The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

Uncle Buck · October 5, 2011, 08:06 AM

My Step-dad passed away a few years ago and my mother has allowed us to finally clean out some of his things. Inside his drawer was a box of .38 Special ammo with a little note inside the box. It said it had been reloaded in 1969.

That ammo, judging by the stains on the box, had seen some pretty severe conditions. The lead had turned white. It followed him to Missouri back in '93 and sat in house until just a few months ago. I put it in the tumbler to clean the lead up and it shot just fine.

As far as I could tell, there was nothing on the primer to seal it and the way the lead bullet had turned white, nothing there either.

When I was in the military, we fired .50 cal ammo that had been packaged in 1949. When opened, the ammo looked fine and shot fine.

I store my stuff in military ammo boxes with the desiccant packs and have noticed no problems.

October 5, 2011, 08:06 AM	#7
Uncle Buck Senior Member Join Date: June 21, 2009 Location: West Central Missouri Posts: 2,592	My Step-dad passed away a few years ago and my mother has allowed us to finally clean out some of his things. Inside his drawer was a box of .38 Special ammo with a little note inside the box. It said it had been reloaded in 1969. That ammo, judging by the stains on the box, had seen some pretty severe conditions. The lead had turned white. It followed him to Missouri back in '93 and sat in house until just a few months ago. I put it in the tumbler to clean the lead up and it shot just fine. As far as I could tell, there was nothing on the primer to seal it and the way the lead bullet had turned white, nothing there either. When I was in the military, we fired .50 cal ammo that had been packaged in 1949. When opened, the ammo looked fine and shot fine. I store my stuff in military ammo boxes with the desiccant packs and have noticed no problems. __________________ Inside Every Bright Idea Is The 50% Probability Of A Disaster Waiting To Happen.