Will the wax bullet lube on CCI 22 ammo melt off in a hot car?

[Dave Lively]

I am going to visit a friend that is short on 22 LR and offered to take some CCI Blazer so we can do some plinking with his new 10/22. I would like to make a stop on the way. If I do the ammo would be sitting in a hot car in the Georgia sun for a few hours.

Not taking any guns besides my carry gun, just the ammo will be in the car. Too many breakins these days to leave a gun as much as I would like to take some of my 22s.

Anyone ever have the wax melt off a bullet sitting in a hot car? If so, did it cause any leading?

ETA: It just occurred to me the obvious solution is to put the ammo in a cooler. But I am still curious if this is a problem.

 

[Erich]

Based on decades of living in a hot climate and shooting that sort of waxed .22 LR bullet, I can report with certainty that what you propose will not cause you any problems with your ammo. It will not cause you leading.

 

[mauser9]

I vote with above.

 

[Dave Lively]

Thanks, I have been living in the South for many years but never left ammo sitting a car before.

 

[smoothshooter]

It can be. The wax will flow around to the lower side of each cartridge due to gravity.
More likely to be a problem with brands with a lot of wax, like Eley.
Cooler works good.

 

[cracker57]

if your worried throw it in a cooler, we often keep our rifle ammo in coolers in the summer at the range when blinking with hunting guns. temp makes your ammo act differently.

 

[ms]

I got some CCI SV direct from CCI last summer, the lube appeared to have melted at some point. A few were bad enough that they wouldn't go in the chamber easily.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

The trunk is probably better than the inside of the car. I have never had a problem with melting lube on 22 ammo.

 

[cmj8591]

It is unlikely that the lube will melt to any significant amount. A bigger problem is that exposing ammo to extreme temperatures can negatively affect its performance.

 

[Shotguncoach]

I went shooting yesterday afternoon when it was a nice, cool 106 degrees. The Blazer ammo I had with me did not show any signs of wax melting and it sat in an ammo can in the cab of the truck for most of the time I was at the range.

Having said that, I do not mail order any .22 ammo during the summer time because I have had CCI standard velocity arrive with the lube melted. Luckily the ammo was oriented so that the bullet was facing down and the melted wax formed a small blob on the tip of the bullet. Some were stuck to the box. When it came time to shoot it I simply used my fingers and smeared the blob around on the bullet. No issues with accuracy or leading.

My son left an ammo can of .45acp that was reloaded using cast lead SWC's that were lubed with blue wax in his car for an entire summer in Phoenix. Some -not all- of the wax melted out and coated the outside of the brass and stuck the cartridges to each other and the sides of the box. I pulled a few bullets and found that there was still wax in the lube ring and the powder was not contaminated. I wiped the wax off of the cases with a rag and shot a few.....no accuracy issues, extremely minor leading that came out easily with a brush. All of that ammo has now been shot with no issues.

Short version: put it in a cooler and press on. If the wax does soften and melt, a little rub-rub-smear-smear as you use it will take care of the problem.

On the subject of ammo exposed to heat, here are two short stories of personal experience:

My house burned down about 20 years ago. The ammo was in the garage and not directly exposed to the fire, but it was only one interior wall away. I'm pretty sure it got a bit warm. All of it was fired with no issues.

A few years after the house was rebuilt, my neighbor asked me if I wanted her deceased husbands reloading stuff. Mixed in with the boxes that had been stored in an outdoor metal shed in Phoenix for at least 10 years was a few pounds of Alcan AL-7 (think about how long that's been discontinued) and CCI primers in the old tan boxes with the red/white CCI logo. I researched some old reloading manuals and found a .38 special load that would said it would produce 800fps with a 158 LSWC. I loaded them up and test fired them in a .357 N-frame just in case. Average velocity was 787 with standard deviation of 28. A bit more smoke than usual and a higher SD then I like, but they were perfectly acceptable for casual use.

Your mileage may vary, of course.


edit: spelling

 

[Mzuri]

I live in a hot climate and I have never had trouble with lube/wax melting on CCI ammo. I have had a very hot day make Norma Tac-22 so slippery that I had trouble getting it into a magazine. I don't know what Norma uses for lube, but it's slippery under normal circumstances and heat makes it feel like a greased watermelon. Still feeds though.