Flooding: Corroded Ammo

[KestrelBike]

Learned a nice life lesson recently. I decided to invest in some .50 cal ammo cans. It took only 3 days for PSA to deliver them. In between those 2 days, we had a surprise storm and one small, random corner of the basement had some flooding. This was conveniently where my ammunition was. Hindsight 20-20, I feel stupid enough so please spare the "Well why didn'cha do this/that/etcetc". ~300 rounds of birdshot were rendered stupid; 250 rounds of steel case ammo (brown bear .223) were immediately tossed, but 1,000rnds of Federal American Eagle .223 had soggy boxes and some were slightly corroded (visible corrosion/darkening, but no gritty rustiness).

I tried using some of the birdshot in a match on Saturday and they were FTE/weak/etc. Luckily there's little chance of squibs with birdshot (maybe the wad could get stuck? That might potentially be bad?) but the brass .223 ammo has me a bit more worried. I dried it all out, but after the shotgun shell performance I'm a bit wary of trying to use it in any scenario where I would be rapidly firing. 1 round with defeated sealant and neutralized gunpowder is all it takes to create a dangerous squib condition, so I'm tempted to just discard all of the affected ammo. It's ~$350 of loss, but that's the value of a replacement upper, not to mention any physical harm that might occur to me and anyone in the immediate vicinity of a KB.

What should I do with the ammo? I feel like there might be value in trying to save at least the brass cases, but that would probably involve the annoying task of pulling the projectiles and I don't even have a bullet-puller hammer. I could try to sell them, but even though I would never do so without STRONG disclaimers of the entire story and dire warnings, I still don't want the potential liability. (I could perhaps sell them as reloading components (the brass) only).

Any suggestions beyond not being stupid in the first place? Am I too paranoid of squibs?

[newracer]

Was it submerged in water or did the cardboard just wick up the water?

[Erni]

Sorry to hear that.

What about a bullet puller that works with the press? They are a vailable, and less anoying than the hammer style pullers.

[KestrelBike]

Was it submerged in water or did the cardboard just wick up the water?
The steel-cased brown-bear was very soupy, it was in a plastic bag that somehow got a couple cups worth of water in there and was submerged, rust and red-tinged water (I assume the lacquer they use over in the Eastern Bloc?) was pooled at the bottom of the disentigrating boxes so I just trashed it after tearing open a few boxes; I don't even like putting those rounds through my rifles, anyways.

For the brass, it's more a case of the cardboard wicking up the water. Here's a pic of the brass (w/ and w/o camera flash):
64262 64263


Sorry to hear that.

What about a bullet puller that works with the press? They are a vailable, and less anoying than the hammer style pullers.

I don't have any reloading-equipment; that's an adventure that I plan to start in the next few years when I am more settled in my career (definite path but I just have to finish school, start the job, etc). However, I see some non-hammer bullet pullers on MidwayUSA so I'm looking into those, assuming it would be a <$50 investment. Thanks!

My dad tools around with woodworking and some metal work, I know he can find a use for the brass so I might work out pulling the bullets and sending him the brass.

[newracer]

I'd tumble it and shoot it in a bolt gun.

[KestrelBike]

I'd tumble it and shoot it in a bolt gun.

Definitely an idea. Well, not for me- I have a .308 and .300Blk bolt gun that I barely use anyways, but it's an idea for how to market it to someone that wants to buy it for cheap. Thanks for your input!

[Jamnanc]

Isn't steel case sealed? I think I remember a test where a guy submerged for a year and it was ok.

[cstone]

One round in a magazine till you have an idea on how the ammunition has been affected.

You will either have confidence that the ammunition is still effective or determine that it needs to be disassembled.

Be safe.

[KestrelBike]

Isn't steel case sealed? I think I remember a test where a guy submerged for a year and it was ok.

I don't like steel-cased ammo anyways, I was really saving it for prepper-only reasons because I couldn't justify throwing functional ammo away. With ammo that's been submerged? That crosses my personal (if not practical) snobby line. I'd rescue it from the trash, dry it, and give it to you for free if you wanted it ($10 hassle charge + whatever the Shipping cost is).


One round in a magazine till you have an idea on how the ammunition has been affected.

You will either have confidence that the ammunition is still effective or determine that it needs to be disassembled.

Be safe.

This is a good idea, but I'm just a bit sheepish given how the shotgun ammo performed (75% crap, 25% just fine). Some of it was fine, some was just affected-garbage. I don't want to take the risk/hassle of testing just even 25% of the 1,000 rds in that manner, then constantly worrying about the other 75%. I like newracer's idea of a future bolt-gun ammo, or I'll just hang on to it for a few years and use them as reloading components.

[wctriumph]

I don't know about the 5.56 but I have used mil-surp .30-06 that was 50 years old with spotty case discoloration/corrosion and it functioned just fine. I gave it a tumble to clean it up a little first. If is quality ammo, test a few rounds and see how it goes. If you want to give it away, I'll take it off your hands but I little moisture on the cardboard should not have hurt the ammo.

[Great-Kazoo]

I don't like steel-cased ammo anyways, I was really saving it for prepper-only reasons because I couldn't justify throwing functional ammo away. With ammo that's been submerged? That crosses my personal (if not practical) snobby line. I'd rescue it from the trash, dry it, and give it to you for free if you wanted it ($10 hassle charge + whatever the Shipping cost is).



