A few of you might have seen this picture in the post on garage sale finds, if not here is the whole story and the results of firing the ammo recovered from the gun.
I stopped at a garage sale a few weeks back and inquired if there were any guns for sale. The man initially said No, then indicated there was a gun he wanted to show me. Out comes this corroded and rusted Colt Mustang, in what was left of an eaten away nylon holster. He said he was a retired DEA agent and this was his backup gun that he thought he lost during some operation years ago. He recently discovered it under a seat while cleaning out a boat that had sat exposed to the weather for several years.
Close inspection showed (among other things) that it was loaded (with Federal Hydra-Shoks) and the hammer was cocked!
The only thing holding the hammer back was a little bit of visible rust. The safety had rusted away and the firing pin didn't look all that rusty so it had the potential for firing and being that the slide and barrel were firmly rusted together, it probably would blow up if discharged.
I offered to buy it but he just gave it to me instead.
I took it home and decided to try and either get the action open to remove the live round from the chamber or to make it inert somehow. I knew I had to be very careful when handling this so some operations were a bit tricky.
The first thing I did was wedge a piece of pencil eraser in front of the firing pin. Then I removed the grips and wire brushed as much rust and corrosion off as I could. Then I submerged it in penetrating oil for 3 days. After that it was a process of working on loosening rusty joints and re-soaking. At one point I applied some Muratic acid to the rusted slide. All it did was take the blue off.
After I removed the grips I could see that the frame was cracked in several places and the internals were just a glob of rust and powdery corrosion. At that point any hopes of salvaging the frame for a replacement rebuild were gone. It was a wall hanger from this point out. The magazine was firmly rusted in place and was fully loaded.
By prying the floor-plate off I was able to remove all of the rounds except the top one, it was stuck by corrosion. Fortunately the mag release freed up with only a couple of taps with a punch. Nothing I tried would free that top round, so I pushed the bullet back into the case and soaked it in more Kroil. It took a few days of scraping, picking and soaking to finally get the magazine free enough to slide out of the frame. When the mag was out the entire backstrap fell off since rust was the only thing holding it together.
At this point, the slide finally moved and came off the frame. I decided to punch out the slide stop to get it out of the way. I was then able to punch the barrel forward and the live Hydra-Shok slid right out of the chamber.
Now we get to the point of this post...
Was handling this pistol a potentially dangerous undertaking or was the ammo inert from the years of submersion and exposure? Can we rely on soaking in penetrating oil to make them into duds? Well, there is only one way to find out... load em up and fire em.
I pulled apart the top round from the magazine and was happy to see oily powder in the case. I tried firing the primed case and it was a dud. It appears the penetrating oil was able to enter when I had dislodged the bullet and pushed it back into the case. So far so good.
I loaded the rest of the recovered rounds into a functioning 380 and fired across a chrono at a 10 yd. target. The first round tried was the one loaded in the Colt's chamber... They all went bang the first try!
The string averaged 924 fps. In other tests of fresh Hydra-Shoks out of the same gun, they have averaged 937 to 964 fps, so I don't think the years of submersion and soaking in penetrating oil or exposure to corrosion and hydrochloric acid did much to deter the effectiveness of this ammo. I attribute the higher velocity of the last round (#6) from being slightly set back in the case, due to my prying it out of the corroded magazine.
Avg. fps=924 SD=22.8 ES=63
#1-897 #2-939 #3-912 #4-909 #5-926 #6-960
So Be Careful, There are a lot of old guns lost out there, keep this in mind if you ever encounter a similar situation and stay safe.
I stopped at a garage sale a few weeks back and inquired if there were any guns for sale. The man initially said No, then indicated there was a gun he wanted to show me. Out comes this corroded and rusted Colt Mustang, in what was left of an eaten away nylon holster. He said he was a retired DEA agent and this was his backup gun that he thought he lost during some operation years ago. He recently discovered it under a seat while cleaning out a boat that had sat exposed to the weather for several years.
Close inspection showed (among other things) that it was loaded (with Federal Hydra-Shoks) and the hammer was cocked!
The only thing holding the hammer back was a little bit of visible rust. The safety had rusted away and the firing pin didn't look all that rusty so it had the potential for firing and being that the slide and barrel were firmly rusted together, it probably would blow up if discharged. I offered to buy it but he just gave it to me instead.
I took it home and decided to try and either get the action open to remove the live round from the chamber or to make it inert somehow. I knew I had to be very careful when handling this so some operations were a bit tricky. The first thing I did was wedge a piece of pencil eraser in front of the firing pin. Then I removed the grips and wire brushed as much rust and corrosion off as I could. Then I submerged it in penetrating oil for 3 days. After that it was a process of working on loosening rusty joints and re-soaking. At one point I applied some Muratic acid to the rusted slide. All it did was take the blue off.
After I removed the grips I could see that the frame was cracked in several places and the internals were just a glob of rust and powdery corrosion. At that point any hopes of salvaging the frame for a replacement rebuild were gone. It was a wall hanger from this point out. The magazine was firmly rusted in place and was fully loaded.
By prying the floor-plate off I was able to remove all of the rounds except the top one, it was stuck by corrosion. Fortunately the mag release freed up with only a couple of taps with a punch. Nothing I tried would free that top round, so I pushed the bullet back into the case and soaked it in more Kroil. It took a few days of scraping, picking and soaking to finally get the magazine free enough to slide out of the frame. When the mag was out the entire backstrap fell off since rust was the only thing holding it together.
At this point, the slide finally moved and came off the frame. I decided to punch out the slide stop to get it out of the way. I was then able to punch the barrel forward and the live Hydra-Shok slid right out of the chamber.
Now we get to the point of this post...
Was handling this pistol a potentially dangerous undertaking or was the ammo inert from the years of submersion and exposure? Can we rely on soaking in penetrating oil to make them into duds? Well, there is only one way to find out... load em up and fire em.
I pulled apart the top round from the magazine and was happy to see oily powder in the case. I tried firing the primed case and it was a dud. It appears the penetrating oil was able to enter when I had dislodged the bullet and pushed it back into the case. So far so good.
I loaded the rest of the recovered rounds into a functioning 380 and fired across a chrono at a 10 yd. target. The first round tried was the one loaded in the Colt's chamber... They all went bang the first try!
The string averaged 924 fps. In other tests of fresh Hydra-Shoks out of the same gun, they have averaged 937 to 964 fps, so I don't think the years of submersion and soaking in penetrating oil or exposure to corrosion and hydrochloric acid did much to deter the effectiveness of this ammo. I attribute the higher velocity of the last round (#6) from being slightly set back in the case, due to my prying it out of the corroded magazine.
Avg. fps=924 SD=22.8 ES=63
#1-897 #2-939 #3-912 #4-909 #5-926 #6-960
So Be Careful, There are a lot of old guns lost out there, keep this in mind if you ever encounter a similar situation and stay safe.
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