rusty, rotten ammo

boresnake

boresnake

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I inherited a bunch of older (10-15 years?) ammo from a guy who sold all his guns. He kept them in a non-waterproof shed, so a lot of it is rusty around the rims and primers. I am talking about mainly 9mm and 12ga shotgun ammo. Can I shoot this stuff, or should I toss it? I heard about people firing ammo that sat in sunken submarines for 60 years, but I don't want to have an accident:confused:
 
Why risk perfectly good firearms by shooting questionable ammo. The cost of the firearms probably exceeds the cost of the ammo by a great deal. You got the ammo for nothing and that is what it is worth. My $.02.
 
At the worst you can use the powder to fertilize your lawn,the 9 mm bullets can be reused or sold or given away and the shotgun pellets can be used as weights in a bag for a rifle rest.
 
that's what the local constabulary is for- let them properly dispose of it unless you want to pull it down to components and have the facilities to do it- ie a bullet puller for the 9mm,- i'd be inclined to toss the casings, powder - with the 12 , you can probably just open the crimp and drain the powder and shot out
 
I've fired off ammo that's been given to me. 12ga....win 30-30.....no big deal. I found 20 old 30-30 cartridges in an old ammo belt that I hadn't seen for over 20 years. The leather from the belt loops and the sides of the cartridges had started to "meld" together. Not one dud in the lot. Then I reloaded em!!! Remember, it's the chamber that supports the pressure, not the case. There will always be a chance that by some miracle, one magically turns itself into some high pressure compound, but it's about as likely as being struck by lightening. Of course, there's always the "if it saves just one" crowd...... :)
 
I got a few hundred rounds of each, that's why I don't just toss em...i''ll try sorting em and toss the really crappy ones. I don't have expensive guns anyway so I doubt some halfway rusty ones will make the guns uglier
 
Would you put questionable food on the table? Would you put questionable gasoline in a perfectly good car. I will never understand why people would want to put less than good ammo through a firearm. The ammo can not be worth that much. Can you not afford good ammo? Of course you can get away with it 99.99% of the time. It only takes one bad shell or cartridge to cause an accident. A ruined firearm or an injury to yourself or someone else is not worth it. I have personally witnessed 4 incidents were bad ammo has ruined firearms. We had one fellow at our club loose parts of three fingers to bad ammo.
 
Remember, it's the chamber that supports the pressure, not the case
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yea the chamber carries the pressure and the brass just acts as a gasket to keep 50,000PSI of zillion degree gas out of your face!

Brass that is obviously FU is not worth shooting.
 
Armament said:
I'd shoot the shotshells. Not so sure about rifle ammunition. Really depends in what condition they're in...
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I'm not sure about the shotshells Armament. I was given a bunch of 12 gauge from my father that was in his basement for 15 or 20 years and a lot of the brass, couldn't have been much brass content, rims had all rusted. Some of them had actually rusted through, so if I had shot them they would have blown gas through the breach. I cut them all down and remove all of the components for disposal.
 
I Think you answered the question yourself when you started the thread " rusty , rotten ammo " .
a No brainer , I'd keep the bullets, maybe the brass , --file the rest under "G" --arbage !!!
 
Break it down, give the shot etc to someone who will use it. I had a box of 16 ga. that was damaged. We drained the shot and used it. We used the powder to make gallery loads for 30-30, using 93 gr. Lee WW bullets. We tossed the primed hulls in the burning barrel, lit a fire and went inside for coffee. The pistol and rifle rounds can be taken apart as well.
 
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