Improperly stored ammo

[Dick Hosmer]

How concerned should I be about 1980s/90s vintage commercial ammo which has been stored in a non-temperaure-regulated area (annual spread 25-105) for approximately 15 years? It has never gotten wet, but it has heated and cooled over the seasons. A bunch of it is .30-40 Krag, which would be expensive to replace, but, on the other hand the Krag would not be my choice of rifle for shooting questionable ammo.

Of course, guys shoot milsurp ammo all of the time which could well have been subjected to FAR worse - so -maybe I am worrying over nothing?

I AM assuming that even if I should chuck the powder, everything else should be OK. I could even snap-off the primers and replace them too, if need be.

Thanks in advance.

[joem]

I have bought thousands of rounds of Turkish ammo. I'll bet it was not stored in any climate controlled place. I did pull a lot of bullets and saved the powder to reload my cases. All shot well. I have also bought ammo for salvage that was wet. Only could save bullets, rest was scrap powder and brass was scrap. If your concerned, pull the bullets, decap and reload with your powder.

[emmagee1917]

35 year old ammo stored under these conditions for 15 years will prob'ly not be in the best of shape . I'd pull some bullets and check the powder to see if it looks good or not . It prob'ly will not be unsafe , but I bet it will not give the accuracy it did when new.
Back many years ago , had to be back in the late '70s / early '80s , I had some WW2 military '06 that shot good . I sold off all my '06s , so I sold the ammo to a close friend . Sold it in early spring of one year . Bought a Garand in the fall of the next year , and went and bought some of my ammo back. Gave me bad 15-20 inch groups at 100 yds. Worked and worked on the gun to see what was wrong . Turned out to be the ammo . In two summers it had gone from 2-inch to 20-inch groups . I store under AC , he stored in his garage under 120 degree summers . But.... you have to remember this ammo was pushing 40 years old then . I still shoot ammo from WW2 and Korea and get good results .
Chris

[tmark]

I've read where deteriorated powder has an unpleasant smell to it. Pull the bullet and smell the powder. If it stinks, it's bad. Maybe pour the powder on a surface like a brick and put a match to it. See it it flames rapidly or just sizzles. If the latter, it is deteriorated.

[kcw]

Deteriorated powder will smell acrid & may also have a red "dust". Good powder will have an acetone smell. I was recently given machine gun belt of 1943 LC (four M2 & a tracer) that was stored for the past 50 years in the top of a garage. I didn't even try to shoot it as assembled ammo, pulled the bullets out of three rounds and dumped the powder into a baby food jar. The stuff sort of smelled like vinegar. Tried to fire the empty brass but the primers were dead. I'll salvage the bullets and brass.

[joem]

The wet ammo I bought for components was made in 1939. Out gasing was so bad that when i broke the tar seal the bullets almost pop'd out and a trace of white smoke came out.