Old ammunition

[Steve67]

How do you dispose ammunition 20+ years old that may or may not be shootable ? Besides the send it to me respond

 

[Sidekick]

At the range. I have some that's over 60 and still fires .

 

[rc51stierhoff]

You might check with your Sheriff.

 

[Flintknapper]

I have some 44 mag cartridges that I loaded back in the mid 70's that still shoot fine. Don't know if that is your concern or not (age of ammo).

Give it to someone who can use it.

 

[Bmyers]

I would shot it at the range. I have shot ammo much older than that without any issues.

 

[Botamon]

I bought a bunch of .38 Special military ball ammo 50 years ago...and it was old when I bought it. Still shoots fine - I use it for practice ammo. So my response would be take it to the range and have some fun!

 

[skeets]

Why do you feel it may o may not be unusable? Did you find it, did you loose all your guns in a boating accident, was this in a flood/fire what ?

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Why do you feel it may o may not be unusable? Did you find it, did you loose all your guns in a boating accident, was this in a flood/fire what ?

I understood OP wanted to dispose of it…that’s why I thought take to Sheriff.

Now to your point, if it was caught fishing it could be mine.

 

[mcmxi]

Another option is to use a kinetic hammer or similar to disassemble the ammunition. With today's prices you can easily sell the primed brass and the bullets, but toss the powder, or you could repurpose the components and load your own.

If the ammunition was stored under reasonable conditions i.e. cool and dry, then it will almost certainly be ok to use, many decades later. Moisture and heat are enemies to ammunition. Moisture can get in between the bearing surface of the bullet and the case mouth and cause corrosion that may greatly increase bullet pull force. Heat can change the physical properties of the powder in the case.

I've shot a bunch of .45 ACP ammunition that was 40 years old when I got my hands on it and it was fine.

 

[Tarmy]

Shoot it, lube the gun, shoot more of it…

I wonder if there is a high school team or shooting club that may want it to reload or actually dispose of it by shooting it all…

 

[Steve67]

Thanks , I guess I’ll be putting in more range time . If you all are shooting 50 yr old ammo I should be good to go

 

[Flintknapper]

You don't say what kind of ammo ( rifle, pistol) and what it will be shot from.

IF shot from a semi-auto and you have any reservations about the reliability of the ammo, don't shoot any 'Rapid Fire' until you are satisfied the ammo is OK.

You don't want to have a 'Squib Load' stick in the barrel and then follow that up with a full power round.

Other than that.....shoot it up, have fun.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I'll 25th the sentiment of shoot it!
I've got plenty of old ammo that shoots as good as the day it was loaded.

 

[GeoHorn]

Shoot it! I’ve got 1930’s ammo which still shoots just as good as fresh.

BUT…IF…you need to dispose of it… Pull the bullets and throw the powder out on the lawn or in the garden as it makes Excellent Fertilizer (lots of nitrate)….. Put the cases w/primers into a bucket and fill it with WD40 or Hydraulic fluid overnight to soak/de-activate the primers…. then toss them into the landfill or take them to the recycling center….. but this seems wasteful to me… Go shoot it!

 

[GrassLakeRon]

Shot 1923 ball ammo out of my mosin nagant. Hot and straight.

 

[lugbolt]

My neighbor up the road is a police department worker. AKA "cop". His job is to take confiscated firearms and ammunition that are not claimed, and destroy and bury it. That's all he does now. They can't sell any of it. Law says it has to be destroyed. So yes, contact the local PD or sheriff's office. Or donate it to someone who can use it, maybe reloads or whatever.

 

[Geezer3d]

As already stated, it should be fine to shoot. Unless..... if it is someone else's reloads of unknown quality then I would not risk shooting it.

 

[johnjk]

I have some 30-06 reloads my dad and uncle did for hunting in PA. My uncle would always load them “hot” so my dad would be polite, say thanks and put them in the back of the safe. Long story short, when he passed on his hunting stuff to me, I got 50 rounds of unknown grain reloads. Other than a little extra kick, it does OK. I have a few boxes of 22LR from the late 40’s as well. Still shoots great.

 

[DustyRusty]

Throw it into the fire pit and run like you're being chased by the devil.

 

[mcmxi]

Throw it into the fire pit and run like you're being chased by the devil.

I was an ammunition R&D engineer for Remington for a couple of years, and we used to dispose of "bad" ammunition in a furnace at the plant in Lonoke, AR. Ammunition in a fire doesn't react the way that it does in the movies. Without a chamber to constrain the soft brass case and allow pressure to build rapidly, not much happens when you cook ammunition.