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I found 3 fired WCC-43 cases that were split from mouth to almost the base, but those were not particularly corroded... I have no idea what those were fired in, I think they were just in some old ammo& cases I bought 20-25 years ago... if there were fired in an M-2 would they be more likely to split like that, or could I assume those old cases will have become brittle over time???
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Your WW2 ammunition is beyond a reasonable shelf life. The rules of thumb are 20 years for double based powders and 45 years for single based. If it was stored in cool conditions the stuff will last longer (with luck) but heat will age powder quickly. I have seen charts that show that gunpowder will go bad in a couple of years if stored in above 100 F conditions.
What limits the lifetime of ammunition is the deterioration of gunpowder. The stuff breaks down, the stabilizer in the powder is consumed in this process, and eventually, the NOx attacks the brass, causes brass splits, corrosion. If the powder is stored in big containers it will catch on fire because deterioration produces heat. As the powder breaks down the burn rate becomes unpredictable and firearms have been blown apart. If the powder breaks down to a dust the surface area is huge and the burn rate spikes. The surface of double based powder become rich in nitroglycerine and the burn rate spikes.
Some of the NOx will convert to nitric acid gas and you will see evidence of outgassing by corrosion on the bottom of bullets. If the cases are pitted through that is evidence of really old gunpowder.
Old surplus IMR 4895 did this to my brass. Case necks tend to crack first and some of the cases cracked through the case head.
It is my opinion that you should pull the bullets, dump the powder, and if the cases don’t have evidence of corrosion or cracks, reload with a modern powder. Still, the primers might have duded since WW2, so expect the chance of a misfire.
This is from a 1970 report. This WW2 era ammunition was 27 years old then, they were dumping these lots because they were unstable, and that was 44 years ago.
WW2 ammunition has not gotten anybetter in the last half century.
