Two ammo cans. WW2 vintage or earlier?

**GIZMO8Z** · 10-21-2011, 12:53 AM

These two cammo cans were for sale at a local consignment shop. I was pretty confident that the one on the left is WW2, so I bought it for $15.

The wooden one on the right was clean and had 3 bullets painted on the interior of it. It was on sale for $24

Any thoughts?

THANKS FOR TAKING A LOOK!

**Datrus** · 10-21-2011, 01:09 AM

Imho the one on the left could be any .50 cal box, not to be negative. The one on the right i don't recognize, but maybe its for 3 big shells of some kind. I mean maybe it's not bullets painted on the interior, but shells. Does look old though.

**GIZMO8Z** · 10-21-2011, 01:29 AM

by Datrus

Imho the one on the left could be any .50 cal box, not to be negative. The one on the right i don't recognize, but maybe its for 3 big shells of some kind. I mean maybe it's not bullets painted on the interior, but shells. Does look old though.

Right, shells. The wooden one has three shells painted side by side by side... like rounds on a machine gun ammo belt.

The metal can has the U.S. Army ordinance flaming bomb logo... I'll have to post better pictures...

**GIZMO8Z** · 10-21-2011, 01:33 AM

This is not the same ammo box, but hopefully you get the idea.

The interior of the wooden box looks like this:

**Adrian Stevenson** · 10-21-2011, 07:29 AM

This site will help you:

U.S Military Metal Ammo Boxes

The wood one is also wartime and for .30cal ammo.

Cheers, Ade.

**MySonsDad** · 10-21-2011, 03:01 PM

The wooden one is a Browning M1917 Ammo Box (WWI) right up until WWII. Here is a litte info on it.

The Browning M1917 heavy machine gun had an appetite for ammunition, consuming up to 450 rounds per minute. During WWI ammunition was fed to the Browning from small oak ammunition boxes that held 250 rounds of caliber .30 on a fabric machine belt. Slits were provided, in the front of the ammo box so it could slide on the machine gun tripod. The front edge was also angled to avoid hitting the tripod cradle or yoke. Arrows or ammo were painted on the inside bottom, to indicate which direction to face the ammo when re-filling. In good shape I've seen them go for as much as $70 for earlier models ( I think this one is a later model.

The metal box is a WWII period 30 cal box....the replacment to the M1917. These were used through 1945 I belive. We have a purple .... LOL. You can pick one of these up for $10 - $20 as local swap meets.

Russ