hey /k/, just bought pic related from an antique store for $20.

>>33839320
Missed it by at least 4 years.

You really don't decipher lot codes, AT BEST they'll tell you which arsenal produced them.

I'm surprised it has a regular date stamp and not a Julian date on it.

>>33839366
ah well, still fuckin cool, thanks.
there's a few other code stamps on the side of it if that would be anything worth looking at.
mind telling me how you figured out how old it is?
>they also had M9 gas mask filters but I don't want hazmat kicking my door in and ATFing me

>>33839401
Go ahead and post the other stamps.

Educated guess based on loading date, even under "wartime" production/transportation it takes a good while to get ammo from the plants to the front lines and the 81mm mortars were already pretty fucking old so we had a hell of a stockpile going in to Vietnam. I mean shit, I was still shooting WW2/Korean War vintage .50bmg in Iraq in 2006, side-opening 110 round cans and all.

If it has a 3-digit number proceeded by a single letter on it that is a DODIC (for example, A555 is .50bmg straight up ball no tracer linked--don't ask me why I remember that). I think I still have my yellow book around somewhere if you want that deciphered.

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>>33839320
Thinking that equipment designated for the Vet Nam campaign doesn't actually end up with the Nicaraguan Contras.

>>33839550
one code is C256, one is 05757, and there's duplicate stamps of the "lot-ma-138-26" on both sides as well.

>>33839320

Did you by any chance buy this near Mobile Alabama?

>>33839726
no I did not. I'm in NM. somebody lose mortar HE?

>>33839628
C256 will be a DODIC (department of defense identification code, ammo version of an NSN). Will try to find my yellow book and cross-reference.

05757 I have no idea on, it's not a Julian date even though it's the correct format.

>>33839739
don't bother digging, I found the reference, just a restate of what it says: M374 (all variants) HE mortar rounds.
I'm gonna try to see what arsenal it's from, the main code says that it's the 26th crate of the 168th lot from a manufacturer using the MA arsenal designation.

>>33839726
Looks a lot like the crate my father brought back from nam. Lost it when I moved to AL and back about 10 years ago. I am sure there are many of these around but that looks VERY familiar

I remember seeing a similar box at a goodwill when I was a child, it was blue.
There was an old, black and white picture of a bare breasted women.
I wish I had taken it.

File: 20170502_210552.jpg (528KB, 2048x1152px) Image search: [Google]

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Ya'll niggas ain't even got aperture sights on yer wheelguns.

Scrubs, the lot of ya.

>>33839762
which, son of a bitch, gets us:
Milan Army Ammo Plant, Harvey Aluminum Inc. OP contractor, Milan TN.

thanks mil-std-1461
bit of a journey this fucker took.