Ammunition corrosion

[DesG]

I have been clearing out a friend's shooting stuff as she's packing in shooting due to declining health, ie getting old! Her and her late husband were heavily into shooting in the past with 22, 270, 303, 223, 38 and blackpowder.

I've inherited a couple of her guns and found a large stash of ammo. I tried some of the ppu match 308 on Saturday and had a few hangfires and missfires. The rounds look totally fine with no sign of corrosion or discolouration. Pulling the bullets tells a different story. Weird as they were stored indoors in a heated back bedroom in a safe and apparently ideal conditions. Just goes to show. I've got a shedload of 303 to check now!

 

[moeggesit]

If the 303 is military surplus it will most likely be fine. I found loads of corroded ammo, some of which I bought new over the past 20 years and stored indoors, alongside 80-100 year old ammo with no issues whatsoever.

I suspect it’s due to two factors;
1) changes in formulae since the millennium
2) superior quality of military ammo

I also have various 80years plus sporting ammo, no corrosion, but primers sometimes (not often) fail.

The heavily corroded ammo was from most major manufacturers, Sako, Norma, Lapua, Remington, Winchester, PPU, etc. The only instance of military ammo was 1950-1960’s Chinese manufactured (nor surprised).

Many of the above had wet clumped powder and the cases internally severely corroded, some eaten through the case walls!

You can usually see a telltale blue ring either around the case neck or primer if there is an issue with an either a batch or individual cartriges.