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Posted: 12/2/2012 11:05:18 AM EDT
Went to the range yesterday and had a whole lot of .22 not fire. Probably about 60% of what I shot. I have had this ammo for quite a while maybe 8 years or so, it has always been stored in surplus USGI ammo cans and in climate controled areas of my house. When I got home, I cleaned and reassemebled my rifle and ran some brand new .22 through it and got 10/10, just to make sure it wasn't the rifle. Had good impression of the firing pin on all of the older rounds and compared it to the new stuff and looks the same to me. Wondering if it may be just a bad lot of ammo or if something is wrong in my storage setup. I also have the rest of my ammo in the same place so questioning the rest of it now too...see pic below the round on the left is the old stuff, sorry for the crappy pic...
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Probably just a bad lot of ammo...I have shot quite a bit of 22lr that was left out in a damp shed for 20+ years. yep I usually come across an antique box of Winchester or Remington while cleaning out the barns, sheds, old pick-up's etc. Hardly any misfires from 20 year old ammo. |
Thanks for the responses guys. Just pulled the head off of several of the misfires and guess what, the powder was wet and clumpy. the primer was also wet. Pulled the heads off some of the other rounds in that batch and they are wet too. Have to check the seals on all of my cans now, see if there is something in my closet or safe that could be causing moisture. Now I am real worried about the rest of my ammo. Guess I will have to grab a few reounds from each can and check them out. Have to look into some sort of drying devices also. Thanks again.
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| My dad hasn't shot any of it for 4 or 5 years now but his favorite squirrel ammo is .22 shorts. He has several boxes sitting on the shelf in their bedroom closet. The last time i got his rifle and a box of ammo out (his idea of going shooting is 3 or 4 rounds just to make sure he could still hit the target) those boxes had a Tennesse 1 cent tax stamp on the end of the boxes. We lived in Tennessee in 1965. Those shells, always stored inside, are approaching 50 years old. Sadly, he won't shoot anymore of them, he passed away this past summer. The squirrels are safe now, in that area anyway. |
I hope it lasts long because I have enough to last me for the next 30 years at the rate I seem to have time to shoot now... 
On topic though I, like most of the other posters, have shot rimfire ammunition that was upwards of 20-30 years old. A lot of the older stuff I've shot wasn't particularly cared for either. I would think that if you take good care of it and make sure it stays dry and clean it will be good as long as you are. |
| Ok, so checked all of my cans, out of the 9 that I have, 2 had bad seals. the seal on one was just cracked and dry rotted, the other was missing some small bits and also dry rotted. The .22 I was using was stored in the second can. I do have a few small bag of dessicant beads in every can, although in the two that were damaged the beads seem dry enough. There is nothing I can find that would seem to be causing enough moisture to cause the ammo to go bad. I have a hard time believing that moisture in the air could cause that kind of damage as well. Don't really know where to go from here except to replace the seals on the two damaged cans and select several rounds, at random, from the other cans and see how it does. |
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Ok, so checked all of my cans, out of the 9 that I have, 2 had bad seals. the seal on one was just cracked and dry rotted, the other was missing some small bits and also dry rotted. The .22 I was using was stored in the second can. I do have a few small bag of dessicant beads in every can, although in the two that were damaged the beads seem dry enough. There is nothing I can find that would seem to be causing enough moisture to cause the ammo to go bad. I have a hard time believing that moisture in the air could cause that kind of damage as well. Don't really know where to go from here except to replace the seals on the two damaged cans and select several rounds, at random, from the other cans and see how it does. On my surplus ammo cans I keep a thin coat of water proof bearing grease on the seals to keep them from drying out and cracking or sticking to the lid and breaking apart after long storage intervals. It works very well and keeps the cans opening easier too. For .22's I use gallon paint cans for storage. You can get empty ones at Lowes or Home Depot for fairly cheap and they seal up tight and water proof time and time again. They come with the standard paint bucket handle with is really the only draw back, but the handle goes on and off fairy easily making it convenient to keep one of the cheap paint lid openers hanging on it. |
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Another factor is how the ammunition was handled. If it gets banged around a lot, the primer compound in the rim tends to crack and fall out, causing dead spots in the rim. This would be my first guess. Rimfire ammo, especially loose bulk pack, won't tolerate rough handling. |
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Quoted: Thanks for the responses guys. Just pulled the head off of several of the misfires and guess what, the powder was wet and clumpy. the primer was also wet. Pulled the heads off some of the other rounds in that batch and they are wet too. Have to check the seals on all of my cans now, see if there is something in my closet or safe that could be causing moisture. Now I am real worried about the rest of my ammo. Guess I will have to grab a few reounds from each can and check them out. Have to look into some sort of drying devices also. Thanks again. I have pulled rounds out of the washing machine that still went off just fine................. |
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Thanks for the responses guys. Just pulled the head off of several of the misfires and guess what, the powder was wet and clumpy. the primer was also wet. Pulled the heads off some of the other rounds in that batch and they are wet too. Have to check the seals on all of my cans now, see if there is something in my closet or safe that could be causing moisture. Now I am real worried about the rest of my ammo. Guess I will have to grab a few reounds from each can and check them out. Have to look into some sort of drying devices also. Thanks again. I have pulled rounds out of the washing machine that still went off just fine................. Me too! Although all the lube was washed off. I have some Yellow Jackets from the early 80's (bought from KMart) that I recently tried and it still went bang every time. No special storage of any sort. |
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