Old Ammo
 

One of the things I brought home from Florida was some old ammo. It dates from the 1950s to 1970s. Some of it is in great shape, some of the older stuff was not stored properly at some point in its lifetime.


Some of it it tarnished and the copper jacketing has turned a little blue/green.

Can I just put it in my case-cleaner with corn-cob media to clean it up a little, or am I risking some kind of danger?

If not, what can I do with it?

Quote: "...am I risking some kind of danger?"
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Posting on a open forum BB that you even OWN ammunition may be your greatest danger. :)

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I don't think there's any "danger" using old ammo... my dad has put some rounds through his Winchester .38-55 which were around 100 years old. I wouldn't worry about tarnished brass, but the green stuff might come off and gum up the internals of whatever gun you're using.

DO NOT VIBRATE CLEAN it can break down the powder. let's say that the needs to be a certain size to have a burn rate of x but you tumble the rounds and now the powder is at a smaller size and burns quicker. Your case presure might increase

Thanks Jim. That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

Maybe I'll just use a plastic brillo pad on the copper oxidation.

I do not know how old the ammo is that I'm running, but I know it is Greek surplus for the M1 Garand. It cannot be new. It is probably 40+ yrs old.

Try a round. If it works, fill a magazine and try it. I do know that some oils can de-activate primers.

i also have some elderly nato 7.62x51 battlepaks from a late 70's contract. tarnished but still shoots. i'd just take a scuffy pad and clean it up and if it goes bang yer good to go. it doesnt really degrade. a buddy bought some wwII .45 in the tin can and it shoots just fine.

I ran 400 ish greek M2 30/06 rounds down the barrel of my Garand a few weeks ago. Some tarnish on the rounds nothing really bad but one did fail to feed

The tumble theory comes from a few years ago some surplus ammo was busting receivers and the ammo was bright/shiny. Someone removed the projectile and found that the powder that was in it was supposed to be in a "stick" shape was now in a . shape

When in doubt remove the charge and tumble, reload. Your EYES will thank you.

Scotch-Brite is your friend.
+1 on breaking down grain size. WILL increase pressure.

I have tried some of the better looking bullets in the batch. They work fine. The revolver I'm using can handle +P loads, so a little faster burn rate is not an issue. I'm still not going to put them in the tumbler because I can't control how much the breaks down though.

When i was in the Army in the late 80s we were still shooting M80 and M113 ammo from the Vietnam era, and it all worked flawlessly.

i routinely shoot .303 that has to be WW2 surplus. if it's been kept dry, there is not much worry.

if yer really afeared of any water/moisture intrusion , do what us scubee-doobee divers do for anti-pelagic duty. take NAILPOLISH stolen from wife/girlfriend/michael jackson and coat the entire area where primer is pressed into shell. WAA-LAA WATERPROOF! i took a bang stick on numerous dives and then when i came back loaded that ammo in my smith 629 .44 and it went bang everytime. and that ammo was subjected to 100 ft plus depths. so for you landlubbers it works great .

If you tumble them for a few minutes with media and some mineral spirits, you'll be fine.

In theory, yes you can break the powder down but, in practice if you keep the time low, you will be fine. I've done 100k+ rounds (no joke, former IPSC shooter) like this over the years and still have all of my fingers, toes, eyes, etc.

This continues to be a huge debate in the shooting community...

Probably has a lot to do with the frangebility of the powder. i.e. hard, extruded or ball powders may hold up better to long vibration cycles than flakes...
I have half a mind to tumble me up some ammo...

I still just wipe any older stuff down with an old scotchbrite pad.