Wet ammo??????????
Will ammo that has been submerged in water for a coupla days be any good? Will it fire? What is the worst that could happen? I found about 100 rds of .45, about 20 of them were sitting in the bottom of a bucket that looked to have some wood stain in it. The rest was in water.
The ones that were in stain, will they soak up some of the stain and then be more explosive than normal primer/powder??
Any safe way to salvage the brass?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke
The ones that were in stain, will they soak up some of the stain and then be more explosive than normal primer/powder??
Any safe way to salvage the brass?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke
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Modern ammo should be fine. Military ammo has waterproofing, but even commercial is fairly waterproof. Dry the ammo out and use for training or target practice only.
It will either fire or not. Do the standard 30 second drill on hangfires (duds) and keep weapon pointed down range. Eject after 30 seconds.
Any good inertia puller can be used to salvage the brass.
The stain is cosmetic and no cause for concern. Most are waterbased now anyway. Oil based would have deadened the primer IF it entered.
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Thanks for your reply, one thing I did fail to mention and I apologize for that, is this. These are reloads. Should that make a difference?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke0 -
Sounds like you recovered someone's trash. 0 -
Any moisture in a cartridge will slow down the burn-rate of the powder.
The moisture takes away a lot of energy, as it's absorbed in the powder and is vaporized/evaporated as the gunpowder burns.
So, this means, if a cartridge has been subjected to water/steam/moisture and the water have entered the cartridge - it can only slow down the process and you'd end up with a weaker cartridge.
In any event - moist cartridges or new directly from the factory - always observe certain safety guidelines if you have a misfire.
Hold the gun firmly and point in a safe direction - be ready for anything.
Eject the round and check it - put it somewhere safe after that.
(Dig a small hole or just stuff it into the ground - place it behind a rock)
A cartridge with a misfire can sometimes ignite after even the 30 or 60 seconds that people usually wait. It's rare, but not unheard of that a few minutes can pass before ignition.
Don't know much of reloading, but the bullets are (if I understand it correctly) usually covered in a kind of lubricant, which will help keep moisture out.
I wouldn't take the chance myself, I'd rather dump it or pull the bullets and have them reloaded once more.
If not for accuracy and peace of mind - then for safetyreasons.
I really hate ammunition that I can't trust, but that's me.
The Inertia Bullet-puller can be sort of a plastic hammer, in which you place one cartridge and hit a piece of wood or something firm.
This will "pull" the bullet straight out the casing and spill the powder - this is also a good tool, if you have some cartridges that you don't know the status of or for some reason doesn't trust, like those you have on hand right now.
Pick a few at random and pull the bullet - if they're all fine and looks consistently enough , then they should be safe enough to shoot.
Don't do anything that I've allready done - That'd be just plain STOOOOOOPID.0 -
Since these are reloads, I would be just a little hinky about them since you mentioned it! Most of us reloaders do not take the time to seal our primers and case mouths so it is possible you have a problem. I think the idea of using a kinetic bullet puller is your best, though time consuming option. The cost of primers and powder is fairly negligible as the projectile and good brass is likely the biggest expense. Another problem; if these fire when you try them you cannot be sure if the bullet is achieving sufficient velocity to clear the barrel! If this even cycles the pistol you could wind up with a very unpleasant follow-up shot!! Since these are reloads, you also ( I'm assuming ) have no idea what was done in the reloading process! It might be that they were thrown out because the guy realized he compacted 14 grains of Unique or something which woould be a VERY unpleasant surprise. All of this I think supports the idea of a bullet puller process! Good luck and use your best instincts!
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Reloads soaking in water? In your position, I'd salvage the bullets (if jacketed) with a kinetic hammer and let it go at that. You can salvage the brass by either going through one of two hassles: squirting some WD-40 into the case to inert the primers, letting it sit a few days, deprime, thoroughly wash, dry & then reload or by firing the primers (or attempting to) with a single loading, although I'm sure there will be feeding problems with a semi-auto (I do like my wheeelguns!). 1xF brass in .45 ACP sells for $0.06 or less each, these are at least 1xF, so what are they worth? I would say less than the effort to salvage them. My $0.02
"There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain) ". . . And DemoCraps" (me)0 -
All the posts bring up good points for us to ponder.
I mean to ponder if we are stranded in dire need for ammo.
IMHO toss the lot unless you want to salvage the projectiles if you reload. I would guess you don't reload, because to folks that do reload, 100 rounds of questionable ammo is just a disposal problem.
TOSS EM !
If we do not hang together,
We will most certainly hang separately.0 -
ok folks, lets think this one out. why do you suppose the bullets were in the water? maybe someone double dipped the loads and for safety, they were disposed of. we dont know and he didnt say. and here we are telling him to shoot them? dispose of them. and we need to define dispose. dont put them in the trash. most garbage is burned and if those bullets hit that flame, booommmobbooommoboboom. ya aint gonna make a city worker very happy. so, either pull em or dispose of them in oil or put em back in the water. or bury them naked against the dirt so they rot. whatever you do, dont mix them with good loads! 0 -
This is probably to obvious to be mentioned, but if they were in a bucket, did you check the primers to be sure they were not misfires in the first place?
He Dog0
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