DUD

[HughD1]

My wife called me at work Tuesday morning looking for 410 shells. This is not an ordinary request. She said that my mother needed them. A snake is the first thing that crossed my mind. She had a rattlesnake get in her house a couple of years ago. I explained to my wife where the shells were and what the box looked like.
Now the rest of the story. My wife pulled out every box of ammo in the cabinet before finding the 410s. She then rushed down to my Mother's house. Apparently there was a chicken snake trying to get a bird nest in a tree in her yard. The shell in her single shot 410 was a dud. She couldn't find her box of shells. My brother was there and attempted to kill the snake with Momma's snub nose 38. She told me the next morning that he is no Annie Oakley with a pistol. I cringed thinking about him blasting away at a chicken snake with those irreplaceable short barrel gold dots.
To sum it all up; the snake got away, the little birds took it on the chin, Momma is not happy, and a good portion of my ammo stash was scattered on the floor! All because of one little dud! God bless my 81 year old Momma! Y'all have a good day!

Hugh


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[Nevada Ed]

How old did you say that .410 ammo is ?

It might be time to buy a new box of ammo.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

It happens, especially with old ammo that may not have been stored as well as possible.

Couple of years ago a friend passed away. I helped his wife organize his firearms, ammo, accessories, then spent several months selling off via GunBroker.

Hundreds and hundreds of rounds of ammo, including factory produced products from the 1960s and 1970s, and a bunch of hand-loaded rifle, pistol, and shotgun ammo (not all of it in the best condition). I sold off all the factory ammo that appeared to be in good condition, then loaded everything else up for a trip to the prairie where it got buried in an arroyo subject to flash floods in the summer storms.

The wife insisted I take one firearm in exchange for my help, so I ended up with a very nice old Winchester .22 rifle. Never told her about all the ammo I destroyed, but I slipped a few hundred extra into the sale proceeds.

 

[Mbrgr1]

38 shot shells come in handy, killed a lot of pack rats with them.

 

[HughD1]

I took her some more 135 grain gold dots and my wife left the box of Federal 7 1/2s. Never seen her miss with the little shotgun. God help a raccoon or opossum that tries to get the cat food. The shells were purchased with the little shotgun. Probably ten years old. Cleaned her guns for her a few minutes ago. She is good to go. She is a tough old lady! Y'all have a great weekend!

Hugh


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[Igiveup]

LoboGunLeather, I am currently going through the same thing. Good friend of forty years passed last year and his request was for me to sell his collection. Seems he was an avid reloader and I have quite a bit of reloaded ammo, plus he favored the plastic ammo boxes, so it is hard to sometimes differenciate between factory and reloaded ammo. I figuered I would buy it and just shoot it out back and hope it goes bang everytime.

 

[6518John]

I am not a reloader and have always wondered about this issues. I have rarely had difficulties with brass cased ammo like handgun and rifle cartridges. And a second hammer strike almost always causes the round to fire.

But when I have had problems it is generally with shotgun ammo like this. I don't know if that is because it is typically handled more roughly, like being left in hunting vests, dropped in duck blinds, boat bottoms, the mud etc and wiped off. Maybe shotguns are more likely to expose ammo to cleaning solvents (due to having a much larger chamber face) that can ruin primers?

I don't know.

 

[teletech]

I've almost never had a dud rifle of handgun round where it's been stored reasonably. I've seen some milsurp out of Egypt and Pakistan that I guess sat in the sun for too long and was problematic.
However, I've seen a fair number of shotgun shells including ones never out of the box that have gone bad. I can't say the box never sat someplace hot, cold, or whatever but the box wasn't obviously distressed at all.