Old Ammo

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Okiegunner

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Going thru some of my ammunition boxes, I ran across 100 rds. of some old (3 yrs.??) Hornady Zombie Max .40 ammo.

Some of it had turned green. A couple of rounds had the green polymer tip that had seemed to kind of seep out the bullet. It felt sort of gooey.

I poured these rounds out onto a mat and soaked them in Ballistol. They are still soaking as I write this.

Any ideas as to whether these will be safe to shoot? I have pretty much consolidated my pistols down to either 9mm or .45acp. I have kept one former LEO Sig in .40 caliber.
 
Why are you soaking them in Ballistol? Are you intentionally trying to kill the primers? Ammo takes a LOT longer than 3 years to go bad unless it has been stored in a wet/corrosive environment. I would not shoot them just because I don't want that green slimy polymer gunk in my bore.
 
These have been stored dry in an ammo box with a couple of packets of silica. Don't know anything about killing the primers, but Ballistol has always seemed to be pretty mild and good at cleaning up.
 
3 yrs old ammo? They are nowhere near "old".

Recently I fired my 20 yrs old ammo just fine. $8.99 for a box of 50 .45ACP. I wan't sure I should be sad for the "loss" or be happy that they worked fine.
 
Okiegunner said:
I poured these rounds out onto a mat and soaked them in Ballistol. They are still soaking as I write this.
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3yo ammunition is essentially "newborn". I've got powder and primers from the '70s that work fine and some of my Garand food is many decades old and functions perfectly.

However, having soaked the ammunition, you've sealed its fate so to speak. It's very likely junk now. Bullets and primers fit tightly, but they're not sealed in commercial ammunition.

If this were mine, I'd pull every bullet, burn the powder in a safe manner and soak the primers with WD-40 to deactivate them.
 
As long as ammo is store dry and at some moderate temperature, it's fine for at least 75 or 80 years. I shoot WWII ammo regularly. The main enemy of ammo is moisture.

When I've encountered "green" ammo, I've used CLP on a rag, and wiped the bullet and the sides of the shell casing. No soaking necessary.
 
I'd not consider using the ammo in a self-defense situation, but would certainly use it at the range -- and that would let you know whether it works or not. The problem is that it might work now, but not later.

Soaking rounds in mineral oil or solvents can be a killer. Had you wiped the ammo off with a lightly moistened cloth using Ballistol you would probably be good to go. There are some tests available through GOOGLE that answer the question of soaking primers in oil. Ballistol, while it's MINERAL OIL, is still an oil (a by-product of refining crude oil to make gasoline.

You may need to find a better place or better way to store your ammo.
 
I pulled apart a 150 year old 56-50 Spencer round a few years back, just to see if the powder would still ignite and if the priming compound on that ancient old rimfire round was still good. The powder had solidified into a hard cake but it ignited when subjected to a flame from a lighter. Whether of not a primer could have ignited it is another question. I think not.

Not having a Spencer rifle to try the primer with, I simply clamped the empty case in a vise (gently) and whacked it with a hammer.

Without going into great detail, I will just say that that was one of the stupidest things I have ever done. I never found parts of the case. I think I still have minute parts of it still embedded in me.

Ammo, especially priming compound, can remain potent for a long, long time......
 
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