Chinese 5.56 Spam Cans

General Firearms Reloading & Ammunition
1

I was helping a friend of mine organize his ammo and we found a wood crate of 5.56 ammo. There are two spam cans of 800 rounds each of 5.56 with Chinese markings. I did some quick searching on google and found that Chinese ammo has been banned from importation for the last 17 years of so.

Does anyone have any information about this ammo? (where it came from, type, safe to use, etc) Is it of any value to collectors? It is still currently in the sealed spam cans and he hasn’t touched it since he bought it 20+ years ago.

Thanks!

2

Do you have pics?

I had Chinese 223 or 556 in the early 90s but mine was commercial Norinco. Brass cased and boxer primed.

3

Here are some pics:

4

Not an expert but…Those look like straight chi com mil tins and it may have commercial type n/c 556 in it but i would bet that the ammo is corrosive, pull a box out an it may be labeled. Then test it a lot of the chi com stuff was labeled n/c but was at least mildly corrosive. Got a pick of a box or head stamp?

5

I doubt it has value to collectors. Its main value is that it goes bang. I’d open a can and see what is inside and if it is reasonable ammo save the other can as it probably stores well in the can.

6

Thanks guys! We’ll put it to good use and shoot it up sometime

7

I wouldn’t use it for anything but training.

I recall the Norinco .223 I used to shot back when, very inconsistent stuff. One could tell just by the noise level and muzzle flash, it was common for a string to go bang-bang-bang-pop-pop-BLAM-pop…!