Beware: .22 carry ammo goes bad from sweat and moisture!

J

Jody Hudson

New member
I don't know why this is true, but it is:

.22 ammo more than any other ammo I'm familiar with will absorb moisture and fail to fire. This is a dangerous factor for those who carry a .22. If a .22 is carried as a belt buckle gun or a pocket gun, especially in humid climate or by someone who sweats some -- the .22 ammo will eventually fail to fire.

I tried wrapping every sort of ammo I had in moist papertowels and some I let soak in water for several months. Each 2 weeks I took one cartridge out and fired it. Most of the .22s were dead within 4 weeks. After a year none of the other cartridges had a problem.

Two folks I know carry .22s. The one who carries in a belt buckle still forgets to change ammo sometimes. Three times in the last 5 years when I've handed him some new Stingers or other .22 ammo, as is my frequent custom, and asked him to fire off his existing ammo some or all of it has failed to fire.

This has been true with Stingers, other major American brands and even with the waxy, greasy Russian rounds. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Food for thought.

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Talk is cheap; Free Speech is NOT.
 
That's because they are out-side lubed.

Yet another reason to NEVER use a .22 for defense.

.38 should be the minimum.
 
IMO, that's not the only danger with carrying a .22 for defense. If you happen to have to use that gun in a defensive situation, you're going to make the perp mad by shooting him with a .22, and he's likely to do even more damage because of that! There is no reasonable excuse to carry .22LR for defense, when there are guns like the Keltec P32 that are as small as a .22, but shoot a much better cartridge.
 
With a 22 you can afford to shoot 500 practice rounds for every 50 of a centerfire. So I go to the range often and shoot up a few boxes, solving both the moisture problem and the small bullet size problem. Practice enough and I can easily put multiple shots where I want them to go. Flinching, recoil, fatigue et cetera are no problem. I daresay a bad guy wouldn't be mad too long with proper shot placement.

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"Facts are meaningless. You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true."
Homer Simpson... but attributed to Algore.
 
I don't have any problem affording plenty of practice with my centerfire guns, so that's not an issue for me. I'll continue to recommend against a .22 for defensive carry, since there are a world of better and more effective choices available. Others put a different value on their life.

Besides, lots of people delude themselves about how accurate they'll be if someone is actually launching rounds their way, stress does funny things to your motor skills. Just when you need that pinpoint accuracy the most, that's when it will be gone. It isn't a mystery why self defense experts tell you to shoot at the center of mass, it's the easiest thing to hit when your accuracy has gone down the drain from the stress.



[This message has been edited by johnwill (edited September 04, 2000).]
 
They also go bad with age. I found brick of .22's that were about 3 years old. They were in an ammobox that had gotten squirreled away under the bed. The brick was un-touched, and un-opened. Moisture was not a factor. (I live in AZ) Anyway, I took them out to shoot them off, and found out that a lot of them, maybe as high as 30% were duds. :eek:

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Yeah, I got a permit to carry,it's called the friggin Constitution.---Ted Nugent

"Glock 26: 17 rounds of concealed carry DEATH comming your way from out of nowhere!!! THAT'S FIREPOWER, BABY!!!"
 
I think it's recommended that you rotate magazines every 2 weeks if you keep a loaded gun in the house so the springs are fresh. I figured it was the same for ammo as well... Especially .22's!!! I mean, $10 for a brick of 500! You can rotate your ammo for 3 years on $10, there is NO reason why you should use your .22 ammo for that long in a gun...

Albert
 
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