Pulling flood damage ammo.

[GunnyUSMC]

After the flood of 2016, I was given a bunch of ammo the had been under water. Some as long as four days.
I finely got around to pulling the .223/5.56 ammo down. There were only about twenty cases where the powder was clumpy.
I took 20 of the cartridge cases to see if the primers were good. Out of the 20 only 3 did not go off, but you could tell that there was a difference in power.



Here are the bullets I pulled. All are 55gr except the 62gr Remington.

 

[Strat Rider]

in hindsight, did you learn of any way to identify the bad ones ?
Or should we always assume that all will be bad ?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

in hindsight, did you learn of any way to identify the bad ones ?
Or should we always assume that all will be bad ?

Some of the ammo looked brand new. They had been in water for two or three days. It had the highest number of clumped powder and two of the three primers I tried failed. That was Aguila ammo.
The Remington nickeled cases were from the trunk of a police car. They were in a plastic ammo can. When it was removed from the trunk the ammo can was filled with water. Out of about 75 rounds only four had clumped powder. I tried the primers on about six, two failed and the others varied in power..
The Winchester I pulled had stayed in the water the longest. Only two had clumped powder,but all had some corrosion on the base of the bullets.
Some of the ammo that looked really bad had dry powder and the primers went off.
So if you ever have ammo that goes under water it should not be trusted even if it looks good.

 

[H&R Glock]

Maybe you can succeed in selling them on buying G.I. ammo cans for storage. Not only will they keep it dry, but their cars will stay afloat in the flood as the cans are buoyant! Well, maybe keep the trunk portion above water.
You scored some nice bullets. Happy reloading!

 

[MutinousDoug]

I assume these were reloads or at least not GI sealed primers and bullets?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I assume these were reloads or at least not GI sealed primers and bullets?

It was all factors ammo. There were a few rounds of Lake City, but I wasn’t going to take the chance of getting a squib stuck in the barrel.

 

[CapnMac]

I wasn’t going to take the chance of getting a squib stuck in the barrel.

Almost sounds like you need a single-shot test barrel rig. Perhaps a trifle bit over-bored

 

[ArchAngelCD]

It was all factors ammo. There were a few rounds of Lake City, but I wasn’t going to take the chance of getting a squib stuck in the barrel.

It sounds like the ones that were bad were not going to fire so no bullets stuck in the barrel. I personally would have shot them for range fun and pulled the duds later on. Of course there is nothing wrong with choosing not to shoot them.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

It sounds like the ones that were bad were not going to fire so no bullets stuck in the barrel. I personally would have shot them for range fun and pulled the duds later on. Of course there is nothing wrong with choosing not to shoot them.

You may have missed it, but I did say that there was a noticeable difference in the primed cases I fired. A few were strong , a few were weak and the rest varied in power.
Would you want to shoot ammo that stayed under two to four feet of water for a few days?

 

[H&R Glock]

Gunny, go back to that guy and ask him if he had any guns that were flooded. Offer to take them off his hands. Tell him wet guns attract snakes and big hairy spiders as they dry out. Who would want to keep old wet guns???

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Some of the ammo came from guns I cleane for a guy. He thought his AR was toast. It was under four feet of water for four days. I had to take his gun completely apart to get all the dirt and grime out of it.
I was lucky and didn’t get any water, but was stuck at my house for right at three days with no phone service. I cleaned up a lot of guns at no charge otherthen patrs that needed to be replaced.
I didn’t take pics of all the shotguns shells I had.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

You may have missed it, but I did say that there was a noticeable difference in the primed cases I fired. A few were strong , a few were weak and the rest varied in power.
Would you want to shoot ammo that stayed under two to four feet of water for a few days?

Yeah, I did miss that. Sorry Gunny...

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Yeah, I did miss that. Sorry Gunny...

Also while dumping the powder, the first few looked like nothing was wrong with it. Then I started getting some that I could tell the powder seemed a little thicker.
The good thing is, I got a bunch of free bullets.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I wouldn't shoot them either, I dont' need the headache of stuck bullets. Like you I would just break it down and reuse the bullets and cases, I may as an experiment let the primers in the cases and set them up to dry out for a couple weeks and see if they fire consistently after that. We keep hearing that primers are made underwater then dried out before packaged.
Good chance to test that theory that they can be dried and reused.

