Old Ammo

[Sin6Sec63451022]

Went hunting last week for the first time in almost 40 years. I used some 40+ yo Remington Core-Lokts in .270 Win and experienced some copper fouling and lotsa powder residue that I don't recall having in the past. Can the copper in the ammo change over time? It shot well, otherwise. N0.9 didn't want to cut it, so used Montana Extreme effectively.

 

[sourdough44]

I don't see how the bullet would change, unless corroded in some fashion. The powder should be O.K..

I would just move it to the top of the ammo rotation and clean well after shooting.

 

[Mobuck]

How well did you clean your rifle's bore BEFORE shooting the "old" ammo?

 

[2sheriffs]

I found 50 35 Ackley Magnum that was loaded back in about 1963 with surplus 4895 and I thought about shooting it, but before I shot it I pulled the bullet from one of them and the powder was a solid cake. I pulled the rest of the bullets and they were all like that. I put the cases in some warm soapy water and let them sit for a couple day and still had a heck of a time getting the powder out of them. I have about 4 boxes of Remington 270 that were from that same time frame, and I think I will pull the bullet from one of them and see what the powder looks like.
Ron

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I found 50 35 Ackley Magnum that was loaded back in about 1963 with surplus 4895 and I thought about shooting it, but before I shot it I pulled the bullet from one of them and the powder was a solid cake. I pulled the rest of the bullets and they were all like that. I put the cases in some warm soapy water and let them sit for a couple day and still had a heck of a time getting the powder out of them. I have about 4 boxes of Remington 270 that were from that same time frame, and I think I will pull the bullet from one of them and see what the powder looks like.
Ron

Very interesting, thanks for posting. :D

 

[Rook]

I found some old all brass 00 buck shotgun shells in my Grandpa's attic that belonged to my Great Grandpa back years ago. They had been there for at least 70 years in extremely hot weather in the summer and some pretty cold days during the winter over the years with all kinds of variation in humidity. I shot a couple of them and you couldn't tell that they weren't new.

 

[powder smoke]

Ammo has a pretty good shelf life. My neighbor's husband died, she gave me a bunch of
ammo, the only problem I had was with the 22lr. Ended up throwing them out. The shotgun
ammo fired like new, my friend and I shot it up on clay pigeons. ps