Is Ammo Still Good?
In moving into a new house about a year ago, I bought a small (apx 4 cu ft) safe to keep ammo in. Just having opened it the other day I found the contents to be all humid. The cardboard boxes of the ammo all felt moist. I immediately went to the store and got one of those chemical dehumidifiers and placed it in the safe (thinking that it would to some extent reverse the situation to some extent, by lowering the humidity to less than the normal air in the house). I'm kind of curious as to the physics of the situation (how did the air in the safe get more humid than the normal air in this well airconditioned house), but mostly I want to know if the ammo is safe to use for target practice. It is mostly federal 9mm and .223. Is there a safety problem in trying to use the ammo, or is it just a matter of if it works it works, but if it doesn't I should discard it?
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Well, it's impossible to answer your question with 100% certainty, but if it's been in humid conditions for about a year and shows no outward signs of deterioration such as corroded brass, split necks, etc. I should think that it would be safe to fire. If the powder was effected it would likely be weakened and reduced pressure and velocities the result, and you might experience the occassional hang fire. Probably you'll find it to be uneffected and to shoot normally. 0 -
Try some. If it shoots OK, use it for practice / plinking. Moisture might infiltrate the cartridges over time as commercial ammo is not as well protected as military rounds. If you encounter problems, you can always break it down for the components or give it to a reloader who would do so. 0 -
You can send all of it to me and I'll shoot it for you, and then send you back the empty casings so you know which one's fired. [:D] 0 -
After only a year it may be ok. Likely is too, but it's not unsafe in either case. It'll go bang or it won't. If you drop the hammer and nothing happens wait 30 seconds and reboot, I mean. try it again. If it still doesn't go off. Put it someplace safe until you can pull it, if it's CF or pitch it if it's RF. 0 -
Since everybody here knows way more about the ammo & shooting side of your post (which is why I read the forum to learn!), let me try the humidity side. I think there are two possibilities to consider;
1. A bad seal on the safe which allows warm humid air infiltration which then condenses on the cool safe walls. Obviously, a safe should be air-tight; however many small home-fire safes are not, they are fire resistent and may or may not have a good air-tight seal. One way to check a small safe would be to clear it out and then put in a chunk of dry ice. Lock up the safe for a few hours and allow the interior to cool. As the interior temp cools the internal pressure should drop. (P1*V1/T1=P2*V2/T2) When you reopen your safe after a few hours there should be a distinctive hiss as the outside air rushes in. If the seal is bad--no hiss.
2. Any pre-existing moisture within anything else you loaded in the safe (cardboard boxes, old paper tube shotgun shells, files, etc.) which had previously been stored in a warmer and/or more humid place when then placed in a cool (and air-tight) safe will gradually come to a equilibrium humidity. Something very moist (say, the unnoticed wet bottom of an ammo box) will get drier while everything else gets more moist. Since the inside of the safe is probably cooler, the liklihood of condensation is high.
Your plan to put dissicant in the safe to keep it dry should work fine. Assuming the seal is good, once the dissicant pulls the moisture out of the air in the safe, everything should stay dry--even accounting for occasionally opening the safe on a hot and humid July day. I still think inspecting the seal is the best bet. Sorry for the long reply.0
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