Old ammunition

[Flintknapper]

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.

Correct. And even when a cartridge 'cooks off' it is the brass (typically lighter than the bullet weight) that is propelled a small distance. No real danger there, though most fire depts DO want to know if there is ammo in a building that is on fire.

 

[DaTow'd]

In my high school years we lived in Hawaii . On a Boy Scout camping adventure we came across an ammo box full of 30 caliber blanks out in a "jungle" part of Oahu that the US Army used for jungle training.
I went off to pick some wild fruit and left my pals to set up the camp.
I came back and saw my pals laying on the ground with a bright fire burning about 100 ft. away.
I stood behind them who where still on the ground and Asked what is going on? they turned around and told me to get down.
Just then there was a loud blast , bright flame and I got hit in the jaw and knocked me on my a$$.
The popping kept on going for a few minutes.
I took a primer cap that came out of one of the shells .
The guys had pulled the paper where the bullet would have been and made a line of gun power up to large pile of gun power with a few "live" blanks in it for effect.
One of my pals pulled the brass cap out with a finger nail cutter.
Another of life's lesson

 

[Lil Foot]

I went to a desert drinking party in high school and the party was great, lots of willing girls, right up until some moron threw a 50 round box of twenty-twos into the campfire.
People scattered, but one girl wasn't fast enough, and took a jagged piece of brass case in the face. No serious damage, just broke the skin and gave her a bruise, but it was right below her eye. Ruined the party, all the girls left.

 

[jyoutz]

As long as the ammo stayed dry it’s probably still good.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Still good but just in case, have your life insurance up to date. Shoot it, find a reloader who will disassemble it but don't through it in a fire.