What to do with old .22 ammo?

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Did it seem like it was in good shape? Smelled good with no mold?
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I can't imagine it was in "good" shape - but - it didn't seem to be toxic with rot and mold and stuff.
It also didn't have much if any smell - like I said, it was still in the factory-sealed bag.

My wife went through the room it was sitting in and tossed a bunch of stuff. We're moving in a few weeks and cleaning out stuff for the move.
If it turns up after the move, I'll make sure to keep you up to date.
 
Try a pencil sharpener??
Pointy light .22s can't be all that bad.
(don't laugh yet.. it might work as well as other 'brilliant' ideas).

Serious question.. is there a crimper available to make blanks if one were to pull the bullets off??? Or is that possible at all? I'm totally clueless.
 
Legionnaire said:
Rooting around in my garage I came across some old (more than 10 years) Remington Thunderbolt .22LR. Our garage gets hot in the summer, and the wax coating on the bullets seems to have oxidized and gotten very hard. I can force the rounds into the cylinder of my Single Six and they go bang, but loading is a chore. They won't feed in a 10/22 or Browning Buckmark as they are too tight to chamber easily. If I press the slide home on the Buckmark, the chambered round will fire.

Clearly, the bullets are now slightly oversized due to the hard wax. I'd consider tossing them, but there's almost a full brick there and I don't know how to dispose of them safely. What would you do with them?
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Camp fires?
 
Well, with the length of this thread, you have probably figured out what you are going to do or have done already.

BUT; if not use a piece of scotchbrite, pinch it on the bullet and turn back and forth. They are only plinkers anyway. If you have a bolt gun, I'd use it.
 
Thanks, all. I haven’t dumped it yet. With a bit of work I can get them to drop into my Single Six cylinder. Basically I force it into the mouth of a .223 case and pull it out again. Not sure I have the patience to process it all, but I do a few when I’m at the bench.
 
PWC said:
BUT; if not use a piece of scotchbrite, pinch it on the bullet and turn back and forth. They are only plinkers anyway. If you have a bolt gun, I'd use it.
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This sounds like a good idea, I'd do it with the revolver at hand the first couple times. Scrub-turn the bullet until it fits, that might be 10, 15, 20 times. Whatever it takes, just start replicating it on the rest, testing a few (at least at first) to see if they also fit. Maybe it's 20-25 twists... but then once you have it pinned down, just do 50-100 whenever you watch TV.

As an aside, your title says "old" ammo, but then you state 10 yrs old. It's 2022, so that means you bought it in 2012... jeez, MOST of my .22lr is about that age.
 
“Old” is certainly a relative term. I think the problem was garage storage.
 
That brick of ammo has ZERO value. Certainly, your time is worth much more than that. Kick that crap to the curb and move on.
 
Legionnaire said:
Glad you did! May be the best idea yet. I'll check ...
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i won’t say exactly who but someone who is the nearest and dearest to me for my entire life once recently was out plinking away solo with a ruger single six. having a jolly old time he forgot to swap cylinders when he switched from 22wmr to 22lr ammo. yeah dumb. about 50 rounds into 22lr he noticed his dumb mistake. switched the cylinder to match the ammo and continued on his merry plinking way.

as i recall the 22lr ammo was armscor with a waxy coating hence the nice fit into the 22wmr cylinder. gotta love the ruger single six!
 
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