Brancasterr
Inactive
After careful consideration I'll be sending a single round to each one of you for proper disposal. Postage is on you!
Received some old ammo - safe to shoot?
- Thread starter Brancasterr
- Start date
Tactical Jackalope
New member
Well played, Brancasterr....Well played.
carguychris
New member
I would suggest signing up on Gunbroker.com and monitoring auctions for similar items for a little while. Pay the most attention to auctions where the ammunition actually sold—some GB sellers (like eBay sellers) price items unrealistically high, and such auctions often languish for a loooong time.Brancasterr said:
If you decide to sell it via GB or a similar firearms-related auction site, be aware that packaging containing ammo is supposed to be specially labeled, some localities have laws against residents receiving ammo via mail-order, and the U.S. Postal Service absolutely will not handle live ammo (and their regulations carry the force of law, with surprisingly severe penalties in some cases
). Ammo generally has to ship via FedEx or UPS, and you can get a pretty good idea of what's involved by carefully reading their tariffs.Bob Wright
New member
As a general rule, all old ammunition is safe to shoot, provided the gun itself is safe to shoot. If any deterioration has occurred the round will not fire, or maybe a squib load will occur.
Very old ammunition, of the black powder vintage, will have copper primers in the centerfire ammunition. This more than likely will not fire, primers will have deteriorated. Those rounds which may fire will require special cleaning of the gun as the primers were likely mercuric.
Most "old" ammunition encountered today is only forty to fifty years old and will pose no problem. This if the ammunition has not been subjected to dampness or oil seepage in storage, as may have been encountered in garages.
Bob Wrigh
Very old ammunition, of the black powder vintage, will have copper primers in the centerfire ammunition. This more than likely will not fire, primers will have deteriorated. Those rounds which may fire will require special cleaning of the gun as the primers were likely mercuric.
Most "old" ammunition encountered today is only forty to fifty years old and will pose no problem. This if the ammunition has not been subjected to dampness or oil seepage in storage, as may have been encountered in garages.
Bob Wrigh
Collectible is not the same as sellable. People who collect this stuff generally haunt auctions and flea markets,places where they may find things to cheaply add to the "hoard." The probability that you will sell that ammo at a price that's worth the effort is awfully small. If you sell the .38 it's probably going to be used, even though it's easy to find loaded ammo anyway.
Myself, no, I wouldn't fire the stuff for various reasons. First, I never fire another guy's hand loads. I'd get rid of the .357.
I'd put the old .22 on my own shelf, I collect some. Why would I fire old, unknown ammo, when I want every shot I fire to be perfect? The boxes are kinda neat, but nothing special.
Imo, that .32 ammo is valueless. The box is stained and the ammo can be found anywhere online. You can probably walk into a store in your hometown and find it. Some places online it can be had for fifty cents a round.
When I tried to sell on gunbroker, there was so much garbage on there in permanent residency that nobody even viewed the things I posted.
I posted a genuine vintage US army training manual for a Thompson mg. Seventy pages or so, full manual. Excellent condition, it was probably unread, dated to WWI. Nobody even looked.
Myself, no, I wouldn't fire the stuff for various reasons. First, I never fire another guy's hand loads. I'd get rid of the .357.
I'd put the old .22 on my own shelf, I collect some. Why would I fire old, unknown ammo, when I want every shot I fire to be perfect? The boxes are kinda neat, but nothing special.
Imo, that .32 ammo is valueless. The box is stained and the ammo can be found anywhere online. You can probably walk into a store in your hometown and find it. Some places online it can be had for fifty cents a round.
When I tried to sell on gunbroker, there was so much garbage on there in permanent residency that nobody even viewed the things I posted.
I posted a genuine vintage US army training manual for a Thompson mg. Seventy pages or so, full manual. Excellent condition, it was probably unread, dated to WWI. Nobody even looked.
Mike Irwin
Staff
Sometime in the early 1980s a friend and I ran a bunch of .56-56 Spencer through his Dad's Spencer.
His Grandfather had apparently purchase it, and the ammo, surplus in the 1920s. I'm assuming that he bought it from Bannerman's, or from someone who had a shipment in from Bannerman's.
His Grandfather had apparently bought most of a case of ammunition, because there was a lot of it (probably close to 300 rounds) packaged loose in pasteboard boxes.
Best as I can figure the ammo was probably post civil war era surplus and was 100+ years old when we shot it.
We ran most of it through the rifle, with maybe a 70% success rate.
LOTS of fun!
His Grandfather had apparently purchase it, and the ammo, surplus in the 1920s. I'm assuming that he bought it from Bannerman's, or from someone who had a shipment in from Bannerman's.
His Grandfather had apparently bought most of a case of ammunition, because there was a lot of it (probably close to 300 rounds) packaged loose in pasteboard boxes.
Best as I can figure the ammo was probably post civil war era surplus and was 100+ years old when we shot it.
We ran most of it through the rifle, with maybe a 70% success rate.
LOTS of fun!
carguychris
New member
briandg said:
Hence my recommendation to monitor GB for a little while rather than immediately posting the ammo for sale.briandg said:
If there is no apparent interest in similar ammo, or it only sells for the same price as equivalent recent-production ammo, it would be more expedient to shoot it or otherwise dispose of it.