This is a good idea, but I'm just a bit sheepish given how the shotgun ammo performed (75% crap, 25% just fine). Some of it was fine, some was just affected-garbage. I don't want to take the risk/hassle of testing just even 25% of the 1,000 rds in that manner, then constantly worrying about the other 75%. I like newracer's idea of a future bolt-gun ammo, or I'll just hang on to it for a few years and use them as reloading components.

There's no issue running the steel case and other rifle ammo once tumbled. Over on arfcom a guy submerged steel & brass case ammo for (IIRC) 6 months total time frame. He experienced a 20-30% failure rate, if that. You're wet cardboard is nothing .

You're going to dump $$$$ without making an attempt to save it with a cheap $75 investment. That's for a basic tumbler and corn cob media.

IF you're dead set against shooting it. PM me with your shipped price to CO and see if we can reach a deal.

[KestrelBike]

I don't know about the 5.56 but I have used mil-surp .30-06 that was 50 years old with spotty case discoloration/corrosion and it functioned just fine. I gave it a tumble to clean it up a little first. If is quality ammo, test a few rounds and see how it goes. If you want to give it away, I'll take it off your hands but I little moisture on the cardboard should not have hurt the ammo.
Ok thanks, I'm starting to sober up now. I'm drying out the steel-case as we speak. Will try to test out a bunch of both steel & brass this weekend.



There's no issue running the steel case and other rifle ammo once tumbled. Over on arfcom a guy submerged steel & brass case ammo for (IIRC) 6 months total time frame. He experienced a 20-30% failure rate, if that. You're wet cardboard is nothing .

You're going to dump $$$$ without making an attempt to save it with a cheap $75 investment. That's for a basic tumbler and corn cob media.

IF you're dead set against shooting it. PM me with your shipped price to CO and see if we can reach a deal.

Thanks Jim, I'm checking out Tumblers now. Sorry for bein' all chicken-little. Looks like it's between Hornady, Frankform Arsenal, and RCBS (they're probably all made in the same factory in China) http://www.midwayusa.com/product/711534/hornady-m-2-case-tumbler-110-volt

[newracer]

Midsouth Shooters Supply has some good prices on tumblers.

[Camperdavid]

I would take a representative sampling of the worst looking in the group. (Like I did in my 20s). If you can shake them to hear that the powder hasn't clumped that is a good sign. .223 are usually pretty full, so it may be necessary to pull the bullet to check for clumped powder. If the powder in the worst ten is fine, then I would slow fire ten more "skanks" into a target, checking the barrel after each shot. If they group fine, they are consistent, and consistency would indicate that they are not damaged.

I would be cautious about tumbling them as the powder can become pulverized. I read a magazine article about shooting old 22 shells a few years ago. The point of the article was that old shells were fine to shoot, and the powder didn't degrade much unless the old shells had spent a lot of time rattling around in a trucks glove box. Tumbling might induce degradation of the powder.

To be sure they are completely dry, I would dump all of the shells into a bucket, pour rice on top and seal it up. After a week in rice, the shells will be super dry. Roll the bucket around for a few minutes daily to clean any major scale off the brass, wipe off the dust, and shoot any skanky looking shells first.

As as a side note, once I accidentally ran six of my handloaded .357 rounds through the washing machine. Long cycle with hot water. When I discovered them, and shook them, the powder was still loose. I fired them, and each was still accurate and fired fine.

Good luck!

[Zombie Steve]

Factory ammo is tumbled. It's not going to do anything to the powder if you're tumbling for any reasonable amount of time. 15 minutes certainly wouldn't do anything.

Shaking it might not tell you anything, as often rifle is loaded to 100% - 105% load density.

I realize this thread is a little old, but I am curious about what happened to the birdshot. Really good lead for casting. With crummy alloys, adding shot / higher arsenic content makes the difference in water dropping / hardened cast boolits and just wet lead.

[KestrelBike]

Thanks again for replies & ideas, I have shot much of that originally corroded .223 with ZERO issues! I didn't even touch the brass.

For the steel case that looked really gross and had rust on it, I took a pass on the tumbler for now, but instead sat down with some good movies and took a dremel with wool polishing bit to them one-by-one (tedious, but again, I had movies & beer to keep me occupied) and cleaned them up. They aren't pretty, but I'm almost positive they'll fire. My indoor range strongly prohibits steel-case (they magnet-check ammo, not that I'd try to sneak it anyways) and the closest outdoor range is a good ~2hrs away. I don't really care that much, as far as I'm concerned, that brown bear ammo was always a "desparate" supply anyways.


I realize this thread is a little old, but I am curious about what happened to the birdshot. Really good lead for casting. With crummy alloys, adding shot / higher arsenic content makes the difference in water dropping / hardened cast boolits and just wet lead.

Update on the birdshot: it apparently fires just fine. I originally thought that much of it was garbage, but turns out I had a broken extractor in my semi-auto gun. I did a subsequent 3-gun match with my pump-action and every round fired. However, I noticed that some rounds were having trouble knocking down steel, but just on the texas star... 18" barrel on the benelli supernova I was using, and the bird was a mix of 7.5 & 8. My aim was dead on, I could see the shot smacking the plates, but three of them refused to drop. Nobody else seemed to have that issue. Could be just a fluke, could be bad aim, but maybe some of the powder in those shells had been moistened and the shells were weakened? When FNH ships back my bolt/extractor, I will be able to test the same pile of flooded birdshot to see if it cycles reliably.

[The Extractor]

pull a few bullets and report what you find.