HELP: Wet Ammo

Rick911 said:
Not sure if serious....
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The police have ways to dispose of old ammo legally. So that's were you take bad ammo.

Now when you shoot the ammo it might be unsafe and instead of going bang it might go poof meaning you could have a squib load and the next one might go bang still so it can be dangerous but it really depends on if you want to take that risk or not.
 
At most the water got to them for 12 hours or so.

I did have one box of steel shot sounds like the consensus is to get rid of it??

The rest of the shot shells are lead shot. I have it all removed from cardboard boxes and dumped into a garbage can full of rice. I was planning to re-use the cardboard shot shell boxes after they are dried out but sounds like you guys are saying it is a bad idea? If so, I'll just have to find another container for them.

I have three cardboard boxes of .22LRs. They were not all completely soaked. The bottom inch or two of each box did get wet. I've just put the cardboard boxes in my garbage bin full of rice. I'm not looking forward to handling 1000 rounds of .22LR out one at a time!!
 
I had a pile of .22 ammo get wet. A buddy and I dumped them out and dried the in the sun on the back step, threw the cartons away and used some nifty plastic boxes he got for nothing at a convenience store. All good.
 
This happened to me a couple years ago and I had some submerged 30-06, 22-250 and some 12 guage shells.
I took it out of the boxes and let it air dry.
I have fired some of this ammo off since then and did not have any issues at all.

Sorry to here you flooded and I hope it works out okay for you.
 
Yeah, having had "temporary indoor wading pools" as well I can appreciate what you're going through.

Once the cartridge ammo dries it'll be fine. Brass cartridge ammo around here goes through the washing machine more often than I'd like to admit. Mind you so does pocket change. I REALLY need to learn to check my pockets before laundry day..... So cartridge ammo will be fine once you dry off the outside of the rounds. Do NOT put it into the dryer. Aside from the heat issues the noise will drive you bonkers.

Any cardboard that the rounds and shot shells are in is done. You may as well toss it. Or at least open it, empty out the ammo and set the boxes out to dry if you really must.

Looking at a shot shell i'ts pretty obvious that they have a hole in the middle of the crimp. If they sat submerged then try drying off the outside of one and stand it on end on some paper towel. If the towel is seriously wet after a couple of minutes then the shot at least got wet. But even then the plastic wads could well have sealed out the water from the powder and primer. It's a pain but set 'em out on the crimped end for a day to drain and then tip them over on their side so they can dry out as well as practical. After a week or more try a few out and see if they fire.
 
BCRider said:
Yeah, having had "temporary indoor wading pools" as well I can appreciate what you're going through.

Once the cartridge ammo dries it'll be fine. Brass cartridge ammo around here goes through the washing machine more often than I'd like to admit. Mind you so does pocket change. I REALLY need to learn to check my pockets before laundry day..... So cartridge ammo will be fine once you dry off the outside of the rounds. Do NOT put it into the dryer. Aside from the heat issues the noise will drive you bonkers.

Any cardboard that the rounds and shot shells are in is done. You may as well toss it. Or at least open it, empty out the ammo and set the boxes out to dry if you really must.

Looking at a shot shell i'ts pretty obvious that they have a hole in the middle of the crimp. If they sat submerged then try drying off the outside of one and stand it on end on some paper towel. If the towel is seriously wet after a couple of minutes then the shot at least got wet. But even then the plastic wads could well have sealed out the water from the powder and primer. It's a pain but set 'em out on the crimped end for a day to drain and then tip them over on their side so they can dry out as well as practical. After a week or more try a few out and see if they fire.
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Quick little OT washing machine story;

I our house, the rules have always been, anything you find in pockets while doing laundry is yours. I once made a cash deal with a guy and just threw the money in my back pocket. There were some long faces from the family a week later as I laid out 15, $100.00 bills on the counter to dry.......

There wasn't so much as a dirty sock in the laudry room for quite a few weeks after.:p
 
Kayser Sose said:
...chuck it in a lake?
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And the award for worst idea in the thread by a mile goes to...
 
I was given a box of shotgun shells that were left in the rain I shot a few rounds without issue then I got to one that barely made a noise. I assumed it was a dud. I pumped it out and the hull was smoldering on the ground. The wad and shot was stuck halfway down the barrel. I disposed of the rest of the box. I wasn't comfortable shooting them after that.
If you plan to shoot them I'd be paying attention for situations like I had. You wouldn't want to follow that "dud" with a functioning round.
 
blasted_saber said:
Did you miss the part about "unsafe"? Would you like to fire a solid hunk of rusted steel that was previously #4 shot through you shotgun?
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When I first read this I was actually thinking "hey, I've got some 3 1/2" #2 steel shot... I always wanted some 3 1/2" slugs... maybe I'll give this a try by opening the crip a little and putting them crip down in 2" of water for a little while... then you've got some bear defense rounds, if the slug doesn't stop them, you can hope they get tetanus at least... lol
 
canoetrpr said:
I did have one box of steel shot sounds like the consensus is to get rid of it??

The rest of the shot shells are lead shot. I have it all removed from cardboard boxes and dumped into a garbage can full of rice. I was planning to re-use the cardboard shot shell boxes after they are dried out but sounds like you guys are saying it is a bad idea? If so, I'll just have to find another container for them.
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I'd shoot up the steel shot shells within a few days of your drying them out. Have some fun with them.

The box board boxes from the shotshells, after drying out, are fine to re-use if they're still sturdy.
 
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