Old Ammo "find" - dispose or use carefully?

J

joeranger

New member
My father in law was an avid hunter and shooter decades ago. Recently I went to clean out his old house after he moved on.
In addition to the Israeli 8mm ammo I posted about earlier, I found a disintegrated bag of 12ga shells. There is no value other than sentimental, a box of 12ga sport isn't that expensive.

I do not see a downside to trying to fire the ammo (after close inspection).
Help me with the risk factor...

Is the worst case a misfire and shell lodged in the chamber?
 
If it passes a visual inspection, I would call it low risk. I have certainly shot my share of 'antique' ammunition, from decades old paper shotgun shells to old surplus military ammo. We shot surplus WWII ammo for decades after didn't we? I haven't seen any for quite a while but I have fired it.

I have seen some old ammo that I would not fire, with corrosion around the primer and/or corroded copper jackets, obviously poorly stored.
 
One risk would be a hull separation...sort of like firing cut shells where
a person would intentionally cut round the hull just above the brass.
this is not a good practice. Just dispose of them...it wouldn't be worth
risking the consequences.
 
Are the shells paper or plastic?

An aside- but in our gunsmithing shop we'd occasionally have the widow of a shooter come in with a bag full of ammo or reloading components. She'd tell us about her husband, and ask that we dispose of it legally for her.

That 30 year old ammo went into our test fire stash. Anything post WWII was game. I have factory ammo that's from the 1950's.
 
If it looks OK you can probably fire it. But if you get a low report make sure you don't have a barrel obstruction. If those are old paper shells they may be swollen and not even chamber.

I had some 7x57 mauser ammo loaded in 1936 per the headstamp. It shot good groups when it went off. The problem was it might take 2 or 3 seconds for it to go off. I only shot about 10 rounds and stopped. It was very accurate. Mild recoil too.

I went ahead and pulled the bullets. Now I have 250 steel jacketed 175gr round nose bullets similar to what WMD Bell killed his elephants with. The powder is square cut flakes that seems to be fine. I have a pound and a half of it. The cases were loaded with 38grs of powder.
 
Last edited:
Visibly check the rounds for age and damage.
If they pass muster, then see if the rounds chamber ok.
If so, take a few apart and inspect the innards.
The pellets should be clean looking without showing signs of moisture damage.
The powder should smell like gunpowder, not floor cleaning solvent.
The primers and pockets should look clean and not discolored.
The wads should look ok, too.
If all looks well, give them to me, please.
 
I had some 12 ga trap loads from the mid 70's that shot fine. In the first round I hit 24 out of 25 with them. I am not advising you to shoot them just saying what my experience was.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top