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What to do with old ammo?

G

Gun guru

Well-known Member
A lady that I work with is in her 50s now. Her dad died 10 years ago and he was a hunter. Well.....This lady walks up to me today and asks me if I want some old shotgun shells and ammo. It has been in the truck of her car in an old briefcase for years. The briefcase is a mess, but...It has old boxes of .30-06 rounds, 12 gauge shells, .357 shells and a rifle and shotgun cleaning kit. All this stuff is old, Sears Roebuck is the brand of some of the ammo. The boxes look like they are from the 1960s. I removed all the ammo from the briefcase and I am giving that back to her. In fact the case is so old that inside the case are business cards that have the phone # listed as El 6-7852 kinda thing. When did the phone #s change to the 7 digits with 3 digit area codes?
Anyway what should I do with this ammo? I am not going to fire the 12 gauge shells out of any of my shotguns and the .30-06 rounds could be duds and I am not firing these out of my Ruger.
I have 4 boxes of .30-06 and a few boxes of 12 gauge and 2 or 3 boxes of .357 and some other loose rounds.
 
I have tons of 8mm mauser ammo made in 1943---shoots fine. people collect old ammunition boxes with the ammo. father in law has pretty good collection, more valuable if discontinued such as Otasco-etc.... the only ammo I would worry about shooting would be the shotgun shells, unless the others are corroded etc....
 
gun guru do you have any dump sites for hazardous items? In our area we have one twice a year. You could try local police they may be able to tell where you can get rid of it.
 
I had some old ammo that had gotten badly corroded due to our humidity and where it was stored. I sure as heck had no plans to try to fire it, and I certainly didn"t just want to throw it away so..........I took it to our local police department and they said they would destroy it for me.........free of charge.
 
Send it to me... I ain't askeered of it as long as it looks to be uncorroded. Do you reload?? You could always pull the bullets on the 30.06 and .357 and reload them. I'll even pay shipping if you are going to throw it away.
 
If it is still in good shape use it. Shoot they sell ammo from WW-2 that is still good. Ya do not use in in a gun you may think is not up to snuff
 
Shoot it. Save the boxes, they have some collector value. You might consider saving the old Sears&Roebuck stuff unfired. A collector might want that too.
 
It's collectible. You might give Guns Galore in Fenton (MI) a call, they buy stuff like that.

Easiest way to dispose of it is to shoot it up. The only exception to that is reloads of unknown origin. In that case, pull the bullets (with a pair of pliers if you don't have a bullet puller), dump the powder on your grass and shoot the primed case.
 

Naah----send it (in the Trash) to the Trash-Burning Powerplant..
Have a picnic somewhere not too close by and wait for the Fireworks..!!!

Just a thought...!

Ron..
 
Most law enforcement agencys will take it and dispose of in an appropiate manner. They'll either dispose of it themselves or turn it over to the military and they'll dispose of it- usually by burning. It might have collector vaule and you could shop it around like other posts have suggested. As long as there is no corrision and it hasn't gotten oily it should be okay, but why risk it. I am ex Air Force EOD- we where the nuts that would burn the ammo to dispose of it but our procedure was causing ground water contamination so they probably have have new procedures.
 
Unless you see anything visibly wrong with it, I bet every single round will fire.

I tried some old 50s era 12 ga. Remington paper shells. At the time they were 30 years old. Every one fired. Evidently, a Browning auto has a violent extraction as two rounds tore the brass loose from the aged paper case. This was from a supply of about a hundred rounds.

Here's a better story about a bandolier full of government 30-40 Krag. This was pre WW1 ammo. Before the Army adopted the 1903 Springfield chambered for the 1906 30-06, we relied on the Krag-Jorgensen rifle.

This bandolier was marked "1898 Rockford Arsenal" or something like that. The ammo dimensions roughly resembled the old .303 British and was in terrible condition. The brass was green in places. Some of the cases had split open revealing the cordite propellent. That was the last time I ever saw a cordite loaded cartridge.

Anyway, I give this to this fellow thinking he only wants to display the bandolier. This nut actually fired every single round that wasn't split. This ammo was probably ninety years old.
 
If you store the ammo in those green ammo boxes the ammo will last till you need it. I didn't want to say forever. You have to shoot regularly to be confident with the kill.
 
So what's your address coup? I think I have some old left over anthrax that probably isn't much good anymore, I'll be glad to send it to you. Sounds like your willing to take anything you can get for free!
 
Collectors would have paid for that ammo.I have 2 big cans of ammo of various calibers.The oldest cartridge is a 50/ 70.Those who have an interest in history will polish the brass.Those with a blank mind will destroy them.
 
Use it! Just do so single shot not rapid fire just in case you get a squib round stuck in the barrel. I use em all the time.
 
Give it a rest, guys.

Who amongst us is an expert in all aspects of our everyday encounters?
My grandpa was once courted for a Cockshutt dealership. I never sat on one. As a kid, I spent many, many, hours on a Super M and a Ford 5000. Never had the oil pan off one of those yet, either.
 
There was no internet :) and I didn't know anything about cordite at the time. {other than the nitro-glycerine part}

In fact, I was a little scared to have it in the house with my kids.
 
You were lucky that it didn't damage your gun. When gun powder gets old its not stable and the brass can get brittle.The NRA has written some articles on the stablity on old shell and powder.
 
Lots of motion and vibration, from being in an auto can break down the powder of rifle ammo, causing a faster burn rate and higher chamber pressures. Powder kernel size controls the burn rate of many powders.
 
I still have the paper shells we fired in the early 90's. They would have been 35 years old at the time. All fired perfectly in the single shot 20 gauge. We shot of a pile of .22 boxes of the same vintage, no problem with any of that either.
 
