Is ammo waterproof?

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Cal44

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A thread about being armed while fishing brings up a question I've often wondered about.

Suppose you bring a CCW piece with you while fishing or hiking and wet conditions and you drop your gun into the drink. Or fall in yourself with the gun on you.

In my case, my Ruger LCR 357 with stainless frame and plastic grip frame would not be harmed.

But would the ammo fire?

Is there some way to make ammo water proof enough to withstand a short immersion?
 
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Cal44 said:
A thread about being armed while fishing brings up a question I've often wondered about.

Suppose you bring a CCW piece with you while fishing or hiking and wet conditions and you drop your gun into the drink. Or fall in yourself with the gun on you.

In my case, my Ruger LCR 357 with stainless frame and plastic grip frame would not be harmed.

But would the ammo fire?

Is there some way to make ammo water proof enough to withstand a short immersion?
Click to expand...

Yes if you hand-load put some shalic or nail polish in the primer pocket and where you crimp in the projectile.

Most military ammo is pretty dry staying.

A quick in and out of the water like you tripped and got right out should not comprise any ammo, of course if you have more ammo available put it in as soon as you get done drying out your gun and wet ammo.!
 
Good factory ammo, and even somewhat shoddy factory ammunition, tends to be highly water resistant to the point of being almost water proof.

I had some Wolf steel case 7.62x39mm that had been soaked several times and poorly stored. Some of it was rusty. 99 out of 100 still fired.
 
Last night I saw the Mythbusters put a 9mm 1911 into a fryer full of hot oil.
It fired or maybe 'cooked off '.
 
Cal44 said:
Is ammo waterproof?
Click to expand...

Briefly, although I don't know time limits.

I've heard of people using primer sealant on primers and around case mouths.

I've also heard of people using a thin coating of nail polish in the same places.

Note that I say I've "heard of" this. I've never actually seen it done or known anyone who's done it. I'm thinking those methods would work for a while. Also thinking the coatings would wear off quickly with the friction involved during loading magazines. Might be different with revolvers.

I do know for a fact some semi-autos will fire underwater, so I'd see no reason to think they wouldn't fire after a brief dunking.
 
A lot of military ammo is sealed with lacquer around the primer and case mouth. I have shot a bunch of surplus military .308 that based on the condition of the carton and case was obviously under water at some time. It all fired fine and the primers and case mouths were not sealed.
 
I had a magazine of Federal 9mm take a dip in a creek. Took about 1/2 hour to retrieve it and they all fired fine. I also had a couple of handloaded .223 make two trips through the washing machine without issue too.

On a brief dip, your biggest issue will be drying out the various nooks and crannies of the weapon and/or magazine.
 
For practical purposes ammunition for small arms is waterproof as long as it is not submerged too deeply, say 20-30 feet plus deep! This applies to both factory and hand-loaded ammunition.

As WR Moore stated, I have had ammunition run through the washing machine on more than one occasion, (I can't get my wife to check my pockets first!) and as a matter of principal, and curiosity, I have always chronographed those cartridges. Without fail they gave exactly the same performance as the same ammunition did when newly purchased. Every round has always fired!

If you are really curious, it's easy to check this out yourself! Fill a bucket with water and drop in a few rounds, let soak as long as you want (Hours, days weeks) then test them. Come back and tell everyone what the results were!

I always think it is funny when, in a "Western", they take someone's gun away and throw it in a horse trough and it won't shoot when recovered in a few minutes/seconds! Pure bunk. I will bet that even a percussion revolver with properly fitting caps and grease properly applied to the bullets/balls will still fire relatively dependably after a short dunking of even a few minutes! (I have never been curious enough to test this with one of my revolvers, but if you loan me yours I will be happy to see what happens!)
 
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I actually have a good story on this. Friend and I were fishing and in a boat in shallow water. He had a should holster on and in it was a mountain gun in stainless loaded--we were way out in the woods on a week long fishing trip. He caught a fish bent over to pick it up, yep, didn't have it snapped in the holster. "Spluush". After we got the fish in, he goes in after the 629 Smith n Wesson. Literally shakes off extra waster and we head back to camp. He disassembles gun with basic tools we have ( Boy Scout motto ) and leaves it by the fire to dry out for several hours. After it was really warm to touch we pull out some motor oil and lightly cover it. Few days go by, he gets home, completely disassembles and lubes gun. Puts it back together and fires rounds that were in it. All went bang. To this day the gun looks good as new and that is pushing 10 years ago. He literally had to wipe mud/ muck off of it and shake excess water off. Rounds are very durable if factory in most cases. Had it not been stainless and heated next to fire shortly after it may have been a different story. I'll save the fun story about how many cray fish we had to catch to actually feed to grown men for another story.....
 
If ammo was bothered by water i would have killed a lot less duck back in my younger days. Sitting all day in a pouring rain in a duck boat will get everything wet. Dropped my 870 Wingmaster off the front of the flotation tube i was using to jump shoot mallards with. Had to find it with my feet then grip it between my feet to bring it up where I could reach it. i washed the mud out checked the barrel and finished getting my limit. Set the gun by the furnace for days. The stock swelled up about a 1/8" where it met the receiver and recoil pad. We had real wood back then. Don
 
Several years ago I ran some tests with a variety of ammo to test for
waterproofness. Over period of a few weeks I put samples of about
every type of ammo I had in a bucket of water and left them there for
a week. I only had FTFs with two types of ammo. One was with Blazer
aluminum pistol ammo and the other was Russian 7.62X39 HPs. There
are two different types of HP bullets in the Russian ammo. One type
only has a loose plastic plug in the open base of the bullet and water
can go right through the bullet and soak the powder. The Blazer ammo
was the early type with a berdan primer, current ammo uses a boxer
primer. Some ammo, mostly imported, has lots of visible sealant at
the primer and case mouth. A lot of domestic pistol ammo does not
appear to have any sealant but if you look carefully you will see that
it does. Auto pistol rounds with jacketed bullets have sealant to keep
the bullet firmly in place and all primes look to have a small amount
of clear sealant that is not visible unless you remove the primer. As
for a quick swim or day in the rain, nothing to worry about.
 
I left a speed loader full of Speer Gold Dot 38 Spl. In my pocket. After a full washing machine cycle they still fired. If I were going to be in a River fishing or going rafting, I would carry my gun, phone and whatever in a zip lock freezer bag.
 
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