lot 4 10/54
Manufactured at the Kynoch Factories of
Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, Metals Division
Witton, Birmingham, England

Is this military or civilian ammunition? It has a K 54 headstamp as if it was military but I don't know why it would be manufactured in the UK and boxed to look like US military ammo. Anybody know the answer?

[Tuna]

It is military and was used in machine guns mostly by the UK. As the UK was allied with the US in just about anything military it was just packaged as was standard with the US military and could be used by US forces.

[dave]

The Brits also had allot of M1 rifles, many used by them in Korea.