This has got me thinkin' . .

I just might have the tools and a small supply of paper shell reloading stuff. - To reload the old rolled crimp shells where the load was identified on the small cardboard disk. The disk was placed over the shot and the edge of the paper case was rolled to contain everything.

It'll take me awhile, but I'm gonna have to look.
 
Went through bunch of old 22's couple years ago. Was probably 30 years old. Misfire. Wait 30 seconds, then rechamber. Only had 8 or 10 total duds out of thousand. Dave
 
Wanna bet?
Years ago I was clearing some land and burning brush piles. Sat around the fire with my cousins having a few beers. Had 3 30-30 shells in my coveralls. Pulled them out, showed them and asked the guys what it would do if I threw them into the fire. One said to try it not thinking I actually would. So I threw them into the fire and you should have seen the mad scramble to get the h--- out of there. A couple of seconds later pow, pow, pow all three of them went off with quite a bit of noise. One shell went whisteling over me and hit a small tree about 25 feet away. When I looked for it I found the brass casing had exploded open and went flying. Wouldn't have killed anyone but sure would have made a painful dent if it had hit you.
They all voted to cut me off but I had bought the beer. They still haze me over that one.
 
When the dug the P-38 Ice Queen out from under about 200 feet of the Greenland Ice pack. They took one of the Ma Duse Machine Guns out of the nose and shoot the 60 year old ice chilled ammo. NOT ONE miss fire. I would not be afraid of shooting ANY of this ammo.

Kent
 
I recently shot some WW 2 era 12 gauge shells.
All of it fired, but several had hairline cracks
up the brass after fireing. Used caseings were
disposed of. It was "Western Auto" brand, maybe
had collector value.
 
I would have no problem shooting it up as long as the cases looked ok. Just shoot one at a time and look and listen that it fired. If it didn't fire recock and try it again providing you have a gun you can recock without opening it up. If still no go wait awhile then take it out and keep it seperate,then use a bullet puller to remove the bullet,power and then put some oil in on the primer and dispose of the case. Place the powder in a thin trail and burn outside in a safe place.

I think this is how the books tell you to do it.
 
why not fire them?have the shotgun shells been wet and swelled?if not they are more than likely good to go.if rifle and pistol ammo doesnt have corroded cases i would fire them in a heart beat and never look back.provided of course this is new ammo and not reloads.(never ever fire anyone elses reloads)heres a tip,often the BOXES if in good shape, to the right group is worth several times the cost of the ammo inside!if you wont shoot them ship them to me,i aint scared of them!
 
of course being a gun guru you know that this stuff is a very good excuse for buying some more guns! something like ,,no dear ,i cant shoot this old stuff in my good guns.i need some old beaters to shoot it up in.then i can save the cases to use in my good gun and save all that money on brass!(TIP>> make sure you work that saving money angle in there some where)I think those 06 shells alone if used correctly could be parlayed into maybe one of those "cheap" little cz full stocked carbines,that 357 into a "old" used colt python.that shotgun ammo is just right for a "used" model 12...after all its unsafe to have that stuff just laying around,no telling what could happen!!!!
 
GUN Guru ---- Just dump it all in your wood burner when it's going good, and stand back to watch the show..... you'll have your Guru then,,
 
Ammo will indeed go bang when tossed in a fire. It just won't send the bullets flying as if fired from a gun like they try to show in movies.
 
(quoted from post at 16:28:06 09/13/11) A lady that I work with is in her 50s now. Her dad died 10 years ago and he was a hunter. Well.....This lady walks up to me today and asks me if I want some old shotgun shells and ammo. It has been in the truck of her car in an old briefcase for years. The briefcase is a mess, but...It has old boxes of .30-06 rounds, 12 gauge shells, .357 shells and a rifle and shotgun cleaning kit. All this stuff is old, Sears Roebuck is the brand of some of the ammo. The boxes look like they are from the 1960s. I removed all the ammo from the briefcase and I am giving that back to her. In fact the case is so old that inside the case are business cards that have the phone # listed as El 6-7852 kinda thing. When did the phone #s change to the 7 digits with 3 digit area codes?
Anyway what should I do with this ammo? I am not going to fire the 12 gauge shells out of any of my shotguns and the .30-06 rounds could be duds and I am not firing these out of my Ruger.
I have 4 boxes of .30-06 and a few boxes of 12 gauge and 2 or 3 boxes of .357 and some other loose rounds.
Click to expand...

I'll take the shotgun stuff if you don't want it. My zip is 37180, get a shipping quote and I'll pay for it. They wouldn't happen to be paper hulls, would they?
 
(quoted from post at 17:11:12 09/14/11) Ammo will indeed go bang when tossed in a fire. It just won't send the bullets flying as if fired from a gun like they try to show in movies.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ! I carry the scars to prove otherwise, and receive a monthly check from Uncle Sam for it too.
 
reminds me of a story:
My brother and I bought a "Hakim Assualt Rifle" out of shotgun news probably 30 years ago...some kind of eqyptian knock of of a swiss semi auto that was as big as a house. It used 8mm Mauser, which we could not find anywhere. We went to Clark Bros Gun Shop ( a local hillbilly institution) and asked the dude...he pointed to a 55 gallon drum full to the brim with loose rounds and said "in there" . we dug for 40 minutes, came up with two rounds that were absolutely green and crusty , and paid a quarter a peice for them . The gun was questionable, the ammo flat out scarey. Dan loads 'em up, rattles off two rounds ( which were amazingly fast and accurate) and that's the last daylight that gun has ever seen. I never even got to shoot it- not sure I would have!
 
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