06 heaad stamp

I came across a bag of 30-06 brass that is marked REM UMC 1906. Looks fairly old. Anyone ever seen something like this?

That would be 1906 UMC production 30-06. The first year the round was adopted by military. Supposedly military 30-03 was broken down for components and reloaded to 30-06, so older headstamps (year produced) are possible. The oldest I have is 1928 headstamp. Neat find

Is bag like military packaging or simply a brown bag?

1906 in the headstamp indicates "Model 1906", not the year of manufacture. REM-UMC used that particular headstamp from1912 to 1933. Those cartridges, and fired cases, are fairly common. It's strictly commercial manufacture. No military connection. During the 1920s it was used for a lot of REM-UMC Palma Match and International Match ammunition.

These are in a shotgun lead shot bag. About 100 rounds

Thanks for setting mestraight raymketa. I knew it was commercial butbased my info on friend who hassome. He is always crowing about having first year production run. I jut called him and gave him crap...no he does not believe me ...yet.

I ask about packaging because people bring old ammo in they don't want any more. Most of it is deceased relative and its either really old or they just do not want it. I ask if they want it repurposed or destroyed. Most say repurposed so I find someone with caliber and they get lucky. My point alot either commercial or military shows up in military bags for some reason. Case in point some 6.5 carcano and 32-20 commercial recently arrived in a packfield cargo m-1945 made in 1949. I have also found this a few times at yard sales. Just a weird observation.

Fyi if they want it destroyed its pulled down and scrapped $ goes to special Olympics. Does not happen much, which makes me glad cuz its a pain.

p246

You are correct that a lot of M1903 ammunition was broken down and the components salvaged. There was an awful lot of it, as much as 25 million rounds. The first newly manufactured M1906 cases were headstamped FA 9 06. Any cartridges with Frankford Arsenal headstamps before that can be considered to be '03 cases that were re-manufactured.

The big commercial manufacturers produced military M1906 ammunition right along with Frankford Arsenal. These will have military type headstamps that include the year (and month) of production. So, you will find ammunition and fired and empty cases with headstamps such as U.S.C.Co. 3 10, RA 18, PETERS 27, etc.

Back in those days, military ammunition (and equipment) was considered to be the standard that all others attempted to copy. So, as much as possible, the commercial manufacturers used numbers, words, and phrases that imitated military jargon. Such as "REM-UMC 1906", "Army Standard", "As used by our military overseas", etc.

I have not been insane about it but I am always looking or FA 03 to 05 headstamps. I've saw a few but no one wants to part with it. Course finding a bag of 100 30-06 commercial would be a good to. I'm sure the 03 or P17 would eat it just fine.