Wet ammo still fires fine (with a funny story)

How'd the truck fare being stuck in the mud for that long?

Was there any "sealant" or anything around the primer or bullet?

Cool ,my luck they all wouldn't fire...kudos

Back around 70 or 71 I found my first Chief of Police at the sink with a wire brush scrubbing his ammo under running water with an abrasive cleanser. He did it ever year to keep things clean and shinny. When told that was not a good idea he laughed and said they would be fine. In the late 80's someone bet money they would not go off after 18 or 20 years of cleaning. Out of the 18 rounds he carried only two failed to fire. Factory Ammunition is tougher than we sometimes give it credit for.

Pelo801

Have had similar experiences with the occasional pistol cartridges that went through the washer.

"...there wasnt any sealer..." Neck and primer pocket tension will be enough anyway.
"...drove through a mud hole..." Mine was a '68 Beetle(no heat except for the rusted pipes coming from the manifold) and a road covered by a beaver pond. Went off the side of the perfectly good roadway(that wasn't the least bit soft) and sank like it was an iron ore ship hit by a torpedo. Electrics and oil immersion carb were out of the water. Started on the second try.

This isn't surprising to any US Marines who have participated in amphibious operations.

Just today I took a Tulla 9mm 115 RN cartridge that I had found in the snow at the range, then mixed with my empty brass and ran it through my stainless steel media tumbler, along with the LemiShine, Dawn & water mixture for about 3-4 hours. It went Bang and put a hole in the paper just like all the rest. Not sure that I would want to depend upon soaked ammo for a life or death situation, but it seems most ammo is quite water resistant if not waterproof.

Out of the 18 rounds he carried only two failed to fire

Click to expand...

Glad he never had to test which ones would fire in a life and death situation. I'm guessing from the story that he also didn't practice shooting much.

Ammo exposed to smoke and fire hose water in The Incident here was very variable. Some shot, some didn't. S&B 9mm with the pretty red "sealant" around case mouth and primer gave many duds, I pulled many bullets. USGI FC 65 .45 was unharmed. .22 LR has been pretty good, especially standard velocity with lubed lead bullets.

One of my friends gave almost a full cycle in the washing machine to his Margolin pistol and a box of Magtech .22LR - they fired fine after that. Why he did it is a whole different matter...

Dryer...shutter.

My sheriff was telling me a story the other day....back in the day he was on the range....when he was in the academy....and they all shooting. It was an indoor range and the roof was pretty low. It was a warehouse kind of deal with the steel running everywhere not too high up.

The cadets had their guns out shooting, and an open box of ammo on the table/bench in front of them open...you know they are all in the box with primer up. One guy shooting then bam and box parts and bullets are flying everywhere.....WtH just happened. Well they figured a case ejected bounced off one of the rafters and came down on the primer just hard enough and just right to set it off....blowing up the styrofoam box apart and sending the loose cartridges flying everywhere.

he said if he had not been there he would have called BS. Amazing. I know I have dropped rimfire on the concrete and had it go off....it really just pops and scares the living he....( I got in trouble for using bad words...so I am trying).

Amazing to think on the two sides of things....so little can set them off, but sometimes they will not for love or money.....reminds me of the human body....I have seen some things that go....how the world did that guy live....and then how did he not live.

Know one guy that tried to kill himself with a 12G shot gun under his chin....just blew his jaw off and half his face....he now gives talks on why not to try to kill yourself.

In 1970, I was a small arms repairman in Germany, at Grafenwohr (probably spelled that wrong) at range 80 There was a small creek running through the place and I was shocked to find it was full of ammo cans full of 7.62 linked for the M-73 co-ax guns in the M-60 tanks. Don't know how long it was there, but the cans and the cartridge links were rusted up pretty good.

Long story short, we re-linked the ammo and tried a couple hundred rounds in a 60 and every one of those suckers went off just fine !!!! That's what I call waterproof !!!

Don't carry 9 volt batteries and loose .22 RF in the same pocket ...

A guy I was coon hunting with drop a 9 v in his pocket ....about a 100 yrs down the trail ..pop bang ... Blew out his pocket and blistered his leg...

Sent a speed strip of 38s through the wash. Factory Gold dot 135 short barrels to be precise lol. Annoyed since I did not have very many of them. All 6 fired fine!

I believe the primers are sealed. If the necks are sealed too then I'd imagine it would just about be as water tight as you can get right?

My son moved off and took his 10-22 with him. I gave him a box of Remington golden bullets to take with him. Well he left them outside on a table out in the rain and cold for a year. The cardboard box was almost disolved from being wet. When he moved I picked them up and brought them back with me. (I decided he could buy his own ammo from then on) I took them out to my shooting buddies house to see if they would go off. There were about 200 rounds left and every single one went off and there were no low power ones either. Who would have guessed?