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Love this forum!
Guess I was lucky. I used WD40 liberally on my firearms for 30 or 40 years and never once had it turn to varnish or make my guns or ammo inoperable. Shotguns, .22 rifles, pistols, revolvers. Never a problem.
I learned two things from Massad Ayoob when I took his training courses...
1) the powder in the cases will become finer and finer because of the movement when carrying. Because the powder has a finer granularity, it probably will not shoot to the same point of aim as it did before.
2) many people will clean their handguns by spraying WD-40 on it and then wiping it off. Some even spray the cartridges in the weapon. WD-40 will kill primers.
The military proper used cosmoline to coat and store guns. I don't think it was as harsh on the weapons, and probably cleaned out better.I tend to agree with you on the "varnish" claim. Used WD-40 a lot myself and never encountered such an occurrence with any of my guns. I would submit that it is possible under certain conditions as some other oils will tend to "gel" with age. We used to see the occasional guns come into the shop with old, hardened oil in it gumming up the action.
In most such case they were inherited guns that had last been used by an older (now gone) relative and in many cases sat unused for years. I suspect the passage of time had a lot to do with it. The worst case I ever encountered involved selling the guns from an estate. The gentleman who had owned them was a retired engineer who had worked at Wright Pat Air Base. He became enamored with Tri-Flo lubricant at some time. After he retired his health declined and he rarely shot anything, just collected more guns. He was concerned about preserving his guns and slathered them in Tri-Flo, wrapped them in wax paper and stored them away. The guns (@700 of them!) were in perfect shape except they were nearly all inoperable. Actions gummed up tighter than glue. We had to flush them out with solvent to make them function again.
PS: Got several cans of Tri-Flo along with the guns and other stuff that the family wanted sold............. I think it would be good for door hinges or cars. Not so much on guns except, maybe, in small amounts.
The military proper used cosmoline to coat and store guns. I don't think it was as harsh on the weapons, and probably cleaned out better.
As to the first claim while I respect Ayoobs knowledge of the law and self defense shooting he would seem to be repeating an old myth that has been circulating for years. It most often pops up in reloading forums usually because someone tumbles their loaded ammo to remove sizing lube or simply to make the finished ammo look nicer............... There is much argument, gnashing of teeth and claims thrown around which has caused many to test the theory by tumbling loaded ammo for long (often ridiculously long) periods then examining the powder and comparing it to fresh powder from the can. No one I have ever heard of has been able to show any effect from this and a tumbler will jolt the ammo around far more than riding around in your gun will.
Also consider the vibration ammo is subjected to in transport. If there was such a problem the manufacturers would have known about it long ago and taken steps to limit their own liability if the powder in their ammo was subject to such a failure. And all that is before we get into the subject of really harsh storage and handling conditions such as military ammo gets. And yet this old myth still pops up and people believe it and keep repeating it. Powder is a lot more durable than many people think!
I can't even find my SD ammo at stores. I guess it's fine if you are using sub-par stuff. I use 357 barnes vortex. Anything else just doesn't cut it from a snub
Due to the ammo shortage and current costs, I have not been doing this with my carry stuff.
Nope.
I will however inspect for set back with those from auto loaders. In which case, they get replaced. Otherwise, I simply don’t see the point in disposing of perfectly fine ammunition.
^THIS^
If this was an issue, what about all of that military ammo that is transported by truck to airport, then by transport aircraft such as a C-130 to the desert in the middle east, then hauled across the desert in a Deuce and a half or the modern equivalent to the troops. All that vibration would surely cause issues.
Rosewood