 

[sparkyv]

Would you want to shoot ammo that stayed under two to four feet of water for a few days?

Nope.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I wouldn't shoot them either, I dont' need the headache of stuck bullets. Like you I would just break it down and reuse the bullets and cases, I may as an experiment let the primers in the cases and set them up to dry out for a couple weeks and see if they fire consistently after that. We keep hearing that primers are made underwater then dried out before packaged.
Good chance to test that theory that they can be dried and reused.

I’ll set some out to dry and see how they do after a week or so.

 

[FROGO207]

I got a big pile of various shotgun ammo that was under water for a few weeks to dispose of. I cut the crimp off, dumped the shot and saved the wads/shot in like batches. I reloaded about 3K shells in 12 and 20 GA using new primers, propellant, and used hulls that matched the ones I took apart along with the salvaged components. The shot was the expensive part and it was well worth the effort IMHO.

 

[Get-It-Done]

You may have missed it, but I did say that there was a noticeable difference in the primed cases I fired. A few were strong , a few were weak and the rest varied in power.
Would you want to shoot ammo that stayed under two to four feet of water for a few days?

I don't think I would risk shooting any of it for obvious reasons. I hate to see when good forearms and or ammo is destroyed in such ways...just not right!! Components are components at least and can certainly be made use of at some point in the future.

 

[sparkyv]

Gunny, was the brass in good shape?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Gunny, was the brass in good shape?

A batch of Winchester was pretty ugly, the brass was tarnished with black spots. I ran those through my tumbler before pulling them. They cleaned up pretty good. Some of the nickeled cases are tarnished in sports but should clean up.
The inside of the cases very. Some look like new some slightly tarnished. There are a good many the have a little bit of powder stuck at the base of the case.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I wouldn't shoot them either, I dont' need the headache of stuck bullets. Like you I would just break it down and reuse the bullets and cases, I may as an experiment let the primers in the cases and set them up to dry out for a couple weeks and see if they fire consistently after that. We keep hearing that primers are made underwater then dried out before packaged.
Good chance to test that theory that they can be dried and reused.

Here are the results of my little test.
The cartridge cases used, from left to right.
(5) Lake City
(5) PMC
(5) Fed 223
(11) Winchester
(5) Aguila
(5) Fed Nickeled
(5) Remington



The rifle used to fire the primers, my Junkyard build.


I will have to say that I was surprised. Everything went off. Only two of the Winchester had a very low pop, but then the Winchester was the ammo in the worst shape. The Federal nickeled cases all fired strong but were noticeably slightly lower then the rest.


Here are some pics of the muzzle flash.

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

We like muzzle flash pictures! Thank you!

 

[H&R Glock]

Your photographic work tells me a great deal about your primary job Gunny. You have the special equipment that enables you to take thousands of frames per second and pick one out of the bunch for study. That must come in handy with police work as well as on THR.
How about catching the blast from my 50 caliber muzzle brake? Can you do that too? You are hired!!!!

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Your photographic work tells me a great deal about your primary job Gunny. You have the special equipment that enables you to take thousands of frames per second and pick one out of the bunch for study. That must come in handy with police work as well as on THR.
How about catching the blast from my 50 caliber muzzle brake? Can you do that too? You are hired!!!!

The truth is, those pics were taken with my cell phone. I just video the take a screen shot. Nothing fancy

 

[H&R Glock]

Ya learn something new everyday Gunny. THanks! My cell phone takes pictures that look like they came from an old box camera. My old Sony camera is about 14 years old and only takes 0.84 megapixels in high resolution.(The equivalent of an electric box camera.) I'd buy new equipment, but all my spare cash goes for my ammo hoard, guns, and shooting supplies. My wife invested all my hard earned retirement cash in Beanie Babies years ago.
I wonder if Medicare will pay for a psychiatrist to alleviate my poor spending habits?