Ammunition Longevity

[DWalt]

Not really intended as an aging test, but I’ve had three 50-round boxes of WWII steel case GI .45 ACP (ECS 43) sitting on a shelf for many years. I decided to shoot it up today. Even after 80 years, 100% fired and functioned, just like new. Which was what I expected.

Of course, it was corrosive primed so I soaked everything on my M1911 in hot water afterward to remove the corrosive residue.

 

[Skeet 028]

Not quite in the same vein but I once reloaded 100 AA 12 GA shells. Put them out doors behind the barn on a 55 gal drum. Sat out there rain(lots of rain in Md)shine hot cold for 3years...boxes pretty much disintegrated when I picked ' em up. Shot 4 rounds of skeet with them...broke a 99. Missed a dad blamed high one...but every shell fired normally. It's amazing that we have such reliable ammo with the planned obsolescence of most things nowadays. I have a couple boxes of that same ammo.

 

[TJm15.38]

Not really intended as an aging test, but I’ve had three 50-round boxes of WWII steel case GI .45 ACP (ECS 43) sitting on a shelf for many years. I decided to shoot it up today. Even after 80 years, 100% fired and functioned, just like new. Which was what I expected.

Of course, it was corrosive primed so I soaked everything on my M1911 in hot water afterward to remove the corrosive residue.

Any water based solution for initial cleaning should take care of the corrosive priming salts deposited in the bore. Hot water is just fine and follow up with normal cleaning solvents. I use a solution of 10% Ballistol oil and 90% water. Ballistol mixes and emulsifies with water making a milky and slightly alkaline substance that is white and takes care of the bad stuff. I call it "Moose Milk." I use this with any ammo that has corrosive priming. I shoot a lot surplus ammo in 7.62x54r in the Mosin Nagant rifle, so I have to use this cleaning protocol on the range or immediately after coming home to insure my rifles and pistols don't become a rust bucket. I follow up with a lightly oiled Ballistol soaked patch as a preservative.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Storage conditions play a big role in ammo longevity.

Windex also works very well with corrosive ammo.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Instead of soaking the entire gun in water 7.62 Sweets would have taken care of an corrosive effects from the ammo.

 

[BC38]

DWalt, I don't understand why you'd shoot up that ammo in the first place. Are you hard up for 45ACP ammo? WWII vintage ammo may not be scarce (yet), but with regular, new-production ammo available, I'd be more inclined to hang onto that 75-year old ammo, rather than just shoot it for the heck of it.
But that's just me...

 

[DWalt]

I used to fire a quantity of corrosive military rifle ammunition in bolt action rifles. After shooting, I would stick a funnel into the chamber and pour a quart of hot water through the bore, followed by normal cleaning with solvent. That worked. The older US GI bore cleaner was just an oil-water emulsion that would dissolve the corrosive primer residue. But so will hot water alone.

 

[robertrwalsh]

I had a fair bit of Spanish MilSurp 9mm largo that I finished firing up about 5 years ago. It was from the 1930s. I had a few misfires and hangfires. I used the old GI bore cleaner afterwards. I still have a couple of cans of it laying around, just in case.

 

[biku324]

I fired my final 5 rounds of FA 19 30'06 on November 11, 2018, at 1100 hours. It was fine.

 

[30-30remchester]

I once shot a bison with an original Sharps rifle and a round of black power ammo that was loaded in the 1880's. Not knowing if it would even go off. Three plus feet of penetration and dead buffalo. I was around when 9 other bison were shot with varying modern guns and ammo, and none killed any quicker.

 

[white cloud]

That WW2 hardball must have been high quality. My father had brown paper bag full of that stuff in his tool shed in the backyard. It got frozen, baked and had absolutely no humidity control. This was unplanned destructive testing that when on for decades. When I was 18, he told be to take it to the range and shoot it up. The ammo was about 25 years old at that point. Amazingly, every round fired and cycled a 1911.

 

[cracker57]

just finish up shooting some 12 gauge federals that I bought in 1973 all went bang and I even hit some birds with it....

 

[someguyfromnc]

I've had ammo decades old and ammo that has been rotated in carry guns in the humid sweaty southern states for years and it all goes bang. I dont think it ever goes bad unless you go diving in a river often or have magazines falling out of your pockets damaging the casings.

 

[serger]

Evansville Chrysler is your friend and the steel cases
can be reloaded twice before they start splitting, I did
that when I shot the last of it. 4 grains of Bullseye and
a 230 grain cast lead projectile after a Windex wash. I
still see them at the range once in a while.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Purchased a bunch of FA-18 .45ACP and various WW2 surplus (steel and brass) back in the 1970s, 5 cents per round when my department traded in the old Thompson guns. Still using much of that old brass for reloading. Learned to soak it in soapy water for a day, then two rinses in clean water after the first firing.

Also in the 1970s I came across a case of FA-35 match .30-06. That fired brass continues to serve in .30-06, .270, and .25-06.

I'm still using GI surplus bore cleaner made in the 1960s. Purchased several pint cans at a gun show for $1 each. I doubt any commercial product has benefited from the levels of R&D that the US military applied. Still works great, removes any type of primer, powder, or bullet fouling residues.

 

[e3mrk]

I had a Enfield Rife and I had some Ammo from WW-1 that except for a little hesitation to fire after pulling the trigger it worked fine.I guess those sticks of Cordite they used for the powder kind of broke down after some years. But it seems as long as the Ammo is kept dry in a sealed container it should last for a long time.

 

[BC38]

I had a Enfield Rife and I had some Ammo from WW-1 that except for a little hesitation to fire after pulling the trigger it worked fine.I guess those sticks of Cordite they used for the powder kind of broke down after some years. But it seems as long as the Ammo is kept dry in a sealed container it should last for a long time.

"...a little hesitation to fire..." sounds kinda' like a "little bit" of a "hang fire" to me.

I'm not so sure I would have kept shooting those rounds. Assuming there was any alternative ammo available.

I'd always be wondering when that "little hesitation" might turn into a lot more hesitation.

Maybe I'm just too cautious about such things...

 

[The Kid]

I got to shoot a guy’s Bren gun one day. As much as I wanted to. It was pretty neat for a while but loading magazines got tiresome. We used a bunch of WWI and even earlier surplus ammo that was in 5 gallon buckets. Most of it fired. Most of it was Cordite and had an odd smell, sorta reminiscent of hot cat pee.

 

[TJm15.38]

I shoot a lot of 7.62x54R in Mosin Nagant rifles. All of it is corrosive priming and I am very careful about mitigating the effects of the corrosive priming residue. At the range, I will swab the barrel with a mixture of 10% Ballistol and 90% water (I call it moose milk) to neutralize the corrosive salts. Then I follow up with standard cleaning at home with Hoppes #9 and a light coating of Ballistol or Break-Free. Most of the ammo I have is from the Cold War era (1970's Russian or Bulgarian) packed in 440 round spam cans. I would wager that a lot of similar ammo is being used in Ukraine right now.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I had a Enfield Rife and I had some Ammo from WW-1 that except for a little hesitation to fire after pulling the trigger it worked fine.I guess those sticks of Cordite they used for the powder kind of broke down after some years. But it seems as long as the Ammo is kept dry in a sealed container it should last for a long time.

As already said, that sounds like a hang fire. I also agree I would not continue shooting that ammo. Some hang fires can be long and possible fire after the shooter thinks it's safe to lower the rifle.

Sometimes unstable powder or Cordite can be dangerous and spike pressures. IMO it's not worth the risk to shoot that ammo anymore. (sorry)