Polymer VS. Laquer Ammo Test

[lead_magnet]

I haven't found any flakes of anything, maybe that was the crust that appeared at month 1? I'll be sure to strain the next group at month 6 when I pour off the water. I should be saving the brass for examination but I'm firing them at night, so who knows where they are.

[patrick0685]

Did you keep up with this?

[lead_magnet]

I did, I just shot off the one year test group two months ago (about 5 days pre mature) and I decided to keep one test group going even longer, the one year test group went well, all fired, but there was sort of a suprising turn of events, I'll post the full write up soon. There is still one batch of 4 rounds still underwater, should I try that group at 1.5 years or 2?

[patrick0685]

awesome thanks! if the 1 year did good, might as well go for 2

[beast556]

Very curious to see how the one year test came out.

[lead_magnet]

THE RESULTS FROM THE FINAL TEST GROUP:

THIS GROUP WAS TESTED IN LATE OCTOBER OF 2014 EQUATING TO ROUGHLY 23 MONTHS OF SUBMERSION.

*Note: I sincerely apologize for not uploaded the test results from the one year test group. Doing so now would be impossible as all pictures are forever lost due to a destroyed cell phone. I can tell you however that there were no significant finding from this test group. The corrosion continued in the pattern established by the previous test groups. All rounds chambered, fired and ejected with no failures.

VISUAL EXAMINATION PRIOR TO REMOVAL FROM WATER:

At this state the corrosion is very advanced. It was difficult to see the rounds as they were almost entirely covered in rust. I poured off the water and sifted through the debris in the container and found nothing of significance.

REMOVAL FROM CONTAINER:

As with the test groups before all of the rounds were wiped clean to simulate a rough field cleaning and to permit a visual examination of the integrity of the cases. Here is where things took a turn towards the unexpected. The polymer coated rounds showed no signs of pitting, and were in a similar state as the previous test groups. They appeared to be resisting the effects of the water. At this stage I'm almost wondering if the "crust" that came off of them in the beginning is some kind of outer coating, under which is a layer that is better fused to the steel case though I have no way of confirming this. The lacquer coated rounds showed VERY SIGNIFICANT pitting and advanced stages of corrosion. I would estimate that the corrosion had penetrated though approximately 30% - 40% of the wall of the casing. It is clear that the lacquer would eventually fail completely and the contents of the casing would be compromised resulting in failure. I was concerned that the case walls had been compromised to the extent that failure would cause a case to fracture and cause a malfunction. Needles to say I didn't hold the AK very close to my face when firing these test groups, lmao.

FIRING THE ROUNDS:

As with before, all of the rounds chambered, fired and ejected properly. I was unable to inspect the cases after being fired as it proved nearly impossible to locate a spent casing in the dead of night, go figure.

CONCLUSION:

Even fish could buy ammo and keep it on hand for quite a long period of time. I would imagine that brass cased ammunition would last indefinitely. I cannot imagine any real world scenario that would punish rounds harder than this, where one could not find ammunition to replace the affected lot.

Thus: DON'T LISTEN TO ANY CYBER NINJA DOUCHE THAT TELLS YOU TO ROTATE THE AMMO IN YOUR MAGS AFTER A YEAR. I'm sure SOMEWHERE there has been a incident of a bullet wandering out of casing or a primer vibrating use but I have personally left ammunition loaded in a magazine (and carried either on a person or in a vehicle) for years on end that functioned properly when finally fired. High quality modern ammunition is about as reliable as one could ask for. Thanks to everyone for reading all my stupid test data. If anyone has any questions I'm more that willing to answer them. Stay tuned for my next test titled "if you swallow a live cartridge, then pass the bullet, will it still work?"... just kidding.

OKAY, OKAY ... I'll shut up, here are the stupid pictures... GOSH!!!!!

Removal:


Lacquer Rounds:




Polymer rounds:

<------------------- THE WINNER (which kinda sucks because they don't have the bad ass Mace Windu-esq purple ring around them...DAMNIT!)

[kidicarus13]

Good info, thanks for the follow-up.

[Wulf202]

Thus: DON'T LISTEN TO ANY CYBER NINJA DOUCHE THAT TELLS YOU TO ROTATE THE AMMO IN YOUR MAGS AFTER A YEAR. I'm sure SOMEWHERE there has been a incident of a bullet wandering out of casing or a primer vibrating use but I have personally left ammunition loaded in a magazine (and carried either on a person or in a vehicle) for years on end that functioned properly when finally fired.

This conclusion has nothing to do with the testing? I don't get why you'd relate the two.

[wctriumph]

Good info, thanks for doing this and getting the info out to all of us.

[def90]

The lacquer coated rounds showed VERY SIGNIFICANT pitting and advanced stages of corrosion. I would estimate that the corrosion had penetrated though approximately 30% - 40% of the wall of the casing. It is clear that the polymer would eventually fail completely and the contents of the casing would be compromised resulting in failure.

Do you mean "Lacquer"?