ammo storage and longevity

One can only attest to storage conditions that began when he came to possess the ammunition.

Most of the .30 caliber military ammunition i have was obtained in 1970. There were two pickup loads of the stuff. It was stored in a cellar in WV until about 2000 when it was moved to OK and stored in a deep cellar in the woods.

Wanted to shoot some old .30 caliber ammo so i picked a can of DM 42. Glad i did that.

All the rounds in that can were in bad shape. The rounds in another can looked pretty decent except for some slight corrosion from inside the cases. The powder did not rattle in the cases when shook.

Tore apart a round from the second can. The base of the bullet was green with corrosion and about half the powder adhered to the case. The inside of the case was also green.


http://i.imgur.com/1qm5Ysh.jpg
 
Last edited:
Tore apart a round from the second can. The base of the bullet was green with corrosion and about half the powder adhered to the case. The inside of the case was also green
Click to expand...

This is from the chemical breakdown of the powder, releasing nitric acid fumes.

Ultimately the case will corrode and crack.

A friend of mine bought 500 rnds of 7.62 NATO, untypically sight unseen. when he got it he was rather disappointed. Loose in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box, the stuff was dirty. Dirty as in dusty with sand in the bottom of the bag. Dingy but otherwise looked ok. I forget the headstamp letters (TZ or TZZ or something like that, we looked it up, apparently Israeli in origin)

Dates were 79,80,81

We test fired 100rnds through one of his ARs. Just shooting the 200yd gong. Every round that fired worked fine, and I hit the gong with boring regularity.

However, we has 11 failure to fire, and 9 of the fired cases cracked, at the head, inline with the case body.

I pulled the rest of the bullets. Many of them had powder sticking in clumps to the base of the bullet and some corrosion was evident.

I'm not a chemist, but I worked 15 years in what was the free world's largest nuclear chemical plant, so I know a thing or two about industrial batch chemical operations.

Exactly how you process a batch of powder can determine if you can count on it being stable for 40 years, or 20, or even 10. And if you make powder that you're sure will last 40 years, you give it shelf life of 20. ;)
 
i managed the destruction of the US Army unserviceable ammunition from Desert Storm. Destroyed about 20,000 tons of ammunition including well over one hundred million rounds of small arms ammunition. The ammo dump was huge. The perimeter road was 46 kilometers long.

There was smalls arms ammunition in huge piles, in MRE cases and containers of all sorts. We initially destroyed all ammunition that could not be identified by lot number. As time went on we were ordered to destroy pristine small arms ammunition in original pack. i destroyed 5.56mm, .45 caliber, and 9mm ammunition made as late as 1989. Yeah, wished i had some way to get some home; especially that pallet of .22 Eley rifle match.

Among the turned in small arms ammunition was huge quantities of .50 caliber ammunition manufactured in the mid to late 1940s. i was told that ammunition was stored in Germany. All that old .50 caliber ammunition looked good. Broke some rounds down; the powder looked good as well.

This is me ready to light off a burn pit:

http://i.imgur.com/lidd17w.jpg
 
That whole process should be criminal. Tax payers paid for it and the military, at the direction of a "president", destroyed it all instead of making it available to the public which would have made money instead of wasting it.
 
I can't disagree with you shootist, They probably did it "for safety"
At least I hope that's the lame excuse.

I guess cause ammo is old, or they couldn't document where it came from better safe then sorry I suppose.

But ya I just seen a store trying to sell .223 reloads with teh warning "SHOOT AT YOUR OWN RISK" up to 20% might be squib, over charged, etc, etc

I stopped reading after 20% could squibs.

Im sure what ever was destroyed was head and shoulders better.. Actually let me go see If I can hunt down the link again.

EDIT:

https://agbarms.com/products/second...r-129-get-free-shipping-1?variant=42872437512
NOTE: This lot of .223/5.56 could contain up to 10% or more squibs/short charge/zero charge rounds. On average we have seen 6% in this lot, but if you decide to shoot these, you do so at your own risk. Please be careful. We suggest that these be used solely for the components. 90+% of these rounds are equivalent quality to our first line .223/5.56, but at a fraction of the price.
Click to expand...
Some scary stuff right there.

They're sold out so I hope no ones shooting this garbage.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top