Ammo stored two (?) months or far less, in car trunk.

What is your question?

Ammo which fails with that short amount of exposure usually has some
corrosion, or some sort of evidence it was in high temp or humidity on the exterior of the
shell. Was there any verdigris, corrosion, or oxidation?

I'd get rid of the car. Must be anti gun. I've had ammo in my vehicles up here that goes from close to 100 degrees and humid summer to below zero winter. All has gone bang and hit the target for over 40 years..Different ammo. None in the trunk for 40 years.

Odd. I have 38 Spl ammo that spends South Carolina summers baking in my console, and I've tested ammo exposed to two years of that treatment with no discernable loss of performance.

The .22 LR doesn't surprise me. Quality is absent, and neck tension doesn't seal the case very well.

One stovepipe really doesn't prove very much. One defective round? Handling gun incorrect? Could be induced defect round due to storage, but why then just 1 round?
If in question, I'd just rotate the stored ammo. Store two months, shoot it and replace with new ammo.

Something else going on there.

Just to recap, you had 24 rounds of a single type of ammunition fail in a new "S&W M&P" .22?

That could be an issue with the new firearm.

I keep some ammunition in my truck all the time and I've never had any trouble with it. The humidity is very low where I live but temperatures range from below zero lows to triple digit highs depending on the season. I suppose humidity might be harder on ammo than temperature swings.

IdaD said:

I suppose humidity might be harder on ammo than temperature swings.

Click to expand...

Me too.

I found a g22 mag in my center console of my hunting jeep last week looking for the registration. It had been in there since before 2014 maybe longer (was purchased new in 08 so 10 years max). I fired them yesterday at the end of a shooting session, just to empty the mag and use them up and they fired fine. Shot about a 6 inch group at 25 yards (I'd usually do a little better with that gun but not a whole lot) so maybe they had degraded slightly but I had fired 200 rounds from three other guns first so maybe fatigue was a factor. It's a black jeep that's hot all summer and leaks severely when it rains so humidity and heat and cold were definitely there.
Last year I got a partial box of 17hmr out of it that was probably from 2008 or 9. They were pretty tarnished. Few would fire at all and those that did would often miss a 2 foot box at 100 yards, out of a sub-moa cz. I've seen that a lot from rimfire ammo though.
I have a mustang that I parked in 2002 that has 2 boxes of Wildcats in the ashtray (remember Wildcats.... or ashtrays in a car? ) I may get them someday and see if any fire at all. I bet not.

You make no mention of what the ammunition was exposed to? Temperatures would be a good start. Next, what you describe is pretty unusual, unusual enough I would be looking at the gun. How did the primer strikes look on the rims? That is pretty important and something to consider. I have had ammunition, including rimfire stuff lay in my truck for years before I find it and it shoots just fine. Yes, I would be looking long and hard at the rifle and just how the rims of the failures looked.

Ron

22 has occasional duds, just a fact. Seriously doubt a couple months in a car makes much difference. I think most would agree the biggest issue with rimfire would be moisture, but if it isnt actually wet it should not be a problem.

I'd go with the "bad round" theory other than the storage location/time. I recently bought a box of inexpensive aftermarket .22 ammo for practice rounds in my handguns. Out of 50 rounds there were about 8 misfires (base pin-dimpled but no ignition) and at least 4 stovepiped cases.

If the ammo was made during the post-banic shortage it might have been made on producton lines running well past optimal capacity.

I was at the range when a guy showed up with a big box of Remington golden bullets. He was so happy to have finally found 22 ammo at the store. At least 10% of them apparently were assembled with no priming compound at all. Try the ammo in a different gun, and try different ammo in that gun. That should help narrow it down.

As far as the 9mm ammo, nothing is 100%.

I don't believe a couple months in a car would have any significant effect on ammo. Look at the wars this country has fought where ammo was loaded onto cargo ships and carried to various locations in the world where the environment was desert, arctic, jungle and seasonal weather like in Europe. It was exposed to all kinds of weather/temperature extremes and worked.

Very curious.
Was the Blazer aluminum cased?
I've had a Federal Wally aluminum cased 45acp FTF in a 1911 that eats anything.
I suspect the aluminum case was the .issue.

The .22 is also curious. If it were Remington I'd expect problems. Maybe Federal suffered from Remington-itis as well?

You had a bad batch of 22. I have had that caused by uneven distribution of the priming compound under the rim. Depending on where the firing pin hits the rim might or might not cause a misfire

Two months in a trunk should not have any effect at all on ammo. I've had reloaded ammo I loaded the 90s sit in my unheated garage for 25 years or more and every round worked perfectly. The U.S. military has been storing ammo and small arms and food and medical supplies in underground bunkers all over the world in freezing mountain climates and blistering desert climates since the cold war in what are called POMCUS stashes (positioned outside the military custody of the U.S.) I have never heard a single report of that ammo going bad. My experience from the last 4 or 5 years is that Federal and Winchester ammo ARE suffering from Remington - itis. I've been shooting for 45 years and I have never seen the quality of manufactured American ammo this bad. The stuff they're selling us now is absolute crap. I used to buy a brick of .22 and maybe find 3 or 4 duds. The last 3 bricks I bought within the last couple of years were maybe 30 to 40% duds. Those duds would not fire in any of my guns.

I live in the deep south and have shot plenty of ammo that has been subjected to daily humidity in the 90% or more range for years, and never had a round fail to fire. I don't think 2 months in a car trunk is a problem.

This thread reminded me I have a box of 9mm that's been stashed in my car for about 2 years now. And a box of Blazer 22 as well.
As fate or luck would have it, I'm off to the range tonight to dirty up my poor, neglected G17. Can't even remember which brand it is, just recalled it was made in Turkey, so this should be interesting. Not worried about squibs, my club has the gear to get them out and I have a spare barrel just in case.

I keep a good bit of ammo in my pickup. I know some has been through 2 summers, one when I had a black truck and it may get 140 in that thing in Texas heat. I’d say after 5 years in a trunk you may blame the issue on storage in the car. I’ve seen shotshells stored in my dads tool box not work reliably after 10 years in there.

Usually the ammo with issues is visually corroded.

In 2015 I had the opportunity to shoot some WWII 45acp that had been sitting in a cardboard shoebox apparently since the late 1940's. I was given 8 rounds, which all fired without fail from my Ruger P97dc. Kept dry it appears that ammo will last just about forever.

I had a box of 45 ACP WWB that went through a couple of Texas summers and worked just fine.